Saturday afternoon was a good day for a baseball game, and the Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School Whalers rose to the occasion, defeating Elwood-John Glenn 8-6 before a crowd of some 250 Mashashimuet Park spectators who had earlier seen Kyle McGowin, a 2010 Pierson grad and former Washington Nationals pitcher, presented with a plaque that is to be displayed in the school’s trophy case.
The 33-year-old “hometown hero,” the sole Sag Harborite to play in the major leagues — whose 2019 World Series he and his Nats teammates won — threw out the first ball, a gentle lob to Brian Schroeder, perhaps because the honoree will be the Charleston Dirty Birds’ starter in a season-opening Atlantic League game tomorrow versus the Lexington Legends. (The Dirty Birds are to play the Long Island Ducks in Central Islip on July 18, 19, and 20.)
As for Saturday’s game, the Whalers, playing heads-up ball throughout the first five innings, looked as if they’d shrugged off the slump they’d reportedly been in. With Spencer Cavaniola pitching impressively — he’d allowed only one hit and had struck out eight by the time he was replaced by Schroeder in the top of the sixth inning — the Whalers, with just about everyone getting into the act, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second and tacked on four more in the third before the Knights got on the board with two runs in the top of the fifth owing to a wild pitch and an infield error.
Pierson made it 7-2 in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a run-scoring single by Andy Wayne, who had driven in the Whalers’ first two runs in the second. (Schroeder and Braeden Mott had r.b.i.s in the third.)
In relief of Cavaniola, who apparently had reached his pitch count maximum, Schroeder did not fare as well. By the end of the frame, the Knights, benefiting from three hits, a walk, and a throw-around that allowed three runs to come across the plate following a soft single through the right side of the diamond, had pulled to 7-5.
An r.b.i. groundout by Max Krotman plated the Whalers’ eighth run in the bottom of the sixth.
Bob Manning, Pierson’s coach, brought in Paul Roesel, a tall right-hander, to close out the win in the top of the seventh. Roesel got the first two batters he faced to ground out second-to-first, but a walk and two infield errors followed, the second of which resulted in the Knights’ sixth run. With runners on first and second, two outs, and the count 1-0 on Glenn’s sixth hitter, Jack Divers, the Whalers’ catcher, Jeffrey Gregor, fired a strike to the first baseman, Michael Schaefer, who tagged the runner as he was diving back to the bag — an emphatic game-ender that sent the great majority of the large crowd home happy.
