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A Gem by Colin Ruddy Stops the Panthers

Wed, 04/27/2022 - 23:29
Colin Ruddy, being congratulated after his 1-0 shutout of Miller Place here on April 20, is among 10 pitchers statewide with 0.00 earned run averages, according to a MaxPreps article that came out that day.
Jack Graves

The area's high school baseball teams were active during the break, and the results for all three, East Hampton, Pierson, and Bridgehampton, were not as good as they had been prior to the spring vacation. Still, all three squads going into the second half of the season have winning records — East Hampton having clinched a playoff berth before the break — and thus playoff ambitions.

The Bonackers lost their first series this past week, to Miller Place, which defeated East Hampton 6-0 on April 19 and 3-0 on Friday. Though East Hampton, with Colin Ruddy on the mound, blanked the Panthers 1-0 here on April 20, a pitching gem that topped a story on Suffolk’s mound aces in Saturday’s Newsday.

Ruddy was utterly dominant in that second game of the Miller Place-East Hampton series, overpowering Panther hitters with his fastball. He struck out 15 in the seven-inning game and gave up four hits, two solid ones in the third inning, a nubber in the sixth that he couldn’t field cleanly, and an infield single in the top of the seventh.

The visitors had runners at first and second with one out in the third, but Ruddy shut them down with a strikeout and a comebacker that he bare-handed and tossed to first for the final out. East Hampton threatened in the bottom half, with runners at first and second and two out, but the catcher Thomas Pranzo’s pick-off throw to second caught Mike Locascio as he tried to get back in.

In their half of the fourth, the Bonackers had the bases loaded with two out, but Locascio went down on three straight strikes. Ruddy struck out the side in the top of the fifth, and, in the bottom half, he and his teammates threatened again, abetted by the Miller Place pitcher, Trevor Diamond, who, after striking out Will Darrell, hit Nico Horan-Puglia and Ruddy with pitches, prompting a conference on the mound.

When play resumed, Carter Dickinson, a clutch-hitting freshman who bats fifth in Bonac’s lineup, lined a run-scoring single into the outfield that sent Horan-Puglia home with what was to be the game-winner. Avery Siska looked at a called third strike and Jack Dickinson, Carter’s older brother, grounded out third-to-first to end the inning.

Ruddy began the top of the sixth with a strikeout, after which the aforementioned nubber that he couldn’t come up with and a subsequent full-count walk put runners at first and second with one out. But again the 6-foot-5-inch George Washington recruit came through, striking out Miller Place’s third and fourth hitters, Tyler Hodella and Michael Schleider.

Bradley Riegel, the number-five hitter, who led off the Panthers’ last at-bat, flied out to center field. Giovanni Cassino then hit a slow roller toward third. Jack Dickinson came up with it, but his off-balance, one-bounce throw eluded Carter Dickinson at first. That brought up Pranzo, who lined out to Jack Dickinson for out number two. With Walter Michalski, the designated hitter, at bat, Cassino stole second, though Ruddy capped his stellar win by striking out Michalski, a left-hander, on three straight pitches — his 15th strikeout of the afternoon and his 55th of the season. It was the first loss this season for Miller Place.

MaxPreps in an article that day listed Ruddy as among 10 pitchers in New York State with 0.00 earned run averages.

East Hampton enters the second half at 10-2. The last East Hampton baseball team to make the playoffs was the 2011 one, coached by Ed Bahns and Will Collins, which went 10-8 in the regular season and lost to Islip and Bayport-Blue Point in the playoffs. And then there was a drop-off, until Vinny Alversa and Henry Meyer began working to bring the program back a half-dozen years ago.

Section XI’s website on Friday morning had Bridgehampton-Ross atop League VIII with Port Jefferson, each at 6-1, followed by Southold and Pierson, each at 7-3.


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