By:JOSEPH KELLARD
Second-seeded Oceanside answered top-seeded Plainview right back with four runs in the bottom of the first. After smacking a lead-off double, Jim Kelly scored when Plainview's left-fielder Alex Regensburg and short stop Mike Rutcofsky collided in pursuit of a Mike Kirby bloop double. (Regensburg injured his head and arm and was taken out of the game.)
With runners on the corners, Sailor John Frascella took home on the catcher's errant throw to catch Frank Valeriano stealing second base. After Valeriano took third, the catcher lost the ball on a botched squeeze play that the Sailor exploited to steal home.
Working his curve ball, Ytuarte dominated from the second inning on when he struck out the side and allowed just two hits thereafter behind both the Sailors bats and more Hawk mishaps. Oceanside went up 7-2 in the third after Dan Kourie (3-for-4 with to RBIs) doubled and then dashed home after the catcher threw wildly when he stole third. Later that inning, Anthony Conte smashed a grounder that short stop Mike Rutcofsky tracked down too deep in the outfield to throw out Matt Wynn at the plate.
Plainview brought in Frank Roscigno to pitch, but when up against loaded bases he walked in a run. The Sailors scored their final two runs that inning when pinch-hitter Ed Risner drove in a run on a double play, and Kelly followed up with an RBI single.
Planview's All-Nassau selection Tom Hopkins was benched after being ejected from game one for hitting Sailors pitcher John Fraschella in the face with his forearm during a run down, and slugger Jason Appel sat with a sore hamstring. Throughout game two the Hawks chanted often to encourage their teammates, right up to the second to last out. That's when Oceanside's hundreds of fans, mostly quiet when their team wasn't scoring runs, silenced them by cheering for Ytuarte, who got the batter to fly out to left.
The Sailors celebrated by piling on Ytuarte on the mound, and dumped a cooler of ice on head coach Andy Morris during his post-game talk with his players at home plate.
"We dropped down 2-0 in the first inning and then my guys showed guts, and Sammy shut them down from there on in and we hit the ball," Morris told the Herald after the game. "We rely on pitching and we produce runs and hopefully that's enough."
In the first game of the three-game divisional series, Oceanside defeated Plainview 2-1 in a pitchers battle. The Sailors second win qualified them to play Smithtown in the Class AA Southeast Regional Final/Long Island Championship game in Yaphank on Memorial Day.
Asked what distinguishes this team from his other recent championship teams, Morris said, "The character of this team is that we relied on pitching. You saw that over the last two days. We've got great pitching like we did on those other teams. We hit the ball as well as any team in Nassau County. I think we hit about 28 homers this year and we let up four. They love the game, and we came up with some clutch hitting."
