East Hampton’s 11-and-12-year-old Little League traveling all-star boys team finished pool play at 4-0 thanks to an 8-2 win over North Shore American at the Stephen Hand’s Path fields here Saturday morning. The win set up a District 36 semifinal matchup with North Shore National, the western pool’s runner-up, at the North Shore Little League field in Rocky Point at 8 Thursday night.
Saturday’s game was tense through the first five innings — the visitors and East Hampton were tied at 2-2 as the Bonackers went to bat in the top of the sixth, which Colin Grisch led off with a double off the left-field fence, rousing the large hometown crowd. Scott Abran, who bats third, followed with a double of his own to right-center, driving in Grisch and putting East Hampton up for the first time that morning. And there was more to come.
With Abran on second, Declan Balnis, the cleanup hitter, who had tied the score with a two-run double in the third, was intentionally walked, after which Rohan Keogh singled to load the bases for Elias Wojtusiak, whose long fly to center field was dropped, an error that treated East Hampton to a 5-2 lead.
That was it for Dan Frycek, who had relieved North Shore’s able starter, A.J. King, in the sixth. Jason Carey followed Frycek to the mound, but he couldn’t stem the tide either. East Hampton’s sixth run scored on a second-to-first groundout by Aidan Stone, the winning pitcher, and a wild pitch brought in another, upping Bonac’s lead to 7-2.
Declan Balnis then grounded out third-to-first for the second out, but Cayden Sokol kept the rally alive with a single, after which Alex Bobek walked. With Jake Daniels up, a wild pitch and a subsequent overthrow of third by the catcher enabled Sokol to score the gleeful winners’ eighth and final run.
Ryan Balnis finished up for the Bonackers, ending the game by tagging out a runner who had hoped to score from third on a wild pitch.
Sag Harbor wound up as the eastern pool’s runner-up, and thus is to play Riverhead, the western pool’s winner, at the North Shore field this evening at 5:45.
In a game that followed the 11-12s’, East Hampton’s 9-10 all-stars lost 16-3 to Patchogue-Medford. “They had a couple of big kids, one as big as me,” Asa Gosman, East Hampton’s head coach, said afterward. “And one of them pitched. It was a tough day, it is what it is. Pat-Med is a good team.”
The loss evened the young Bonackers’ record at 2-2. The boys are to play Sag Harbor at Stephen Hand’s this evening at 5:45. “It should be fun,” said Gosman. “A lot of these kids are friends.”
There was still an outside chance, he said, that East Hampton might make it to the district 9-10 final, “assuming we win our last two games and get some help.”
The following are on the 9-10s’ roster: A.J. Gosman, Griffin Page, James Balnis, Marco Danieli, Cooper Meehan, Robbie Posillico, Dixon Bennett, Caelan Ferguson, Connor Cashin, Baron Hildreth, Hudson Thomas, and Jack Helfand. Matt Meehan and Josh Helfand help Asa Gosman coach the team.
The Softball Report
On Friday evening, East Hampton’s 11-12 Little League softball team, playing for the district championship, lost 6-1 to North Shore, a team that shut the Bonackers out 10-0 on June 26.
A bad fourth inning, during which North Shore upped its 2-1 lead to 6-1, thanks to “a few walks, a couple of hits, and a mishap,” did in East Hampton, which, save for that frame, was “right there with them,” its head coach, Steve Centalonza, said.
“Congratulations to North Shore,” he added. “They’re a good team with a strong pitcher.”
By the same token, East Hampton’s coaches, he said, were “extremely proud of this team. We played hard, played smart, and played together. It was a great experience playing in the tournament. The future is bright for Bonac softball.”
The 11-12 roster comprised Fallon Centalonza, Dylan Centalonza, Ella Field, Jackie Geehreng, Maeve Tupper, Callie Amicucci, Cameron Tuthill, Cameron Dawson, Evelyn Royal, Merritt Bistrian-Emptage, Allison Rade, and Brie Steele. Jeff Tupper and Justin Geehreng helped Steve Centalonza coach the team.
Last Thursday, the girls improved to 3-1 in District 36 tournament play by easily defeating Eastport-South Manor 7-1 behind Dylan Centalonza’s effective windmill pitching.
Also that night, the 11-12 boys defeated Sag Harbor 9-3 on Bridgehampton’s Little League field, improving to 3-0 in pool play, and the 9-10 boys, playing at Stephen Hand’s, as were the girls, defeated their Riverhead peers 12-7. Hildreth (two innings), Danieli (two and two-thirds innings), and Cashin (one and one-third innings) pitched for the young Bonackers. Gosman, Danieli, Balnis, and Meehan drove in runs. The elder Gosman said that Danieli made a big catch in left field in the top of the sixth to stem a Riverhead rally.
Last Thursday’s was a must-win game for the girls, who, running the bases with abandon, jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning — East Hampton being the away team that night. Fallon Centalonza, who catches her twin sister, Dylan’s, pitches, led it off with a single that she stretched into a double. A wild pitch by Eastport-South Manor’s hurler, with Dylan up, enabled Fallon to take third, and yet another wild pitch resulted in her scoring East Hampton’s first run of the game. Dylan then singled and Merritt Bistrian-Emptage followed with a run-scoring double that landed just inside the right-field line.
The bases were loaded, thanks to a subsequent walk and a hit batsman, with two outs, when the visitors’ pitcher wild-pitched in East Hampton’s third run. The fourth and fifth runs came in as Callie Amicucci was beating out the catcher’s throw to first after she’d dropped a third strike.
Cam Tuthill treated East Hampton to a 6-0 lead in the top of the second, rounding the bases in succession after she’d been walked — a home run without having touched the ball.
The visitors scored their sole run in the bottom of the second, as the result of a scratch single, a wild pitch, and an infield putout, though the Bonackers took Eastport-South Manor out of the inning with a nifty double play, and responded with a run of their own, scored by Bistrian-Emptage, in the third.
Following a dropped fly ball, Eastport-South Manor had runners at the corners with two outs in its fourth, but a pitcher-to-first groundout ended the threat. Centalonza retired the side in order in the bottom of the fifth, and, in the sixth, with runners at first and second and one out, Amicucci, East Hampton’s center fielder, virtually shut the visitors down as she made a running one-handed catch of a well-hit fly ball. A subsequent groundout wrapped up the win.
