Oceanside rallies past Farmingdale

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In the rubber game of Oceanside’s Conference AA-I opening baseball series against Farmingdale, the Sailors broke out the lumber late and overcame a five-run deficit to take the series finale, 9-8, in extra innings on April 10.

After tying the game in the bottom of the seventh on sophomore Nick Vlahakis’ two-run double with two outs, the Sailors fell behind 8-7 in the top of the eighth but rallied to win in thrilling walk-off fashion when senior Chris Hood smacked a two-run triple with none out in the bottom of the inning. Junior Brian DiDominica scored the tying run, and sophomore Kyle Martin touched the plate for the winning run.

“It was crazy,” coach Mike Postilio said. “It ranks right up there as far as exciting wins go. They jumped on us early, but we kept plugging away and came up with some huge hits.”

Junior Morgan McCarthy had the first key base-knock for the Sailors in the come-from-behind win, slamming a bases-loaded double in the fifth to score three runs to cut Farmingdale’s lead to 5-4. Down 7-4 in the seventh, senior Tom Pallatto had a run-scoring groundout to set the table for Vlahakis’ game-tying hit.

Senior Pat Broder worked the last two innings in relief of Pallatto to pick up the win. Hood, whose winning hit came on a 3-2 count, missed last week’s series against Freeport and is out indefinitely with a bone bruise in his right foot. “The foot has been bothering Chris for a while,” Postilio said. “Hopefully we’ll get him back soon. He’s our 1B starting pitcher and our starting center fielder, so it’s a big loss.”

Broder and senior Billy Siklas will assume Hood’s workload on the mound until the latter is ready to return. Oceanside’s 1A starter, senior lefty Jake Santamaria, has split his past two decisions. He took a no-hitter into the seventh of a 5-0 win over Farmingdale on April 7 and allowed just a single to open the last inning. He struck out 10 and walked seven. A week later, he was beaten by Freeport, 6-4, with a five-run second inning being the main culprit.

“As a whole, our pitchers need to get more first-pitch strikes,” Postilio said. “We’re not getting ahead of hitters enough and giving up too many walks as a result.”

The Sailors (4-3 overall, 2-2 in conference play) nearly rallied from five runs down in the second game of the Farmingdale series on April 9. The Dalers, who got a homer, double and single off the bat of Anthony Pantano, held on for a 5-4 victory. Oceanside scored once in the sixth and three times in the seventh. “We just ran out of innings,” Postilio said. Hood had a two-run single in the seventh, and junior Mike Siklas added an RBI. Billy Siklas tossed two innings of scoreless relief.

In the series opener, Santamaria’s support came from many sources. Senior Brian Boschert squeezed in a run and Vlahakis, Hood, Broder and Martin added RBIs.