by Julian Guevara
The Suffolk vs. Nassau rivalry was alive and well this weekend at PAL Stadium. Despite the fact that the tournament took place in Suffolk County, Nassau was the higher seeded team after winning the regular season title after beating Suffolk three times in their four games.
After yesterday’s 14-6 loss, Nassau had a quick turnaround and played Bronx CC later in the afternoon. The Lions dominated Bronx 14-1 and advanced to play Suffolk, needing to beat them twice in one day to win the tournament.
The two teams went on to play each other 18 innings and roughly six hours after Nassau took the first game, 14-2.
Sophomore pitcher Anthony Pristera went the distance for Nassau and allowed just two earned runs off two solo homeruns in innings one and two. Jeff Towle launched his tenth homerun of the season with two outs in the first and Stephen Lydon led off the second with a solo shot. The crafty righty settled down and allowed just five hits in the remaining seven frames, finishing with three walks and three strikeouts.
Nassau played extremely sharp defense in the first game, while Suffolk struggled defensively. The Sharks committed six errors in the first game, allowing a huge six-run fourth inning for Nassau. The Lions strung together a few daggering base hits after working a couple walks.
Sophomore third baseman Morgan McCarthy put together an impressive four-hit game at the plate with two runs scored in the first game. Nassau put together two three-run innings in the fifth and seventh to solidify their lead.
Sophomore pitcher Ryan Steffens was determined to win the tournament for Suffolk. He was able to do just that with the help of a strong bounce-back offensive performance. The Sharks went on to win, 7-2.
“I was just pounding the first pitch fastball and attacking really hard,” Steffens said. “I told coach that I want them to try and beat my fastball so I just went after them and it worked for another five innings.”
The 6’4 right hander allowed just two runs over seven frames allowing just four hits, striking out seven and walking four. The Suffolk offense gave Steffens a four run cushion in the top of the second after Michael Pascuzzi started a rally with a one-out single.
“You have no idea, I was so pumped to pitch the second game,” Steffens said. “As soon as we came together after the first game we knew they didn’t stand a chance in the second game, we knew we were going to come out hot and weren’t going to lose two in a row on championship day.”
Jenfry Perez-Castillo and Connor Cutino followed with back-to-back walks.
After a strike out Marc Laboy worked a tough bases loaded walk to give Suffolk their first run of the game. This set the table for Anthony Scheller to clear the bases with a triple to the right-center gap.
Nassau, however, came right back and scored two runs off a costly fly ball error in right field with runners on first and second with two outs. Steffens retired the first two batters in order, but he walked the next batter and the following batter reached on a dropped third strike. The fly ball error allowed for both batters to score and cut the deficit to two.
“They’re great competitors, it’s always good to play teams and its great to play against them,” Steffens said. “Obviously there’s a rivalry there and they beat us three out of four games this season but when it came down to business we beat them when it mattered.”
The game remained closely contested until Suffolk tacked on two more runs in the seventh. They then extended their lead to five runs in the eighth with three straight base hits; Lydon started the rally for Suffolk in the cleanup spot.
Suffolk continues to be a force in NJCAA Region XV. Suffolk Head Coach Brian Klammer put together a successful first season at the helm for SCCC, which is no small feat.
