Hauppauge claims Suffolk Class AA baseball championship
Hauppauge celebrates winning the Suffolk Class AA Baseball title against Comsewogue on Sunday. Credit: David Meisenholder
Hauppauge hadn’t won a Suffolk baseball title in 24 years. Year after year, the Eagles posted winning records and came up short in the postseason.
Until now.
Freshman Kyle Magill keyed a six-run fifth inning with a two-run single as Hauppauge earned a 14-4 win over Comsewogue on Sunday afternoon in the Suffolk Class AA championship game at the Middle Country Athletic Complex in Selden.
Hauppauge (20-4) will play Division for the Long Island Class AA championship at Farmingdale State College at 6 p.m. Saturday.
The Eagles sent 23 batters to the plate in the fifth and six and scored six runs in each inning to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 14-4 lead.
The fifth-inning rally included RBI singles by Cole Wood, Kevin Walker and John Margolies (three hits, two RBIs) as the Eagles opened an 8-3 lead. Alex Ofgang, Margolies and Mike Oliveto contributed RBI singles and Tucker Brown and Matt Neglia drew bases-loaded walks in the sixth.
“Magill fought off five two-strike pitches before he smoked that two-run single, and that got us on our way,” Hauppauge coach Josh Gutes said. “Comsewogue is a momentum-driven team and we took that away from them. They beat us on Saturday to force another game, but we had to understand they didn’t win anything and we didn’t lose anything.”
Comsewogue (15-10) staved off elimination with a 9-3 win over Hauppauge on Saturday to force a winner-take-all game in the double-elimination format.
Hauppauge opened the scoring on Sunday when Magill lined a two-out single to leftfield to drive in Wood from second base in the second. Comsewogue leftfielder Jake Sokolowski, who robbed Oliveto of a first-inning hit, dived for Magill’s drive, which glanced off his glove. Wood had reached on a forceout and moved to second on a balk.
Hauppauge took a 2-0 lead in the third. Brown was hit by a pitch, Oliveto delivered a perfect hit-and-run single through the right side to put runners at first and third and Neglia lifted a sacrifice fly to right.
“We came into the game with the mindset that this couldn’t be our last game,” said Neglia, who had three of the Eagles’ 15 hits, a walk, two runs scored and two RBIs. “We had to get over the loss and come back strong to win it.”
Matt Nowlan, who had four of Comsewogue’s five hits, lined a one-out single in the fourth. Anthony Manetta walked and Gutes removed starter Vincent Crafa.
Christian Jenny walked Joe Perri to load the bases and Carson McCaffrey lifted a sacrifice fly to centerfield to make it 2-1. When Jenny fell behind 2-and-0 to Gavin Dandrea, Gutes ordered an intentional walk to reload the bases.
Gutes then called on Margolies, the Eagles’ closer, who got CJ Cubano to ground back to the mound for the final out.
“I like the pressure situations,” said Margolies, who has five saves. “I want the ball when we need to shut it down.”
Comsewogue forged a 3-2 lead in the fifth. With one out, Nick Zampieron lined a single to right-center and stole second. Gutes intentionally walked Kevin Schnupp to bring up Nowlan, who’d already laced a double and a single in his first two at-bats. Margolies got ahead of Nowlan with two quick strikes before he drilled a curveball off the right leg of first baseman Matt Oliveto for a two-run single and a short-lived 3-2 lead.
“Comsewogue is gritty and tough,” Gutes said. “You need to be ready for a fight against them.”
Hauppauge was ready.
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
