Kings Park overcomes pitcher's injury, ninth-inning deficit to win Long Island Class A baseball championship

Easy paths to championships hardly exist, and the Kings Park baseball team learned as much against Clarke on Saturday.

There was the injury to ace Hunter Colagrande’s pitching hand in the top of the third, but he gutted it out for seven innings of four-hit, one-run ball. The Kingsmen were on the wrong end of a one-run deficit in the ninth inning but handled that, too.

Pinch hitter Chase Renna reached on an infield error to start the ninth, and Mitchell Landau singled in the ensuing at-bat. After an infield fly, Anthony Altobelli was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.

Vincenzo Buffolino singled to center to tie it and Landau scored on the very next play — a walk-off balk.

Landau’s run was the decider in Kings Park’s 3-2 win in the Long Island Class A championship game at Middle Country Athletic Complex in Selden. The Kingsmen secured their first Long Island title since claiming Class B in 2001 and just their second in program history.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m emotional,” Kings Park coach Andrew Abreu said. “This group is as special as a high school group could get. Nothing is easy, that means a lot. Today was a perfect example of it.”

Kings Park (22-2) will face Section V champion Sutherland or Section VI winner Amherst Central in the state semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday at Union-Endicott High School. Clarke finished 22-5.

“I’ve been up here for three years, and this is the group of guys to do it,” said Colagrande, a Stony Brook commit. “There was no other thought in my mind than us coming out on top.”

Colagrande entered Saturday with a 9-0 record, 83 strikeouts and a 0.26 ERA in 54 2⁄3 innings. Though he did not earn the victory against Clarke — freshman Dylan Frers did — he struck out nine, walked three and hit two batters in a gritty showing, especially after the third-inning scare.

Giancarlo Rengifo’s comebacker hit Colagrande in the ring and pinky fingers — Colagrande still made the play, a 1-3 putout — and he said the injury affected him the rest of the game.

“It definitely did, but I just left it all out there because this was everything,” Colagrande said. “It was a do-or-die game, and I wasn’t coming out of there just because of that.”

Kings Park struck first in the fifth inning. Altobelli bunted with runners on first and second, and Landau scored the first run on an errant throw to first.

That was all the damage Clarke pitcher Nick Berasti would allow, though. He allowed four hits, walked five and plunked three in a fearless 6 2⁄3 innings.

Jaret Sarrantonio evened things in the top of the seventh, hitting an RBI single to drive in Michael Iadevaia, who had two hits. Clarke’s Alex Frank hit a leadoff double in the top of the ninth, and Rengifo drove him in two batters later for a 2-1 lead before Kings Park’s final surge.

“We’ve always talked about ‘this is the year. This is our year,’ ” Buffolino said. “  To just do it, it’s the best thing in the world. It doesn’t compare to anything else.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.