East Meadow rallies past Baldwin

Jets take two of three games versus Bruins

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After spotting Baldwin an eight-run lead after two innings of last week’s Nassau Conference AA-2 baseball series finale April 13, East Meadow relief pitcher Dom Steinmark quieted the Bruins’ bats while the Jets’ sticks stayed hot in the rubber game of the three-game set.

East Meadow rallied with four runs in the bottom of the third inning, six runs in the fifth, and eventually won it, 14-13, on senior Devin Lake’s RBI single in the sixth. Lake went 3-for-3 for a second straight game and also earned the save despite walking two batters in the top of the seventh. Senior Mike Feldman drove in four runs and senior Alex Rodriguez scored three times as the Jets improved to 3-2 in conference game and 5-2 overall.

“We really need to cut down on errors and walks, but the kids showed a lot of fight today coming back from a 9-1 deficit,” East Meadow coach Vinny Mascia said. “We had a lot of kids hit the ball hard, but I think Steinmark was the star of the game. We were in a big hole when we brought him in to pitch and he held them down.”

Baldwin (1-5 in conference games, 1-6 overall) got a combined nine runs from its No. 2 through 4 hitters (senior Chris Stegmuller, junior Michael Jazylo and junior Mario Garcia) and rallied to tie the game at 13 with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth. Junior shortstop Giancarlo Estevez, in his first game of the season following a shoulder injury, had a bases-loaded clearing double in the top of the first.

“We’ve got a ton of underclassmen starting and making progress every day,” Baldwin coach Frank Esposito said. “We let this one slip away, but we’ll get right back at it next week against Oceanside.”

Jazylo, who reached base on all five plate appearances in the finale and scored four times, pitched and hit the Bruins to an 11-7 victory in a sloppy opening game of the series April 10. Both teams made seven errors. Jazylo pitched six innings and scattered eight hits with one walk and eight strikeouts with only one earned run. He also cracked a two-run double in the fourth inning for a 7-4 lead.

“He’s an elite talent,” Esposito said of Jazylo, who plays first base on non-pitching days. “He’s an impact pitcher and an impact hitter. He had a big year last year too.”

Garcia and senior Paul Battiata also knocked in two runs apiece in Baldwin’s first win of 2023.

The second game of the series was all East Meadow. The Jets blasted off with six runs in the top of the first and added eight more runs in the second on the way to a 24-1 victory April 11. Lake had six RBIs, while senior Devin McQuillan and junior Kevin Canto drove in three runs apiece. On the mound, sophomore Spencer Kemler proved tough to solve with a two-hitter and seven strikeouts over four innings.

“We’ve still got an awful lot of work to do,” Mascia said. “We have to throw more strikes and do a better job at catching the baseball.”