Battery Tandem Lead Arrows To Shutout Victory Over Longwood

Arrows starter Alec Sole allowed only two hits in six shutout innings and catcher Brendan Garry hit a towering two-run home run as Sachem North defeated Longwood 3-0 Wednesday afternoon.

Sole mesmerized the Lions (1-1), allowing a runner to reach second base only twice. He struck out 10 in his six innings of work, a game head coach Tom Gambino called "his best of the season."

"That was by far the best he’s thrown this year," said Gambino. "We’ve just got to hope that he continues to pitch like that and he stays healthy."

Sole also helped his own cause, getting the scoring started in the bottom of the second inning. With first baseman Nick Teta on third, Sole hit a shallow fly ball to left field. Shortstop Rob Moore made a difficult over-the-shoulder catch, and lost his footing behind third base, which allowed Teta to tag up and score on the play. Sole finished 1-for-3 at the plate, with a stolen base to go along with his game-winning RBI.

The Arrows' ace made sure that run would stand up, as he retired 11 of the next 13 batters he faced.

"He pitched a great game today," said Lions head coach John Davide. "Coach Gambino just told me that was the best he’s pitched all year. Of course he throws that against us, right? We know him from last year, when he’s on, he’s on. He’s tough to hit."

"I just focused all day, got my adrenaline pumping, and I just couldn’t stop," said Sole. "After the first one, I was just dealing all day."

Sachem (1-0) squandered a number of opportunities early, as Sole's sacrifice provided the only run despite having the bases loaded in each of the first three innings.

"We were talking about that, we haven’t exactly been swinging the bat well when we needed some timely hitting," said Gambino. "We didn’t take advantage of the first three innings, too many fly balls. With a couple of ground balls we would’ve scored some more runs."

Arrows catcher Brendan Garry pushed the lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, when he took a 1-0 fastball from Eloy Benson and drove it over the wall in left-center field for a two-run home run.

"I was kind of sitting dead, red fastball and I got lucky," said Garry. "He left it up in the zone and I got good wood on it."

Garry also provided Sole with some help on defense. After Harley Greco lined a double down the first base line to lead off the fifth inning, Sole struck out the next two batters.

On a 2-1 pitch, Garry caught Greco sleeping off second and fired a strike to second base in time to end the inning.

"I worked that with our shortstop," said Garry. "I saw him the pitch before, he took a little too big of a lead, I just gave him the sign we have together and made a good throw."

That was the last threat the Lions would muster, as Brian Hennelly came on for the save and retired the next three batters after allowing a leadoff walk.