Evan Hasemann thrives under pressure to lift Bayport-Blue Point baseball over Shoreham-Wading River
Bayport-Blue Point's Evan Hasemann (4) throws a pitch in the 6th inning on Wednesday April 10, 2024. Credit: Bob Sorensen
It takes a certain type of mindset for a relief pitcher to get thrown into a bases-loaded, no-out scenario and thrive.
When Bayport-Blue Point’s Evan Hasemann entered that situation Wednesday, pressure became an afterthought.
With the Phantoms clinging to a three-run lead over host Shoreham-Wading River in the sixth inning, Hasemann calmly got three outs — a sac fly to rightfield, a groundout to second base and a strikeout — in 11 pitches to shut the door on a potential Wildcats comeback.
Hasemann’s save secured a 6-4 victory and the series win for the Bayport-Blue Point baseball team in the second game of a three-game Suffolk VII series. The game was called by darkness in the top of the seventh.
“I’m 100% comfortable (in those situations),” Hasemann said. “I don’t have a nerve in my body, not a nerve.”
“He has ice in his veins, honestly,” Bayport-Blue Point coach Victor Manzella said. “ . . . He really just doesn’t care about what situation it is. He just goes out there and hits the pitches that we call. That’s what makes him good, he doesn’t think.”
Bayport-Blue Point (6-2, 6-2 Suffolk VII) was threatening before the game was called, adding a run and loading the bases with one out in the seventh. By rule, the score at the end of the sixth marked the final score.
Shoreham-Wading River (6-2, 6-2) grabbed a 2-0 lead through two innings. Christian Cox hit a first-inning RBI single and starting pitcher Nick Stella hit a second-inning homer to right-centerfield.
Stella had not allowed a hit through 2 2/3 innings, but four third-inning walks forced a run in and loaded the bases. Logan Curran hit a bases-clearing double to give the Phantoms a 4-2 lead, one it never relinquished.
“We never die,” Manzella said. “We’re down — that’s what makes a good team. That’s a character of a good team when they’re able to come back and respond after an inning like that where you give up a run in the first, a solo in the second.”
Phantoms starter Cooper Fuller (3-0) settled down after the two early runs, retiring five consecutive batters after the Stella homer. He struck out five and allowed eight hits and four earned runs in five-plus innings.
“He’s been better, actually,” Manzella said. “But he’s a bulldog. He worked his butt off on the mound and he kept us in the game, and that’s all I could ask for.”
The Phantoms can secure a sweep with a home win over the Wildcats on Thursday. Hasemann, who will earn the start, knows what it will take.
“Lights out,” Hasemann said. “It’s lights out.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
