Sayville baseball beats Miller Place with four-run sixth inning
Sayville's Mack Murtha lays down a bunt single against Miller Place in a Suffolk League VI baseball game, Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at Sayville High School. Credit: George A Faella
The call for a bunt was a must.
Trailing by a run in the bottom of the sixth inning, Sayville baseball coach Joe Esposito believed his team needed a spark.
“We had our leadoff man up and because of his speed we wanted to make something happen,” Esposito said. “We wanted to put some pressure on the defense and force them to make a play.”
Leadoff man Mack Murtha dropped a neat bunt down the third base line. Miller Place third baseman Bradley Reigel charged and made a nice play on the ball, but his throw sailed into rightfield allowing Murtha to reach second base.
Ryan Hillery drilled a line drive single to score Murtha to ignite a four-run inning and Sayville went on to a 5-2 win over Miller Place in a pivotal Suffolk League VI game.
The win moved first-place Sayville to 13-0 and Miller Place fell to 9-2.
Sayville reliever Ethan Alcantara came on in the top of the seventh with two runners on and no outs. He struck the first batter out looking and induced a 6-6-3 double play grounder to earn the save. Hillery, the Sayville shortstop, made an excellent play on a grounder up the middle, stepped on the bag, and fired to first for the win.
“I was a little nervous and it’s a tough spot to be called in to pitch," Alcantara said. “I wanted to throw strikes and let the defense make the plays to get the win and stay undefeated. You have to trust your defense.”
Sayville opened the scoring with an unearned run in the first inning. The Golden Flashes struggled against Miller Place starter Jason Strickland, who held them to one hit and struck out four over the first five innings.
Strickland was tagged with the loss, allowing the first two runners on base to start the sixth.
“Strickland was the best pitcher we’ve faced all season,” Esposito said. “He didn’t get into any real deep counts.”
Miller Place tied the score at one in the second inning when Reigel reached on an error, moved to second on a base hit by Thomas Pranzo and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Alex Strickland.
The Panthers took a 2-1 lead in the third. Tyler Hodella had a one-out single, moved to second when Mike Schleider was hit by a pitch and came around to score when Pranzo singled.
“We’re going to hit,” Miller Place coach Ricky Caputo said. “We have to play better defense.”
Sayville’s junior starter Ryan Karman grinded through five innings as he scattered seven hits, walked one and struck out three.
“It was a gutty performance,” Esposito said. “And our bullpen kept it together at the end.”
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
