Seaford tops Wheatley to move to 12-0 in Nassau Conference B-I
Nick Apollo of Seaford is all smiles after his two-run home run during a Nassau baseball game against Wheatley on Monday. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Sean Costello smoothed out the rough edges on the mound after the first two innings, and Nick Apollo and Stephen Ierides backed him, flashing their fence-clearing power.
So Seaford struck first in a large three-game series in Nassau B-I, winning, 5-1, Monday at Wheatley.
The Vikings moved to 12-0 in the conference, extending their lead to two games over the 10-2 Wildcats.
“If you win the league, you get a bye in the playoffs,” Seaford coach Mike Milano said of the Class B tournament. “So there are major stakes in this series.”
The Vikings dropped from Class A for this season. It will return to a reconfigured A next season. But this team is now 14-0 overall. The program has never claimed a Nassau title.
These players are confident but taking nothing for granted.
“I think everyone thinks that we’re the best here in this class,” Costello said after firing a three-hitter with eight strikeouts. “As Coach [Milano] said, we’re just chopping wood, keep going. I think everyone’s end goal is to win the county championship.”
Costello (3-0) yielded a walk in the first and then two walks that led to a 1-0 Wheatley lead in the second. Justin Jaskolski fielded a single to center and cut down another runner at the plate for the third out.
Then Costello fired a 1-2-3 third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
“We have a great pitching coach over here,” the senior righthander said about Mike Sweeney. “He told me, ‘Just settle down.’ He knows I’m a good pitcher.”
Seaford grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Jaskolski and Chris Viggiano delivered RBI doubles against Connor Quinn (4-1).
It stayed that way until the sixth. Apollo launched a two-run drive down the leftfield line for his second homer of the season.
“This lineup is great,” Apollo said. “We have hitters from one through nine.”
Ierides cracked his team-leading fourth homer in the seventh, a shot over the centerfield fence off Michael Santarelli.
“It was great,” Ierides said. “… That one I hit in the perfect spot and I hit it really hard.”
Wheatley, the defending Nassau Class B champ, fell for just the second time in 14 games overall.
“It’s important in that you want to go against a team that’s undefeated and you want to show them you’re for real and you’ve got guys that are going to compete,” Wildcats coach Dave Burke said. “I think today’s game did that.”
