Mattituck’s quest for a state championship came to an end today at Mamaroneck High School, where they were defeated by the Rye Neck Panthers in the Southeast Region Class B final.
Dominant pitching and great defense did the trick for the Panthers (24-1-1) who move on to the state semi-finals next week in Binghamton.
“It’s a tough loss. We had our chances, but we didn’t take advantage of them,” Mattituck coach Steve DeCaro said after the game. “They’re a real good team. They pride themselves on their pitching and defense and that’s what we saw today,” he said. The Panthers were the best team the Tuckers saw all season, he said.
Pitcher Angelo Spedafino held the Tuckers to four hits on his way to a 3-0 shutout. “He threw strikes and he kept us off-balance,” DeCaro said. “We failed to deliver a couple of times in big at-bats.”
The Panthers only had five hits in today’s outing, but that was all they’d need: an RBI double in the first and a home run in the second.
Mattituck finishes the season with a 21-4 record.
“We’re going to feel bad for about an hour or so, then we’re going to look back on a great season,” DeCaro said. “We expected to be here today. We expected to win the county title, we expected to win the L.I. championship. And we expected to win today. A couple more wins would have been nice,” the coach said.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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