by Trevor Dugan
Northport beats West Babylon 3-2 for a come from behind playoff win!
FINAL: Northport 3 – West Babylon 2
Andrew Keavney: 1-3, RBI, R
Linus Frederick: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 10 BB, 9 K, W
Luke Lessig: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 K, S pic.twitter.com/uqKNG21oSO— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 19, 2026
Northport High School rallied from behind in the sixth inning on Tuesday to defeat West Babylon, 3-2, in the Suffolk County Class AA Playoffs. Despite surrendering 10 walks and making four errors, Northport found a way to keep their season alive on the road.
This messy game saw a pair of college-bound arms take the mound for either side. Hofstra-commit Linus Frederick started for Northport, while West Babylon sent out Maritime-commit Matthew Critchley.
Both future collegiate pitchers kept things quiet over the first four innings, keeping the offenses entirely in check. In fact, neither side saw a baserunner reach third base until the bottom of the third inning, which still amounted to nothing.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the fifth inning that the scoreless tie would finally be broken. With nothing but walks and struggles to show for their efforts against Frederick, the Lions mustered their lone run of the game when Staten Island-commit Steve Gervasi walked, then scored from third base on a passed ball two batters later to give West Babylon a 1-0 lead. Frederick struck out the last batter of the inning to limit the damage to one.
Despite allowing 10 walks Tuesday, Frederick pitched well enough to limit West Babylon to just one run, and kept his team in a position to win.
“Linus is our ace, he’s a warrior out there,” Northport head coach Sean Lynch said after the win. “He has all of our trust, I just have to watch his pitch count or he’ll throw until the next day. But I don’t know where we’d be without him.”
Northport picked up their pitcher right away in the top of the sixth, ending Critchley’s shutout and setting Frederick up for a win. Senior center fielder Wesley Bilger led the inning off with a base hit, and reached third base on a one out bloop single by senior catcher Shawn Aliperti. One batter later, Bilger came around to score on an RBI ground rule double by sophomore designated hitter Andrew Keaveny to score Northport’s first run of the game.
WIth the score tied at 1-1, sophomore first baseman Chris Ciuffo came to the plate looking to give Northport the lead with two runners on. He delivered in an unorthodox fashion, ripping a sinking liner to center field that was completely missed by the West Babylon outfield, allowing both runners to score and putting Northport on top 3-1.
Northport rallies to take the lead in the sixth!
Their rally began with this RBI ground rule double by sophomore Andrew Keavney
Two more runs came across on a E8 to put them on top
Northport 3 – West Babylon 1
Mid sixth pic.twitter.com/vHp3CpHAGf— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 19, 2026
Sophomore right hander Luke Lessig pitched the last two innings to earn the save for Northport, racking up three strikeouts in the process. West Babylon came within one in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by sophomore third baseman Xavier Estevez, but it was too little, too late, as Lessig ended the game with a strikeout to extend Northport’s season, and end West Babylon’s.
Northport will be back in action Wednesday, May 20, on the road against top seeded Eastport-South Manor High School.