Joe Tagliavia's walk-off single lifts Farmingdale baseball in regular-season finale win over Oceanside
Joe Tagliavia of Farmingdale brings in the go ahead run in the bottom of the seventh during a Nassauba seball game against Oceanside on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 in Farmingdale. Credit: Dawn McCormick
There’s hitting and pitching. There’s defense and baserunning. But baseball is ‘the thinking man’s game’ and that means a team needs to be strong mentally, not just physically. It’s especially important right now as the regular season ebbs into the playoffs.
Farmingdale was already locked into the No. 3 seeding for the Nassau Class AAA postseason and so coach Frank Tassielli felt Wednesday’s regular season finale against Oceanside – also headed to the playoffs – was a chance to get his team a mental edge.
The Dalers used almost their entire bench, used some players in spots they aren’t usually in and ended up with a walk-off 4-3 Conference AAA-I win over the visiting Sailors. Senior Joe Tagliavia’s one-out single through the middle scored sophomore Ive Mills from third with the game-winner.
“We utilized most of the bench because we thought we could bring something together,” Tassielli said. “Players need to see that it doesn’t matter that a starter isn’t in there and that they can do the job just as well. You want the team from top-to-bottom feeling that way going into the playoffs.”
“More than one person can play the spot and we win games,” Mills said. “It makes us more confident.”
Farmingdale (13-6-1, 11-5-1) hosts the first game of a quarterfinal series on Monday against East Meadow. Oceanside (10-10, 8-9) plays the first game of its quarterfinal series Monday at Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK.
The Sailors got run-scoring singles from junior Luke Villella, eighth-grader Matt Vlahakis and sophomore Jack Regan in a three-run third-inning rally for a 3-0 lead.
Farmingdale evened things with its own three-run rally in the fifth. Tagliavia had a two-run single to put the Dalers on the board. The tying run scored when a potential inning-ending ground ball ended up a throwing error.
The top of the seventh was a bit of a cliff hanger when junior Andrew Dillon, a 6-7 righty, came on to pitch and gave up a leadoff double to Jacob Landry. A wild pitch put Landry and the go-ahead run 90 feet away, but Dillon got three strikeouts to escape.
“It wasn’t a moment to panic,” Dillon said. “I tried to believe in myself and give them everything I had.”
Mills doubled to start the seventh, stole second and took third on James Sebber’s sacrifice.
Tagliavia then singled up the middle and into center field to plate Mills for his third RBI of the day. Moments later he was engulfed by teammates down the first base line.
“(Mills) is really fast and that means I had a cushion – a fly ball doesn’t have to be that deep – but the goal was just to make contact and give him a shot,” Tagliavia said. “I’ve been hitting balls lately but it feels like they’ve been right at people. It was a good time to have one go through.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
