Rocks outlast Wheatley twice

Any doubts that East Rockaway could win tight games on the baseball diamond were erased last week as the Rocks were victorious in back-to-back nail biters against Wheatley.

Freshman shortstop Michael Delgais raced home with the winning run on an infield error to give East Rockaway a 4-3 walk-off win at Bonomo Field on the campus of Adelphi University. Senior David McClure pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win. McClure was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored.

Delgais led off the bottom of the seventh by reaching on an error. The errant throw enabled him to advance to second base. After senior Cameron Ralph sacrificed Delgais to third, and senior Dylan Delury worked out a 10-pitch walk, McClure hit a routine grounder that was thrown wide to first base enabling Delgais to score the winning run.

Damian Amirudden pitched a solid 5 1/3 innings, yielding just two earned runs while fanning eight. The junior right hander struck out four straight batters during one stretch in the middle innings.

Head coach James Hickey is happy with the way his team is playing after dropping two of its first three conference games. “We did a nice job answering the call after some tough games,” Hickey said. “We’re continuing to improve. We showed a lot by coming back after being down in the first Wheatley game. I’m very interested in seeing how we perform when we put it all together. We haven’t played our best ball yet.”

The Rocks trailed 12-3 after three innings in the opener at Wheatley, but fought back. A three-run double by Amirudden highlighted a nine-run fourth inning as East Rockaway tied the score at 12.

The orange and black weren’t done. After senior Thomas Scagnelli shut the Wildcats down in the bottom of the inning, the Rocks put five more runs on the board to take a 17-12 lead. 

East Rockaway, which improved to 4-2 in Conference BC, took an 18-15 lead into the bottom of the final inning, but Wheatley didn’t quit. With the bases loaded and two out, Andrew Hastings hit a double to knock in a pair of runs, but senior Billy Humes cut down the would-be tying run trying to score all the way from first to end the game.

McClure, who leads the team with 11 runs scored, was 2-for-3 with two walks and four runs scored. Scagnelli pitched two innings in relief to earn the victory. Delgais pitched the final 1 1/3 to pick up the save.

After a slow start, East Rockaway’s bats are heating up. Humes, who struck out 12 batters over 4 2/3 innings in a rout of Malverne, is leading the team with a .440 batting average, while Amiruddin is hitting .421 with nine RBI. Senior Eddie Carneglia has knocked in six runs and is batting .381. Delury is hitting at a .360 clip, and has seven RBI and seven runs scored.

East Rockaway takes on Carle Place on Monday at 4:30 pm at Adelphi.