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Derek Yormack Pitches Bellmore JFK to First Ever County Championship

by John Sullivan

Sunday morning was a beautiful day for a great baseball game, and Bellmore JFK and Garden City delivered a memorable one to match that in game 3 of the Nassau County Class AA Championship Series.

In the do-or-die game, Bellmore was playing for the program’s first ever county championship, while Garden City was looking to repeat as the top dogs of Nassau County AA. To try and secure back to back titles, the Trojans sent junior Fionn Ryan to the hill and he had a big challenge ahead of him, as Kennedy gave the ball to the junior Vanderbilt-commit Derek Yormack in the biggest game of their program’s history. 

The first inning started off ideally for Kennedy after Derek Yormack wore a hit by pitch, Matt Tolipano singled into left and Ryan Yormack worked a walk. First baseman Dylan Babek then stepped up and ripped a line drive into center to score D. Yormack and Tolipano for an early 2-0 Kennedy lead. Now on the ropes of danger, Ryan seemed to settle down after getting two pop outs in a row off the bats of Jake Burlock and Alex Demas, but he couldn’t finish the inning after hitting Frankie Stella to load the bases and walking Derek Fong and Zach Adelstein. After getting just two outs, Ryan was pulled with the bases loaded and his team down 4-0. This brought the Garden City sophomore reliever Caiden Lang into a tough spot, with Derek Yormack up with a chance to blow the game wide open, but he didn’t shy away and got Yormack to get under one and fly out to right field to finally end the inning. 

In the bottom of the first, Derek Yormack started off with a strikeout of Skylar Lang, but Matteo Fiore and Chris Desiderio were both able to hit singles into right field that set up a first and third situation with senior Jack Murphy at the plate. With one out, Yormack locked in and struck out Murphy, but the catcher let a fastball get by him and Fiore came into score from third to make it 4-1. Yormack then struck out Jake Brown to maintain the three run Kennedy lead. 

In the second, Caiden Lang walked the first batter he faced, but this didn’t affect him, as he struck out Ryan Yormack looking and got Babek swinging on a high fastball before getting Burlock to fly out for the third out. Joe Carey led off the second for Garden City and he reached second after the Kennedy shortstop threw away a slow roller, but this proved to be no problem for Yormack, who struck out Thomas Bacich and Kyle Walsh looking for his fourth and fifth strikeouts of the game. Still with a man in scoring position, Yormack then induced a groundout back to himself from Tyler Packman to end the inning up 4-1. 

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The third inning was a good one for Lang, who retired Kennedy’s Alex Demas, Frankie Stella and Derek Fong in order for a quick shutout inning. Garden City then carried the momentum of Lang’s 1-2-3 inning into the bottom half of the inning and Matteo Fiore worked a one-out walk, as well as stole second and third. Chris Desiderio was up next and he worked a walk of his own, and this brought up Jack Murphy. Yormack once again was able to strike Murphy out, but the catcher dropped another fastball, which allowed Fiore to race home from third and make it 4-2. With two outs, Jake Brown hit a chopper that looked like it was gonna be out number three, but the shortstop threw the ball away, and Desiderio scored from second, making it just a 4-3 Bellmore lead. Yormack got the final out of the inning on the next at bat, via a Joe Carey groundout.

In the fourth, Caiden Lang continued to attack hitters and induced a popout from Zach Adelstein, but gave up a single to Derek Yormack. With a chance for insurance runs for Kennedy with the two batter Tolipano at the plate, Lang executed and forced Tolipano to roll over for a 5-4-3 inning ending double play to keep it at 4-3. The bottom half of the fourth got off to an exciting start for Garden City after Thomas Bacich worked a walk and successfully stole second and third, but a strikeout of Kyle Walsh brought up Garden City’s nine hitter, Tyler Packman. With one out and the tying run 90 feet away, Garden City attempted to run a squeeze bunt, but Packman fouled the bunt away. With one strike on him now, coach Izzo allowed Packman to swing away and this proved to be costly, as Derek Yormack sat down Packman looking and then fooled Skylar Lang on a nasty curveball for his ninth strikeout. Kennedy still held on to their 4-3 lead. 

Looking for some insurance runs in the fifth, Kennedy continued to be denied by Lang. In his fourth complete inning of work, Lang struck out Ryan Yormack, got Babek to flyout and got Burlock to groundout for another quick inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Derek Yormack responded with a quick 1-2-3 inning of his own after Matteo Fiore lined out, Chris Desiderio grounded out and Jack Murphy flew out. The fast inning helped Yormack’s pitch count, as he sat at 94 pitches with just six more outs to get. 

The sixth began with Lang’s fifth straight out after an Alex Demas popout, but Frankie Stella put an end to that streak after tattooing a ball into left field that hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double. Working with a runner in scoring position for the first time since he came in, Lang beared down and got a groundout back to himself and a big strikeout against Zach Adelstein to keep Garden City down just 1.

With only six outs remaining, Garden City knew they had to strike soon, but Yormack was just too hot on the mound. He made easy work of Garden City in the sixth, striking out the side. Yormack carried 109 pitches, 12 strikeouts and 9 consecutive outs into the seventh, needing just three more outs for glory. 

After two quick outs to start the seventh, Ryan Yormack and Dylan Babek reached base for Kennedy, but they once again failed to add insurance after Lang got Burlock to flyout. Lang had a phenomenal outing out of the pen for Garden City, finishing his day with 6 ⅓ innings and 0 runs given up on 3 hits, just 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. But unfortunately for Garden City, this wasn’t enough to beat Derek Yormack. He continued to roll in the seventh inning and got a quick first out via a Kyle Walsh groundout. Tyler Packman then came up and struck out looking for a second time, leaving Skylar Lang up with just one out remaining. Doing what he’s done all day, Yormack was able to dig deep and pick up one more strikeout for Kennedy for the final out and Kennedy became Nassau County Class AA Champions for the first time in program history!

Kennedy will now take on Hauppauge next Saturday at 3:30 for the Class AA Long Island Championship.