On April 22, East Hampton baseball recorded its first win of the season — a 1-0 extra-inning walk-off against Eastport-South Manor. Just nine days later, on May 1, the Bonackers recorded their first series win against Comsewogue, sweeping three games: 14-0 at home on April 29, 13-0 on the road on April 30, and 12-2 back home on May 1. Their record has improved from 0-7 to 4-8.
It’s like watching a whole new team: The bats have come alive and the team has woken up. Livs Kuplins lit the match that started the fire against Comsewogue in the first game of the series.
“Livs leading us off with a hit and taking it from there and stealing two bags,” Vinny Alversa, the team’s head coach, said. “That’s probably why he’s one of the better players in the league.”
“For me,” Kuplins said, “I just do my thing. I don’t try to do anything fancy. See the ball. Hit the ball. I like stealing. Everybody said we had the talent, but that’s why I hate the word. Talent doesn’t mean anything if you don’t show up and do it. I feel like everybody is starting to get confident. People are just building on it and everybody is trying to do what they can do.”
While Kuplins says he isn’t doing anything fancy, there is one secret to his success: singing.
“Every time I play good baseball, I just go out there and have fun. Take a breath and just enjoy the game, sing a little song to yourself when you’re out there, and keep it simple. Make it fun.”
The song he sang while stealing bases against Comsewogue? OneRepublic’s “Run.”
“Run run run run run,” he sang, smiling. “I was just singing that the whole time. It keeps me calm.”
The singing seems to be working. The next day, Kuplins hit his first home run of the season in the 13-0 victory on the road. And he wasn’t the only one getting fired up. Mason Miles hit his first-ever home run at the East Hampton High School field in the 12-2 victory at home a day later.
The team has also made some adjustments to the lineup.
“We’re messing around a ton with the bottom of the lineup. We have Luca Biondo over at second now,” Alversa said. “Is he crushing the baseball? No. But what is he doing? He’s working counts. He’s had five or six 10-pitch at-bats. And is getting some walks here and there. Finally got a hit. It’s little things like that.”
The team’s pitching has also improved dramatically, holding Comsewogue to two runs over three games and walking fewer batters. “Through 24 games last year, we walked a total of 79 guys. Through seven games this year, we had walked almost 51 guys,” Alversa explained. “Our older guys on the mound needed to step up. Jackson [Carney] was great today [April 29]. Finn [O’Rourke] and Trevor [Meehan] were awesome last week.”
The Bonackers need to win all of their remaining games to make it to the playoffs. On Saturday, they kept the streak alive, beating William Floyd 7-5. At the risk of talking about the no-hitter during the no-hitter — perhaps the greatest jinx in all of baseball — they were still in contention when this sports section went to press.
Whatever happens, they’ve turned what looked like a hopeless season into one full of possibility and excitement.
“Our pitchers have been throwing strikes. Our hitters have been having better at-bats. And I think we kind of realized that we are capable and can go nine straight and make the playoffs,” Kuplins said. “Winning is fun. It’s pretty simple. Hopefully we keep it rolling.”
