North Baseball Eliminated from Suffolk County Playoffs After Loss to Ward Melville

Despite valiant efforts across its roster, fielding errors and tough times at the plate spelled the end for Sachem North's baseball team, ending its playoff run Wednesday afternoon after falling 4-2 in the eighth inning to visiting No. 8 Ward Melville (12-5 in League I, 15-6 overall).

"You can't get errors back," said North coach Tom Gambino. "Our offense was to play great defense. And Dan pitched well enough to win, but the hits weren't there."

"We weren't getting those hops," said senior pitcher Dan D'Orazio, who went 2-for-4 with a double and a single and pitched seven and a half innings."There were a couple of unlucky bounces. We should've been in that winner's bracket too, that game against Longwood was a tough loss."

The unluckiest bounce of the day came in the top of the sixth, catching third baseman Mike Turo just below his right eye. After some tense moments while coaches and a medic attended to him, Turo stood up to applause and played out the remainder of the inning, nabbing a line drive to left field and connecting with shortstop Alec Sole for the final out at second.

No. 7 North hit some bumps early in the first inning off infield errors, allowing two hits and a walk to load the bases. A double play by second baseman Mike Scarlato and first baseman Rich Armstrong cleared the advancing baserunners but Melville had scored its first run. North answered back big in the fourth, as Ward loaded its bases beginning with a walk for Turo followed by D'Orazio's double and another walk by Brendan Garry.

Scarlato then made the first of two successful squeeze plays, sending Turo home for the first run, which Steve Kowalski followed immediately with the other, as D'Orazio scored the next run to lead North 2-1.

The Patriots evened it up in the fifth off a RBI single, preceded by an error allowing a two-out double. A solid performance by D'Orazio in the top of the seventh momentarily preserved the tie, finally retiring the last batter in a two-out, bases-loaded, full-count pressure cooker. In the extra inning, Ward got the go-ahead run off a RBI triple, shoring up the lead on the next at-bat with a one-run single, scored on another unfortunate North error.

D'Orazio, plainly disappointed by the loss, reflected back on the season's successes, culminating in North's 12-5 season record in League II and posting 16-7 overall. 

"We had a good year, but stuff happens," said D'Orazio.