Sailors cooled off by Syosset

Oceanside entered last week’s three-game Conference AA-I baseball series against Syosset with a team batting average in the neighborhood of .420 and a fielding percentage that would rank among Nassau’s best.

But some of the Sailors’ bats and gloves went cold at the same time, resulting in a pair of defeats around a stellar pitching outing by senior Erik Kondak that salvaged the middle game of the series. The outcomes put Oceanside at 4-2 in conference play, 7-3 overall, heading into a crucial three-game set this week against Massapequa.

“Overall we’ve been playing sound baseball,” Sailors coach Andy Morris said. “We didn’t hit or play good defense in two games against Syosset after doing everything well against Farmingdale. Winning the conference title was a goal of ours and we put ourselves in a position where we need to get at least two of three against Massapequa.”

Syosset took the rubber game of last week’s series, 9-4, on April 21, behind the arm of Tommy Morris (two hits allowed, nine strikeouts in five innings) and bats of Dan Ventricelli (3-for-3, two RBI) and James Cohan (two hits, two runs scored.) Senior Herman Hernandez took the loss in relief but pitched well for a second straight outing and Morris said he may get a starting assignment against Massapequa.

“It was a bad game from the start,” Morris said. “Seven of our first nine batters struck out. We got our feet going a little, but an error gave them a big inning and we couldn’t recover.”

 The previous day, Kondak showed his 2010 form on the mound with a masterful performance on the road. He tossed a complete-game shutout and got offensive support from senior Mike Hertling, who went 3-for-3 and knocked in a pair of runs, and senior Rob Colucci, who scored all three times he reached base. “Erik was in complete control from the first inning,” Morris said of Kondak, who allowed just three singles and two walks and fanned nine. “It was a good sign.”

The opening game of the series saw the Braves eke out a 4-3 decision thanks to three unearned runs. Junior Michael Russ was the hard-luck loser for the Sailors, who scored 27 runs in a three-game sweep of Farmingdale to open conference play.

“Offensively, I think we were pressing too much against Syosset,” Morris said. “Nobody has to do anything extraordinary for us to be successful. They just have to do what they’re capable of.”

Senior shortstop Chris Flynn, one of four regulars (Hertling, senior Nick Iadevaio and junior Eric Mandell are the others) batting .400 or better through 10 games, proved a tough out for the Dalers. He had five hits in 11 trips to the plate, a grand slam in the series finale, and seven RBI overall.

Mandell led the team in average (.437), hits (14) and RBI (12) after 10 games, while Russ had three wins in four decisions on the mound and a stingy earned run average of 1.29.