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LI Barrels and Tomcats Split Saturday Hot Stove DH

by Jacob Infald

The Tomcats and the Long Island Barrels split an early season doubleheader in the Hot Stove Varsity Summer Division. The Barrels won game one behind a first inning offensive onslaught, and the Tomcats took the second game on the back of their starting pitcher Jack Doucet. 

Game 1:

This game was all Barrels right away. The Tomcats entered the bottom of the first with a 1-0 courtesy of an RBI single over first base by Matthew Heyman, but that momentum would be short lived. After the first two batters of the inning reached base, the Barrels would score their first run as Dyaln McCauley hit a hard groundball to the right side. Kolton Apolant was stealing second on the pitch, this created an opening in the infield and ball got through to the outfield untouched and it was 1-1.

The Barrels continued to pour it on, with hits coming from Nicholas Santosus and Vincenzo Sicuranza. At this point, the Tomcats began to get sloppy, with walks and errors prolonging the inning. After four consecutive batters reached base with two outs and the score now 7-1, McCauley got up and came through again. He hit a ball right back up the middle, scoring two more runs for a total of two hits and three RBIs in the first inning alone. 

“Bats got going early,” McCauley said when asked about the Barrels’ dominant first inning. “We came out ready to play, we knew what we had to do. Everybody got on base, everybody did their job to be able to put together 11 runs.”

The final two RBIs came off the bat of Danny Unger who hit a line drive down the left field line two batters later. 

With a big cushion, the Barrels’ pitchers were able to do their job the remainder of the game. While they did surrender five more runs, they never allowed the Tomcats to get the big hit that would alter the momentum of the game. 

Ben Samuelson was their winning pitcher, firing three innings allowing four runs (only three earned), and striking out three. All of Samuelson’s strikeouts came via his curveball. Samuelson used his curveball as his primary pitch today to force a lot of weak contact. Samuelson said knowing he had a big cushion to work with, his approach was going to be to attack the zone.

“The breaking ball was working for me today,” Samuelson said. “I kind of stayed with that the whole game, just throwing strikes. My defense behind me was great today.”

Despite going down early, the Tomcats stayed in the game thanks to Gavin Wlodarczyk. He fired three and one third innings, striking out four and only allowing one run. 

After Samuelson, the Barrels relied on Robert Higgins and Unger to get the final six outs before the time limit. Higgins retired the side in order in the fourth thanks to some great defense. His right fielder Quincy Bartlett came up firing on what looked to be a leadoff single for a 9-3 putout. Two batters later, left fielder Nicholas Santosus made a nice running catch in the gap for the third out of the inning.

In the final inning, it was Unger who got the final three outs. With the score being 12-4 entering the inning, Unger did surrender a couple of runs, as there was some sloppy defense behind him, but was able to retire the side with three strikeouts and a groundball to first base to end the game and the Barrels won their first game of the summer 12-6.

Game 2:

Jack Doucet, one of Connetquot High School’s top arms this past spring en route to their Class AAA County Championship, put the Tomcats on his back in the second game. Doucet fired a complete game, striking out 14 and led the Tomcats to a 5-3 victory to split the doubleheader. 

While Doucet was dominant overall, the Barrels were able to get to him early and jump out to an early lead. Nicholas Kokkoris led off with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. The following batter, Apolant drove him in with a hard chopper up the middle that got through. 

Doucet struck out the following two batters, but Unger came through with a two out RBI single through the left side of the infield and the Barrels had an early 2-0 lead. 

Doucet led the bottom of the first off with a base hit, and the tone was set. From there, the Tomcats were able to manufacture four runs that inning, with some disciplined plate appearances and productive approaches. Wlodarczyk had a really good at-bat at one point in the inning, fouling off multiple tough pitches with two strikes before hitting a ground ball to the right side of the infield that drove in Sean Sleicher who reached earlier on a bloop single, to give them a 3-2 lead.

The big hit came from James Mancuso who doubled to the right-center gap, scoring Zach Millington to give the Tomcats a 4-2 lead which they would not give up. 

Doucet was dominant the remainder of the contest. At one point, from the third to fifth inning, there was a five out stretch where every out was a strikeout. 

“I feel like everything was working,” Doucet, the St. Joseph’s commit said. “Mainly fastball, curveball, just managed to sneak by them.”

The one person who seemed to have Doucet figured out was Apolant. He had three hits on the day, including a double to deep center field in the top of the fifth to drive in Kokkoris. However, Doucet would finally retire Apolant in the top of the seventh. With his pitch count approaching 100, Doucet reared back and blew a fastball by Apolant for the final out of the game and the Tomcats won 5-3.