Oceanside earns sweep of Baldwin

Senior Morgan McCarthy followed senior John Condon’s go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning with a three-run blast over the fence in left to propel Oceanside to a 6-3 home victory over Baldwin in a Conference AA-II baseball game on May 7.

“He got all of it,” Sailors coach Mike Postilio said of McCarthy, who drove in winning pitcher Kyle Martin and pinch-runner Ryan Farber in front of him. “I saw how high it was as it flew past the infield and knew it was smoked,” he added.

Martin, a senior who anchors the infield from shortstop two games a week, went the distance and scattered eight hits while striking out eight as Oceanside (11-5 overall; 9-5 in AA-III) completed a series sweep. The Bruins (9-6; 8-6) were led by senior Bayyan Ngata-El, who went 3-for-4 with three steals and two runs scored.

“We hit the ball well all series, but we left too many runners on base,” Baldwin coach Frank Esposito said. “Today we left the bases loaded in the first inning and had runners in scoring position a couple of other times.

“Oceanside is a strong team,” he added. “We were playing great coming into the week and this is our first setback.”

The Bruins pushed across a run in the top of the first on junior Jeffrey Dominguez’s RBI single, but Martin got a strikeout with the bases juiced to end the threat. The Sailors answered in the bottom of the second against Baldwin senior pitcher Nikko Arellano (seven hits allowed, six strikeouts) when junior Mike Pagona smacked a two-run double to right for a 2-1 lead.

“Mike had such a great practice the other day and it earned him the start at second base,” Postilio said of Pagona, who picked up the win in relief in the series opener on May 4. “He deserved an opportunity and came up with a big hit to get us going.”

Arellano helped his own cause in the top of the fifth and evened the score. With two out, Ngata-El singled and swiped second in a third consecutive at-bat and came around to score on Arellano’s opposite-field double to left. “Bayyan had an incredible series last week against Hicksville going 9-for-11,” Esposito said of Ngata-El.

Baldwin picked up a run in the top of the sixth on senior Lucas Sullivan’s single and brought the tying run to the plate before Martin ended the threat with a strikeout. Arellano (3-for-3) reached in the seventh but was stranded at second.

“Beating East Meadow twice and sweeping Baldwin has us in a good place,” said Postilio, who guided the Sailors to the county championship series last spring. “We finally have our pitching set and we’ve played great defense all year.”

Freshman Dylan Judd saved the middle game of the series with three solid innings in relief of senior Paul Corr, who got offensive support from juniors Nick Vlahakis (4-for-4, three RBIs), Brandy Diaz (3-for-3, two RBIs) and Joe Cibellis (2-for-3, two RBIs.)

Both teams have qualified for the Nassau Class AA playoffs, which begin this Saturday. Martin and Arellano are likely to get the nods on the mound, according to their respective coaches.