Everyone on the Center Moriches baseball team was in agreement — this, was revenge.
After giving up five runs in the final inning to lose game one to No. 1 seeded Mattituck in the Suffolk County Class B tournament on Monday, Center Moriches was in position to give the Tuckers a dose of their own medicine in game two of the three-game series on Wednesday in Center Moriches.
Mattituck (19-3) led going into the bottom of the sixth inning, 3-2, behind five brilliant innings from starting pitcher Joe Tardif, who finished the night with nine strikeouts. And that’s exactly when things went wrong.
When asked whether Tardif should have stayed in for the sixth, Mattituck head coach Steve DeCaro answered: “That was about it for Joe. He was a little tired himself and looked like he was slowing down a little bit.”
DeCaro described the sixth inning with one word: “disaster.”
In came James Nish. He was unsuccessful in shutting down the first two batters and was replaced by Chris Dwyer, Monday’s walk-off winner. Dwyer walked the next batter setting up a situation of bases loaded with no outs — in other words, a recipe for disaster.
Dwyer was fortunate enough to get the next batter to fly out to short centerfield to hold the runner from scoring but then stepped in sophomore catcher Anthony Maag.
“I struck out my first two at-bats so I was a little nervous in that situation,” Maag said. “But I was just trying to relax and make contact.”
He made contact all right — he smoked a liner down the left-field to plate two and give Center Moriches (14-7) their first lead of the game.
Maag called it the biggest hit of his young career.
“All I was thinking was look fastball and react curve,” he said.
Off the bat Maag thought he had hit it right to the outfielder so when it hit the ground, he was overcome with adrenaline as he rounded second base.
“Pure excitement,” Maag said. “Can’t say anything more than that.”
But the damage was far from over. Though the next batter would strike out, Center Moriches showed they too could hit with two outs.
“I guess you could say it was like revenge,” Maag said.
Steven Bryant connected on a two-RBI double and then Daniel Franchi smacked an RBI triple. Michael Colombi hit another triple to add on to the misery. By the end of the inning, the scoreboard had a crooked number on it.
Mattituck 3, Center Moriches 9.
And that’s what the final score would be.
Colombi (7-1) pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts, one earned run and seven hits.
“It definitely felt good to get back at them,” Colombi said. “Just like they did it to us, we did it to them.”
Center Moriches head coach Denis Donovan was proud of his team for fighting through the game that many other teams would have folded following such an emotional defeat.
“This is the beauty of the rivalry,” Donovan said. “Center Moriches vs. Mattituck, this is what it’s all about. Nobody gave up. The team was just trying to chip away the whole game.”
“The one thing I can tell you about this team is that they’re tough,” he continued. “They’re mentally tough. A couple at-bats didn’t go our way but we didn’t hang our heads.”
It sets the stage for the final game of the series which will be played in Mattituck on Thursday at 4 p.m.
“The thing that brought us here is our pitching,” nDeCaro said. “And we’re going to rely on our pitching to seal us game three.”
Marcos Perivolari gets the start for the Tuckers.
