Baseball: Wildcats’ bats come alive in win over Hampton Bays

Shoreham-Wading River was eager to get its fire going early in the season. Based on Monday’s results, Hampton Bays was the gas on the flames. 

The Wildcats didn’t look like a team struggling at the plate as they blew out Hampton Bays, 18-8, at Shoreham-Wading River High School Monday afternoon.

Things didn’t start out so perfect though. Hampton Bays (0-4 League VIII, 0-9 overall) put together a big first inning as SWR’s starter, Christian Cox, was having trouble finding the strike zone. The Baymen were able to jump out to a 4-0 lead before the Wildcats even took the plate.

Not exactly according to the game-script.

“I just heard a funny quote recently from Mike Tyson,” SWR Head coach Kevin Willi said. “Everyone has a plan, until you get punched in the mouth. The top of the first we got punched in the mouth and what did we do? We came back and fought back. That’s been the identity of this team, we might get slapped around but we’ll always get back up.”

The bottom of the first inning showed what kind of team the Wildcats can be. After loading the bases with one walk and two hit-by-pitches, Wildcat’s senior Ryan Logan came up to the plate with an opportunity to do some damage. Kazmin Pensa-Johnson — a star for the Baymen on the basketball court who averaged nearly 30 points per game — was the starting pitcher and got 2 quick strikes against Logan. That didn’t bode well, given SWR’s struggles this season with runners in scoring position. They had only batted .120 in those situations so far.

“I just was focused on putting the ball in play,” Logan said. “I knew I couldn’t strike out in that situation. I choked up with two strikes and put a good cut on it.”

The ball glided over the shortstop and into the gap. The hit scored all three runners as Logan pulled up to second base. And the hits just kept coming. Joe Leo followed up with an RBI single to tie the game and Joseph Martirano got the team the lead afterward with a triple. Shoreham-Wading River (1-3, 4-5) sent 14 batters to the plate in the first inning, extending their lead to 9-4 on 2-run a single from senior Jeremy Franco.

“We just wanted to play as best as we can today,” Franco said. “We couldn’t let what happened last week get to us.”

Franco and Logan combined for a total of 7 RBIs in the lopsided win. Leo went 3-for-3 with three singles. Kyle Stella, a sophomore shortstop hitting in the three-hole, had a big 2-RBI single in the bottom of the third to keep the momentum on the Wildcats’ side.

“Last week we had really close games,” Coach Willi said. “A couple borderline calls against us, a couple bloop singles that scored 2 runs, I just felt like we couldn’t get any breaks. I was looking forward to getting these guys back on track, building confidence a little bit and I think we did a good job of that today.”

Willi has been preaching hard-nosed baseball all season and this win will be a big boost for some momentum to try to go for a potential playoff spot.

“I think seeing success here is good,” Willi said. “I think we need that reinforcement. I don’t want our team to get discouraged losing four in a row and throw their hands up. Just need to stick to the ultimate goal and start stringing some wins together.”