Ospreys taking flight to land a league championship

Thomas Matuszewski won the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League batting title with a gaudy .403 average. But the North Fork Ospreys second baseman would trade that for a championship in a nano-second.

“That’s the goal. Obviously, we want to win,” Matuszewski said after the Ospreys lost their regular-season finale, 10-3, to the South Shore Clippers at Cochran Park on Tuesday night. “The batting title only means so much. I feel like we have to win it. We want to do this for our coach. We feel like we’re the best team, and we should win. We just got to play to the best of our abilities.”

A league championship would cap a banner campaign for the Ospreys, who already had clinched the regular season title with a 21-13-1 record and 43 points, five more than the second-place Southampton Breakers (18-5-2, 38). Teams were rewarded two points for a win and one for a tie. Games were limited to seven innings.

The Ospreys will face the fourth-place Sag Harbor Whalers (15-16-4, 34) in a three-game semifinal series, hosting the opener Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m., and playing away Friday, July 25, at 4 p.m. They would host a third game, if needed, Saturday, July 26, at 7 p.m.

Southampton will meet the fourth-place Clippers (18-16-1, 37) in the other league semifinal.

Second-year manager Vinnie Morelli said that he had two goals: win 20 games again and reach the playoffs.

“Regular season champs is awesome,” he said. “That was a cherry on top of everything, getting back to where we are. But now it’s time to go. The guys are really pumped up. They are hungry. They want to do it.”

His players were just as confident.

“I like our chances against anyone,” said center fielder Trevor Dosenbach, who finished a perfect night (two singles, two walks, one RBI). “I think we’re the best team in the league, and I think we’re going to show it throughout the playoffs.”

Matuszewski, who did not play Tuesday, said that the Ospreys will bounce back from the loss. “I don’t think it’s a problem,” he said. “We know who we are. We know the identity of this team, and we should be fine.”

The 19-year-old Matuszewski and teammate, first baseman Nick Pratt (.398), finished one-two in the batting race. Hitting over .400 is nothing new for the Oxford, Pa., native. He secured NCAA Division II co-freshman of the year honors while batting .438 at Thomas Jefferson University this spring.

“Honestly, it’s just countless reps, knowing what the pitcher does, what works for you, what you can get off of them,” Matuszewski said. “Biggest thing I did was probably take what I can get. Some people try to look for the home run ball. If a pitcher is throwing away, I’ll just slap it to right field. Just take what you can get.”

Added Morelli: “Big shout out to him. He’s been awesome this year.”

The Ospreys found themselves behind the eight ball before they came to bat in the first inning. The Clippers scored seven runs against starter AJ Mitchell, which was punctuated by back-to-back home runs by Ryan Kiendle (three-run blast) and James Eden (solo). The hosts tallied three runs in the fifth on run-scoring singles by Dosenbach and Vincent Mariniello, and Anthony Equale’s sacrifice fly.

The hosts suffered a tough break when left fielder Aaron Graves incurred a leg injury while trying to beat a ground out. It was feared Graves suffered an upper quad injury.

“He hit the grass and kind of lost his footing,” Morelli said. “He said he felt a pop and the way he went down, I knew it wasn’t good.”

Afterwards, the team surprised Morelli with a baby shower for his girlfriend Ruthie, who is pregnant with their first child. Ruthie, who lives in central Pennsylvania, is due with daughter Janie Sue on Sept. 10. She did not attend but learned of the shower via Facetime.

“She was tearing up a little bit,” Morelli said. “She was definitely very emotional about it. She knows how much these people mean. She was able to meet a lot of them last year, so that was really cool.

“It was really heartwarming. This community means so much to me. I’ve built some unbelievable relationships with the people, with the Newmans [Todd, general manager], the Beckers [who hosted Morelli] and everybody else that does so much for us. But those two families, especially, thank you to them and to our host families,” he said.