by John Sullivan
Postgame interview with PJ O’Connor of next Level pic.twitter.com/UZLOvr8doq
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 2, 2025
Saturday morning at Moriches was a big game for both Next Level and MVP South Shore Belyea, as it was both team’s first game of the Diamond Domination Showcase Tournament. Next Level sent out Tony Cardone on the bump to set the tone for the weekend, while South Shore relied on Ryan Lebowitz to get them a win.
In the top of the first, Cardone got off to a shaky start after walking the leadoff man and allowing him to advance on a wild pitch. MVP’s two batter, Jonathan Versocki, followed the walk up with a very hard hit line drive, but unfortunately for him, it was right at the left fielder. Cardone then got a big swinging strikeout on a nasty curveball for out number two. Jack Sheehan was MVP’s cleanup hitter and he worked a good at bat for a walk with two outs, but Cardone got Michael Telese to pop out into right for the final out of the inning.
The bottom half of the first started with two quick Next Level fly outs and a single through the left side from their 3 batter, Jack Murphy. After Murphy stole second, James Millman worked a walk to set up runners on first and second. With Jack Lapertosa at the plate, Ryan Lebowitz executed a beautiful change up on the outside corner and got Lapertosa out in front for a popout and to keep the game scoreless after 1.
Lebowitz started the top of the second by helping himself with a leadoff single, and Cristopher Zilinski followed it with a grounder to first that turned into a 3-6 fielder’s choice. Tony Cardone then proceeded to blow away MVP’s and eight and nine hitters with fastballs to end the inning.
In the bottom half of the second, Ryan Lebowitz responded phenomenally to Cardone’s scoreless inning, by inducing a groundout, fly out, and then another groundout to make it a very quick and easy inning.
In the third, MVP’s leadoff batter once again reached base; this time it was via Jaevin Jose drawing a walk. With the lead off guy on for the third inning in a row, MVP was optimistic about scoring a run to take the lead, but after Cardone notched back to back swinging strikeouts, their chances were looking slim. But luckily for them, MVP had a very strong part of the lineup up and Jonathan Versocki and Thomas Priolo came through with back to back singles to score Jaevin Jose and jump on the scoreboard first.
Next level responds with two in the bottom half of the inning, with one scoring on this wild pitch. The other run was scored on an RBI groundout from Nate Scalere pic.twitter.com/1yPMJGVmq0
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 2, 2025
Now trailing 1-0, Next Level had an ideal start in the bottom of the third after a walk from Patrick O’Connor and a single delivered by Reilly Royce. Next Level then attempted to sac bunt, but failed attempts forced Jake Dyer to swing away and it led to a huge strikeout for Ryan Lebowitz. After not being able to get the bunt down, Patrick O’Connor and Reilly Royce executed a double steal, and a wild pitch brought O’Connor home to tie it. After a Christian Poveda walk, Nate Scalere hit a ground ball to short, but beat out the double play to give Next Level the lead. Lebowitz stopped the damage there though, as he got the next batter to pop out and MVP headed into the fourth down by a run.
After a groundout to start the top of the fourth, a Ryan Lebowitz walk, a Cristopher Zilinski hit by pitch, and a Marcus Fonseca walk had MVP in business with the bases loaded. This brought Sean Barodin to the plate and he rolled over to third, but the Next Level catcher couldn’t handle the throw and it led to an E2 to tie the game up at 2. Jaevin Jose then hit another one on the ground, this time to the first baseman, but a bobble forced Next Level to get the out at first and surrender a run. Cole Thomas then got Devin Ramirez to pop up for the third out and MVP now lead 3-2.
The bottom half of the fourth was not a great start for MVP, as Lebowitz walked the first two batters of the inning. But, he was able to settle down for two batters and get consecutive popouts. With just one out to go to maintain their lead, Lebowitz walked his third batter of the inning, which led to Patrick O’Connor coming up clutch for Next Level by ripping a two-run single through the left side to give them the lead. After Next Level took the 4-3 lead, the wheels just seemed to fall off for MVP. What should’ve been the third out on a Reilly Royce ground ball, turned into an E5 and another run for Next Level. Jake Dyer then walked to load the bases and Christian Poveda worked a walk with the bases loaded to make it 6-3. Nate Scalere then blooped in a single that brought home Reilly Royce and Dyer to extend Next Level’s lead to 8-3. Poveda also scored a run for Next Level on an overthrow from the catcher when he was attempting to steal third and Scalere scored on a wild pitch. MVP finally got the third out of the inning via a popout, but it was too late, as the game had already exceeded its time limit and Next Level got the 10-3 victory.
This game is a prime example of how any baseball game can flip on its side in just moments. MVP went from being one out away from bringing a lead into the fifth to losing 10-3 in minutes. After the game, we spoke with Patrick O’Connor, who came up with the game winning single for Next Level in their big fourth inning.
