Ducks pour it on late, defeat Staten Island in home opener
Long Island Ducks shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria rounds the bases on his three-run home run against the Staten Island FerryHawks during the eighth inning of an Atlantic League of Professional Baseball game at Fairfield Properties Ballpark on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Ducks manager Wally Backman sat in his office Tuesday afternoon, lamenting his team’s bottom-of-the-lineup production. The season is barely half-a-week old, but Backman hardly misses anything, even in a small sample size.
“Our top four hitters hit, and no one else hit, really,” Backman said of the team’s opening weekend before Tuesday’s game. “[Luis] Guerrero hit on Sunday, which helped.”
And, while it was hardly a hit parade a few hours later— the Ducks had only three in the first seven innings before exploding in the eighth — the bottom third of the order, led by Guerrero, was at the center of nearly all of it.
Third baseman Philip Caulfield, who hit ninth, raced home with the deciding run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning and the Ducks beat the Staten Island FerryHawks, 13-4, in front of 4,131 fans who braved the cool temperatures to watch the home opener at Fairfield Properties Ballpark in Central Islip.
Caulfield’s run in the seventh broke a 4-4 tie before the Ducks (2-2) poured on 8 runs in the eighth, highlighted by a moonshot three-run home run by former Met and Yankee Adeiny Hechavarria, to blow the game open.
Usual Ducks closer Al Albuquerque nearly gave the slim (at that point) lead right back in the eighth. After FerryHawks catcher Roldani Baldwin reached on an error, pinch runner Mikey Edelman stole second and reached third on a wild pitch. But Albuquerque induced a groundout that held the runner and struck out the next two batters to preserve the lead.
Hechavarria was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, a run, and a home run. Daniel Murphy, playing his first home game since ending his retirement to come to Long Island, went 0-for-3 with a run and two walks. Through four games, Murphy is hitting .333 with a home run.
Long Island Ducks' Daniel Murphy is greeted in the dugout after he scored during the eighth inning against the Staten Island FerryHawks in an Atlantic League of Professional Baseball game at Fairfield Properties Ballpark on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Ducks took a 2-0 lead on seventh-hitter Luis Guerrero’s two-run home run in the second, but the Ferryhawks (0-2) tied the score at two in the fourth.
Ducks starter Brett Kennedy was nearly untouchable in the first three innings, but a rocky fourth and fifth made his second start of the season rather uneven. Kennedy, the Ducks ace, started the opener on Friday, but only pitched an inning thanks to an over 50-minute rain delay. Tuesday, he allowed four runs (two earned) and six hits in five innings. He struck out nine and walked none.
Staten Island took their first lead in the fifth, but the Ducks tied the score at 4 in the bottom half.
FerryHawks’ pitcher Kelsie Whitmore, who made history last year as the first woman to start in the Atlantic League, pinch hit in the ninth inning and struck out.
