Freeport confident after sweep

The Freeport Red Devils entered their bye week red-hot and positioned for a playoff push in Nassau County baseball.

After stumbling out of the game at 2-6, Freeport has won four of five in improving to 5-7 in Conference AA-I heading into the home stretch of the regular season. The Red Devils swept a three-game series from Hicksville last week capped off by a 13-3 road win on Friday.

“We’ve been hitting well and pitching well,” Freeport head coach Roberto Delgado said. “I’m very pleased.”

David Herrera helped break Friday’s game open with a third-inning grand slam that helped Freeport jump out to a 9-0 lead.  Anthony Lamar also had a big day with a home run and three RBIs.

Last Friday’s win also featured strong varsity debuts from Jorge Espinal and Damian Rodriguez. Espinal went 2-for-3 with an RBI while Rodriguez also went 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

“Both of them delivered,” said Delgado of Espinal and Rodriguez. “It says a lot about the program that I can call guys up from JV and then they help us win a game.”

The blowout victory followed two one-run wins to start the series. Yudervis Adamez hit a walk-off triple to give Freeport an 8-7 win on April 17. Nelzon Lozano was clutch out of the bullpen allowing no earned runs in four innings of work to earn the win.

“He has been big for us,” Delgado said of Lozana, who has also been one of Freeport’s top hitters.

In the second game of the series, senior shortstop Braylin Marine hit a bases-loaded triple in the fifth inning that gave Freeport the lead en route to 6-5 win. Marine and Lozano both hit solo home runs to help the Red Devils rally from an early 3-0 hole while Yudervis Adamez earned the win with four strikeouts. Raudy Javier earned the save and thwarted a Hicksville rally after they scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth with the game then stopped due to darkness.

Delgado said that while the pitching and offense are producing, Freeport’s fielding has room for improvement. He plans to use much of the bye week focusing on defense at practices to try and avoid costly errors in upcoming games that could decide the Red Devils’ postseason fate.

“We played great defense last Friday,” Delgado said. “The first two games we did not play great defense and that is why those games were close.”

Freeport returns to action with a three-game series against Port Washington starting Monday at home for a 4:45 p.m. first pitch. The Red Devils wrap up the regular season with three games versus Farmingdale from May 7-9.

Delgado said his team is in strong position to reach the playoffs for a fourth straight year and is eyeing a top three finish in Conference AA-I that would position them for a high seed and postseason run in Class AA.  He credits Marine and Lamar with providing strong senior leadership.

“We have a really, really close team with great chemistry,” Delgado said.