Sports Notebook: Hampton Bays Baseball Team Earns Playoff Win

Hampton Bays Sports

By finishing the season with six League VIII wins, the Hampton Bays varsity baseball team was able to qualify for the Section XI playoffs, which began this week.

The Baymen (6-12 in League VIII), seeded third in the Suffolk Class B tournament, played at Babylon on Wednesday and managed to pull off a 12-9 upset to a propel the team into the Class B championship game series winners bracket game against number-one seed Mattituck (14-4 in League VIII).

That series, which is a best-of-three-games series, saw Hampton Bays fall to the Tuckers 7-0 at Mattituck High School on Thursday and the Baymen will play Friday against Babylon to determine who gets another shot at unseating defending champion Mattituck in the county final next Tuesday. 

Babylon (8-10 in League VII), a team which Hampton Bays defeated 4-0 in their first meeting back on April 18, fell behind 9-0 early on Wednesday before mounting a comeback to tie the game 9-9.

Perry Friscia had a great game for the Baymen, going 4-for-5 at the plate and adding  four RBI and two runs scored. Devin Havens also had a super day, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Solid pitching by Jack Kearney in the bottom of the fifth inning allowed Hampton Bays to escape the inning still tied 9-9 and Danny Martel's clutch RBI double in the sixth inning proved to be the game-winning hit.

Although Hampton Bays lost the three-game regular season series to Babylon two-games-to-one, both of the losses were by close scores (5-2 on April 20 and 4-2 on April 27), with solid pitching efforts from Baymen starters Jack Kearney and Justin Carbone not overlooked.

If Hampton Bays manages to reach the championship series against Mattituck, the Baymen will also have confidence, knowing that they defeated the top-seeded Tuckers once during the regular season.

On May 5, Hampton Bays toppled Mattituck 11-2 in a game which saw Martel hit a grand slam home run in the first inning. Havens also had a home run in the game and Perry Friscia had a four-hit day. The win against the Tuckers was the Baymen’s sixth League VIII victory.

On Thursday, the Baymen were unable to solve the spectacular pitching puzzle of Steve Ascher, who allowed only one-hit to lead Mattituck to victory. With a taste of a playoff win already, Hampton Bays may be hungry for more when they play Babylon at 4 p.m. Friday.

Baymen Buzz: The Baymen’s offense has had many contributors this season although the powerful swing of Jimmy Havens has been a big plus. His six home runs lead the team and rank among the leaders in Suffolk County.

The three-man pitching rotation of Frost, Carbone and Kearney have performed far better than their pitching records show and if Hampton Bays is able to reach the championship series final, they have an opportunity to pull off what would be a major upset over the favored Tuckers.

Westhampton Beach Sports

The Westhampton Beach boys track and field team finished the season 6-0 after defeating East Hampton/Bridgehampton 80-61 on May 10 backed by strong performances from Tyler LaMorte and Forest Gilbakian.