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Buccaneers Bested by Bonac Baseball

Thu, 04/14/2022 - 10:32
Islip stole third base on two occasions in Friday’s high school baseball game here, but it didn’t matter: Colin Ruddy and his East Hampton teammates blanked the Buccaneers 7-0.
Jack Graves

This writer was asked by a fellow fan on leaving East Hampton High’s ball field Friday when the last time was that a Bonac baseball team had been 4-0.

“Maybe when Ross Gload played . . .”

“That long?”

Actually, as Vinny Alversa, the varsity’s head coach, was to say the next day, following a sweep of the Bonackers’ second series, “it was in 2019. We started at 4-0 and then the wheels fell off.”

Now the question arises: When was the last time an East Hampton baseball team was 6-0?

“We’ve been trending up,” Alversa said by phone during the team’s return from Islip Saturday, cautioning at the same time not to get swept away.

Regardless of what happens this season, his team, he agreed, is a special one. Everyone, he said, has been coming through. Pinch-hitters have been getting hits, bases are being stolen, bunts are being laid down. . . .

Colin Ruddy pitched game one here Friday and set the Buccaneers down 7-0 without a walk, striking out 14 and giving up just two hits, both singles. Islip’s leadoff batter hit Ruddy’s first pitch up the middle, after which the George Washington recruit struck out the next three hitters to face him.

The visitors weren’t to get another hit until the top of the fourth, when Hudson Meyer, the freshman second baseman, fielded a slow roller at the first-base side of second, but could not get enough on his throw to catch the runner.

Meanwhile, East Hampton was very opportunistic. It took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a botched pick-off play at second with the bases loaded, and Avery Siska, who hit fifth in the lineup, followed with an r.b.i. double off the center-field fence.

The Bonackers added another run in the third when Jack Dickinson, the third baseman that day, singled to right with two outs, scoring Ruddy from third.

Ruddy doubled to center field leading off East Hampton’s fifth. Carter Dickinson, the freshman cleanup hitter, popped out, but Siska, with a full count, singled, and after Jack Dickinson drew a walk, loading the bases, Tyler Hansen, another freshman, drove Ruddy in with East Hampton’s fourth run.

Alversa then sent Aryan Chugh in to bat for Meyer, and Chugh came through with a single that scored Siska from third. Nick Schaefer, another pinch-hitter, drew a walk that forced in East Hampton’s sixth run, and yet another walk, to the leadoff hitter, Will Darrell, made it 7-0 before Nico Horan-Puglia popped out to short and Ruddy, batting for the second time in the inning, grounded out short-to-first.

On Saturday, East Hampton finished a suspended game at Islip, starting off in the top of the fifth with the Bonackers ahead 8-4. The final score was 12-5. Darrell was the winning pitcher, giving up three hits, one earned run, and striking out seven in the four innings he worked. Hunter Eberhart in three innings of relief gave up two hits and one run, though it was not earned, and struck out two.

Carter Dickinson led the hit parade, going 3-for-4 with three runs batted in. Hansen and Siska each went 2-for-5, Siska driving in three runs and Hansen one.

East Hampton won the second game, the third in the series, by a score of 7-0. Jack Dickinson started and in six and two-thirds innings gave up three hits, walked one, and struck out 14. Again Carter Dickinson, Jack’s younger brother, went 3-for-4, with two r.b.i.s. Ruddy went 2-for-4, with two r.b.i.s, and Jack Dickinson went 1-for-3 with one run batted in.

So, yes, Alversa agreed, the team was off to a good start. It was to have played a three-game series with Amityville this week, beginning with a doubleheader at home Tuesday and playing game three at Amityville this afternoon. He had penciled in Darrell and Eberhart, who can start as well as relieve, for Tuesday. Ruddy and Dickinson would share some innings in today’s game, Alversa said.


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