[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OClc6YJhYCU]
Offense was hard to come by in today’s Hamptons League matinee match up between the Montauk Mustangs and Riverhead Tomcats.
The game was scoreless into the top of the eighth when Rob Vani of Adelphi blooped a single to right field off Ben Wright of Briarcliffe. Bryce Packard followed with a hard-hit single past the sliding Tyler Osik into left field. to put runners on the corners.
The following batter was Billy McLean of Stony Brook who hit a shallow fly ball to right field. The outfielder camped under it and fired home. Vani went about 1/3 of the way to draw the throw–which one-hopped and skipped past the catcher, Hunter Dolshun, to score Vani and put the Mustangs on the board.
Wright struck out the eighth place hitter to end the threat.
In the top of the eighth inning inning, the Mustangs sent big lefty Josh Walker, who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning by inducing Osik to fly out to left, back to the hill.
After allowing a leadoff single to Zach Garick, the following batter sacrificed him to second base. With one out, he hit infielder Paulie Russo to put the tying run on second base. With one out, he got Ben Socher to fly out to left for the second out.
Third-place hitter Nate Soria struck out on three pitches to end the game and improve Montauk to 14-14 while Riverhead falls to 11-19.
Both starting pitchers, Nate Green (6.2 shutout innings) and Joey Christopher (5 shutout innings) were very impressive.
For scouting reports on the players, access our Premium Content on the top of the screen under Scouting Reports.