East Meadow rallies past Long Beach

There was nothing but zeros on the board through three-and-a-half innings of last Saturday’s Nassau Class AA baseball first-round playoff game between ninth-seeded Long Beach and No. 8 East Meadow.

But the host Jets broke out the bats in a big way in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs on five hits, and kept swinging in the fifth and added five runs on four hits, to earn a 9-0 victory and a best-of-three quarterfinal series meeting with No. 2 MacArthur. Junior pitcher Brian Kavanagh, who last month tossed a no-hitter, allowed four hits and three walks and struck out four. Senior Anthony Bianchini went 2-for-2 and reached base in all three plate appearances for the Marines, who produced the play of the game on a picture-perfect relay to end the third inning.

“It’s the playoffs, so you can never feel too comfortable,” said East Meadow coach Ken Sicoli, who moved one win shy of 500 career coaching victories. “Long Beach had a nice year and was hanging right with us. We had some huge at-bats in those two innings. When we got four runs, I thought it might be enough with Kavanagh pitching. He was typical Kavanagh today. His ERA is under a run per game.”

Long Beach, making its second straight playoff appearance, mounted its biggest threats in the first and fifth innings. The Marines loaded the bases in the first with a Bianchini single and two walks with two outs, but Kavanagh got a strikeout to end the threat. In the fifth, again with two outs, senior Sam Berk worked and walk and Bianchini singled, but senior Alec Bernabeo’s liner was caught by a leaping Frank Ippolito at shortstop.

“We played some great defense, which doesn’t happen all the time,” Sicoli said.

It was a textbook defensive play by Long Beach in the third that kept the game scoreless. Junior pitcher Conor Lieberman retired the first eight batters he faced but walked junior Matt Laudonio and gave up a single to Kavanagh. Sicoli pinch ran for Laudonio with Andrew Romano, who was off and running once sophomore Joe Minucci made contact. Minucci lined a single to right, Vinny McParland charged and came up throwing to cutoff man Michael Bitetto, who fired a relay throw to catcher Tim Brosnan just in time to get Romano.

“We knew we were up against a very good team, but the feeling out of our dugout was we thought we could win the game,” Marines coach Jason Zizza said. “Our kids worked extremely hard all year, and I’m proud to coach them.

“If five years ago I sat with the group of Nassau County coaches and told them we’d be in the playoffs two years in a row, I would’ve been laughed out of the room,” Zizza added. 

East Meadow finally broke through in the fourth. Senior Billy Thomas and sophomore Zach Fritz set the tone with singles, and both came around to score. Marcus Kabigting, Jonny Keicher, and Laudonio had RBIs, and Luis Cuello had the big hit in the fifth, a two-run single to bring home Fritz and Kabigting.