Matt Marino's three-hitter helps Division seal Nassau Class A baseball crown
The Division baseball team lifts starting pitcher Matt Marino after winning the Nassau Class A baseball title against Calhoun on Monday, May 29, 2023 at Farmingdale State College. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Division shortstop Isiah Marino moved across the infield behind the pitcher’s mound and picked up a soft grounder. He fired to first to nail Matt Sferratore for the final out, and the celebration began.
Division junior Matt Marino threw a three-hitter with seven strikeouts as Division shut out Calhoun, 3-0, in the second game of the best-of-three series to capture the Nassau Class A baseball title on Monday at Farmingdale State College. The sweep improved Division to 27-1 and sent the Blue Dragons to the Long Island Class A title game Saturday against West Babylon at Farmingdale State at 6 p.m. It was their first Nassau title since 2015.
Marino (9-0) threw 90 pitches in handcuffing the Calhoun offense, which had scored 12 runs per game this season. Calhoun (25-4) advanced one runner beyond first base throughout the game, which lasted 1 hour, 41 minutes.
“Today was all about Matt Marino,” Division coach Tom Tuttle said. “He went out and pitched to contact, stayed ahead of hitters and allowed our defense to do what they do, and that’s play flawlessly. We’re all about pitching and defense and we just shut down the best offense in all of Nassau County for two games.”
It was the fifth county championship for Tuttle in his 16 years at the helm.
“They’re all special,” he said. “And they’re all somewhat different. Winning does not get old. And our players and coaches put in the time to put themselves in position to experience the winning.”
In the second inning, Kaolis Delacruz walked, Cody Brush singled him to second and a double steal put two runners in scoring position. Caidan Siegel’s sacrifice fly gave Division a 1-0 lead.
“We believe in being aggressive,” Tuttle said. “We want to make things happen and manufacture a few runs.”
Division tacked on two insurance runs in the sixth. James Sill singled and moved to second on Chris Clune’s sacrifice bunt. Delacruz singled to put runners at the corners before Brush lined a double down the leftfield line to make it 2-0. Siegel then delivered his second sacrifice fly.
“I was struggling earlier in the playoffs and the coaches stayed with me and had confidence in my hitting,” Brush said. “They said I’d have a big game when we needed it. This feels good.”
The three runs were more than enough for Marino.
“My catcher called a great game,” he said of Joe Yovino. “And I felt like I was in total control out there.”
Calhoun coach Steve DiMarco said the Colts’ bats went silent against a few good arms.
“We’ve hit all season, and those clutch hits did not come in this series,” he said. “We weren’t aggressive and didn’t execute in big spots.”
The Division pitching staff lowered its team ERA to 0.94 with its 11th shutout.
Now it’s on to the Long Island title game. Division’s last Long Island crown came in 2015.
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
