Center Moriches RHP Joey Hiller struck out 12 in a complete game victory over Mattituck @GetGameChanger pic.twitter.com/BmDBWW4yOz
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 15, 2025
Anytime a player on Center Moriches can have their name in the same sentence with a Gibson, it’s a pretty big deal.
In Tuesday’s 12-2 victory over League VII rival Mattituck, senior RHP Joey Hiller notched career strikeout 200, passing his head coach Paul Gibson III, who had 194. Recently, he also passed Cameron Ball (180). Interestingly, Hiller will be attending Quinnipiac University in the fall, which is also where Gibson III and Ball attended. He now only trails legendary Paul Gibson (375) and Glenn Gibson (270). Needless to say, Gibson’s record is safe – the award for the top pitcher in the County bears his name for a reason.
Mid 5: Center Moriches 12, Mattituck 2
Hiller with 10 Ks – he’s now at 201 for his varsity career pic.twitter.com/7o8d2jVNNf
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 15, 2025
The Red Devils have had some epic battles with the Tuckers over the years. This game, however, was decided rather early as the offense wasted no time getting going.
Tuckers sent senior RHP Ben Voegel to the mound against the potent Red Devils lineup that entered the game with a 6-1 record and 5 straight wins. Luke Rebore-Costanzo started the game off with a single to left, advanced to second on an E1 and stole third. He scored on an E6 off the bat of JT Bonventre. Max Rayburn jumped on one and ripped it into the right center field gap for an RBI triple to score Bonventre. Brayden Hromada hit a grounder that deflected off Voegel’s glove to the shortstop for an RBI ground out to make it 3-0. the next two batters were retired to end the inning.
Hiller was extremely sharp out of the gate, striking out 5 of the first 6 batters he faced, allowing his offense to get right back to work. They completely broke the game open in the second inning as the Red Devils sent 13 batters to the plate, scoring 10 runs on 7 hits including a two-run single by Hromada, a triple by David Spina and even Hiller helping himself with an RBI single to make it 8-0.
Bottom 2: Luke Rebore drives in David Spina for his second hit of the game and Center Moriches leads 5-0 pic.twitter.com/f81IRQhijP
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 15, 2025
By that point, the game was completely in hand. The only question was whether this would be not just a milestone of an afternoon for Hiller but maybe a perfect one. He retired the side in order in the third inning, which made a no-hitter feel within the realm of possibility. Unfortunately for him, that quest was ended with one out in the fourth inning when his counterpart hit a single through the right side.
The Tuckers put two runs on the boars (one unearned), with a fielder’s choice and a dropped pop up in right field.
The Red Devils actually went down quietly in the fourth through sixth innings, but it didn’t matter as Hiller wound up going the distance, striking out 12, walking just one and yielding three hits.
Rebore, Rayburn, Hiller and Richie Roberts all had multi-hit games for the Red Devils. Rebore especially filled up the stat sheet with two runs scored, one RBI, one walk and three stolen bases. Hromada drove in three runs, Hiller added two RBIs, as did Roberts.
The Red Devils improved to 7-1 on the season. Right now, there’s a great race in League VII which also features undefeated Bayport-Blue Points (8-0) and Babylon (7-1). Those two teams are squaring off in a series this week. Center Moriches’ lone loss came against BBP back on April 2 by the score of 1-0.
These teams will be back in action today at Matittuck at 4pm.
