Dominick Carbone of Rocky Point looks to the plate as...

Dominick Carbone of Rocky Point looks to the plate as he winds up his pitch during Game 2 of the Class A finals against Mt. Sinai on Monday, May 30, 2022 in Mt. Sinai. Credit: Dawn McCormick

With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning and the potential tying run coming to the plate, the Rocky Point infield convened a meeting on the mound with pitching coach Brian Glen.

“I had been warming up the inning before,” starting shortstop and closer Cody Miller said. “But I said to coach, ‘Let Dom have the ball, we’re going to turn a double play here.’

Miller’s faith was rewarded as Dominick Carbone got the job done. Carbone struck outut two batters to end the inning before top-seeded Rocky Point tacked on insurance runs on their way to a 10-2 victory over No. 3 Mount Sinai in the second and clinching game of the Suffolk Class A championship series.

“In a game like this Dom is a kid you want to throw because he’s built for this moment,” Rocky Point coach Anthony Anzalone said. “As a coach you can try to settle him down but he told me he was locked in. So once I heard that I just let him do his thing.”

Carbone scattered seven hits, and Rocky Point made four errors, but he brilliantly pitched out of trouble all game. He had 12 strikeouts, many of them coming with runners on later in the game, and only walked one.

“We kept the momentum from last game and each inning we slowly took away their hope,” Carbone said. “I definitely got into a rhythm and the guys behind me really kept me going.”

Rocky Point jumped out to an early lead, scoring three times in the top of the first on only one hit. Miller led off with a walk, Carbone singled to center, and back-to-back walks by Sean Hamilton and AJ Walker forced in a run. Two more runs scored on an errant throw on what could have been an inning-ending double play ball.

“There’s always nerves in a game like this,” said Hamilton, who walked twice and scored three runs. “But with us winning the first game we were playing to win and they were playing to not lose because if they lost they were out. We wanted to be aggressive from the first at-bat and that’s what we did.”

Rocky Point (23-3) also pushed across runs in the third and fourth before tacking on five in the seventh. 

JT Caruso went 2-for-4 and drove in Lani Bohne in the bottom of the first and Bohne scored on a sacrifice fly by Matthew Galli in the fourth for the other Mustangs (18-6) run.

The Eagles will play the winner of the Clarke/Calhoun series in the Long Island championship Saturday at 4 p.m. at the St. Joseph’s Athletic Complex in Patchogue.

“We have 21 guys in that dugout that I would put on this field to beat anybody,” Miller said. “Even though there’s only nine on the field it’s every single kid who pushes us to be the best that we can.”

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