Sachem North Knocks Northport to Loser's Bracket, Arrows Advance to Third Round

Sachem North picked a good time to start playing its best baseball of the season.

Northport, fresh off an upset of second-seeded Smithtown West in the first round of the Suffolk County Class AA playoffs, had no answers for the Flaming Arrows and pitcher Alec Sole in a 12-2 loss Wednesday afternoon in Lake Ronkonkoma.

Seventh-seeded Sachem (18-4) will play Friday against No. 3 Patchogue-Medford in the third round. No. 15 Northport (11-10) drops to the losers bracket and will play again Thursday against No. 8 Commack (16-6).

Sachem's Alec Sole pitched a complete game, allowing six hits, two earned runs and recorded six strikeouts. He also helped his own cause going 3-for-5 with two RBI, and scored a run. Sachem gave him 16 hits to back up his pitching performance.

“I was focused,” said Sole, who threw 86 pitches, including just four in the first inning. “I didn’t want to lose. When you have that much run support it’s amazing. When everybody starts hitting like that it makes it easy to pitch. It’s something we really need in the playoffs.”

“He dominated the game,” said Northport coach John DeMartini. “He is the MVP of the league for that reason. He shut us down.”

The Flaming Arrows tacked on runs in five of the six innings in which they hit.

Sole hit a two-out two-run double in the bottom of the second to open the scoring.

Nick Teta and Steve Kowalski hit RBI-doubles in the third, while Mike Scarlato had an RBI-single to make it 5-1 in Sachem’s favor.

Northport’s Tyler Bivona hit the second solo shot of the game for the Tigers in the top of the fourth to follow Lucas Vallas, who hit his own home run the previous inning.

Sachem, however, did its most damage in the bottom half of the fourth, adding four more runs and owning a commanding lead for the rest of the game.

Justin Carlo, who went 3-for-5, hit a double and scored a run off a Brian Hennelly single. Brendan Garry, who walked, scored off a Mike Santangelo single and Scarlato laid down a sacrifice bunt to score a run. Garry and Teta each had an RBI-double in the fifth inning as well.

“We’re starting to hit the ball,” said Sachem coach Tom Gambino. “Winning and confidence does that to you. Earlier in the year I wasn’t happy at all, but it’s coming now.”

Sachem will throw Hennelly against Pat-Med in their third round game.

Upset Central

After a wild first round in which top-seeded Lindenhurst, second-seeded Smithtown West and fourth-seeded West Babylon lost, the second round proved to be even more eye opening as all three were eliminated for good from post-season play. The highest seeds left are No. 3 Pat-Med, No. 5 Eastport, No. 6 Hauppauge and No. 7 Sachem. 

Winning Pitcher: Alec Sole: 7 INP, 6 H, 2 ER, 6K, 1 HBP

Losing Pitcher: Rob Kosciuk: 3 1/3, 10 H, 7ER, 4 BB