Oceanside slips past Mepham

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Already with 15 strikeouts and a 350-foot homer, Oceanside pitcher Kyle Martin still had work to do against resilient Mepham in the bottom of the seventh of the third and decisive game of their Nassau Class AA baseball quarterfinal playoff series on May 21.

The Pirates entered their final at-bat down by three, but pushed across a run and had the bases loaded with two outs and Sean Napier at the plate. The count went full, and with runners in motion Napier hit a grounder to the right of Martin, who made an off-balance, barehanded grab and from his knees fired to first to seal the Sailors’ 4-2 victory.

“Kyle did everything he could to win the game,” Oceanside coach Mike Postilio said. “It was an unbelievable effort by him and all the guys.”

The fifth-seeded Sailors (16-7), who reached the county finals last spring, advanced to meet No. 6 Syosset in a best-of-three semifinal series. Second-seeded MacArthur and No. 10 Valley Stream Central square off in the other semifinal.

“Last year’s playoff run was a great experience, but we have higher expectations,” said Martin, a junior who opened the playoffs with a one-hit, 17-strikeout shutout win over Herricks. “Mepham’s a good-hitting team,” he added. “It was a tough series but we found a way.”

The fourth-seeded Pirates (12-9), who rallied with Seamus Kirby’s two-run single in the bottom of the seventh to tie the series opener it eventually won, 4-3, in 11 innings, kept plugging away despite Martin’s dominance and two defensive gems by freshman Dylan Judd at second base. “This group of guys showed so much heart and I couldn’t be more proud,” Mepham coach Bill Murphy said. “We came into the playoffs after winning the conference title and kept battling. We had a shot at the end, but he [Martin] made one more big play and you’ve just got to tip your cap to him.”

Martin allowed only five baserunners and an unearned run through six innings but saw the tying run come to the plate with no outs in the seventh after John Breden reached on an error and Zach Egland singled. With one out, Tom Rullo roped a long double that scored Breden and sent Egland to third. Martin hit Tom Muraca to load the bases but responded with strikeout No. 15 and a potentially game-saving defensive play.

“I think if I stuck my glove out, the ball would’ve skipped off it and we’d be looking at a tie game,” Martin said of the final out.

Martin and Mike Siklas had RBI singles in the first to stake Oceanside to a 2-0 lead. Breden cut the margin in half with a run-scoring single in the fourth. The Sailors got an unearned run in the fifth, and Martin made it 4-1 with a blast over the fence in left in the sixth.

Justin Krokoff and Brandy Diaz cleared the fence in Game 2 as Oceanside recovered from the series-opening defeat with a 10-3 victory. Krokoff went 4-for-4 with four runs scored and Morgan McCarthy drove in four runs to back Paul Corr’s strong performance on the mound.