Uihlein’s Again a Bridesmaid in Town Slow-Pitch Fall Final

After the first five and a half innings of the East Hampton Town men’s slow-pitch fall league final at the Terry King ball field in Amagansett on Nov. 13, Uihlein’s led Marcello’s Masonry 7-6, having overcome a 6-4 deficit with three runs in the top of the sixth.

But then, as so often happens with teams playing Marcello’s, the roof fell in, consigning Uihlein’s, which had lost in four to Marcello’s in the summer league’s best-of-five final, to what is becoming its customary bridesmaid role.

Things might have gone better for Uihlein’s had Jim Hansen, its regular pitcher, not been sidelined midway through the fall season because of toe surgery. Todd Smith, an outfielder, stepped in for Hansen, and did admirably, but Smith said when questioned following the finale that “I would have loved to have had Jim here tonight.”

Marcello’s, with Chris Pfund, Dustin Lightcap, and Tom Thorsen in the lineup, packs a lot of punch, but there were no home runs on the 13th, owing perhaps to a brisk wind that was slanting toward right field, and the restricted flight ball that is used in slow-pitch games here nowadays.

Ray Wojtusiak, Marcello’s player-manager, pitched, as he usually does, for the winners, and kept Uihlein’s in check more or less through its first four at-bats.

A double play got Wojtusiak out of the top of the first after Austin Bahns, Uihlein’s leadoff hitter, had drawn a walk and his brother, Steve, following a force play at second, had singled.

Marcello’s also went down without a run in its half, but, in the second, the Masons went up 1-0, Wojtusiak driving in Tyler Aposian, the catcher, from second base after Aposian, with one out, had singled and moved up on a flyout by Diego Palomo.

An opposite-field two-run triple to the base of the fence in right by Lightcap upped Marcello’s lead to 3-0 going into the top of the fourth. Uihlein’s got one back in its half thanks to a bases-loaded hit by Smith, who batted 10th in the lineup, and would have had more had not two runners been thrown out at the plate.

The Masons, with Joe Ferraro, the leadoff hitter, and Hayden Ward getting the r.b.i.s — Ward driving in two with a double — made it 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth, after which Uihlein’s came back with three runs of its own in the bottom half, Patrick Silich and Jim McMullan driving in two of them.

Smith set the Masons down in the bottom of the fifth, inducing Pfund to fly out, Lightcap to ground out, and, after Aposian had singled, Palomo to fly out.

Erica Silich, the ninth hitter, led off Uihlein’s sixth with a single, a slow roller that Wojtusiak could not make a play on. Smith then hit a grounder to Hayden Ward at third, but Sonny Sireci, Marcello’s second baseman, dropped Ward’s throw at second base, allowing Silich to alight safely. Austin Bahns drew a walk, loading the bases with no outs. 

A subsequent sacrifice fly by Anthony Daunt plated his wife, after which a hit by Steve Bahns tied it up. Trying also to score on the play, Austin Bahns was cut down at the plate, but Patrick Silich, with two outs and Steve Bahns on second, drove the latter in with the go-ahead run. Andy Silich, Pat and Erica’s father, and the Bahns brothers’ uncle (not to mention Anthony Daunt’s father-in-law), popped out to Hayden Ward, ending the inning, but Uihlein’s, as aforesaid, had grabbed the lead, at 7-6.

Then, as also aforesaid, the roof fell in. With the bases loaded and one out, Ward tied it up with a hard base hit. Thorsen returned the lead to Marcello’s with a sac fly, after which Pfund drove in another with a long double to left-center that hit off the fence. An error by Daunt at shortstop allowed Marcello’s 10th run to score. Acosian, with his third hit of the night, Palomo, as the result of another error by Daunt, and Wojtusiak, as the result of a dribbler that went unclaimed, upped the margin even further, to 13-7. 

Marcello’s wasn’t done yet, however. John Ward, the first baseman (and Hayden’s father), drove in two runs, for 15-7, and Ferraro knocked in one more, effectively putting the game out of reach at 16-7. 

The bases were loaded and two were out when Austin Bahns came to the plate in Uihlein’s last at-bat, but Thorsen, who was playing in shallow right, easily gathered in Bahns’s line drive that was hit right to him.

“We match up pretty well,” the elder Silich said afterward. “We’ll get them next year.”

Marcello’s got to the final by soundly defeating the Corner Bar (Rob Nicoletti’s team) in one of the semifinals, benefiting from “four or five home runs,” according to Silich. Uihlein’s bested McGuire’s Landscaping 10-6 in the other semifinal.