Another deep run for Oceanside

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Despite being hit hard by graduation, Oceanside’s baseball program revamped and put together a third straight highly successful season and deep run in the Nassau Class AA playoffs.

The Sailors, who captured the Conference AA-I title and earned a first-round bye in the postseason tournament, were stopped in the semifinals last week by Massapequa’s lights-out pitching. The third-seeded Chiefs, who were swept by Oceanside during the regular season, won the May 23 series opener 2-0 and prevailed the next day in Game 2 in 11 innings, 2-1, in walk-off fashion.

“I’m very proud of how much we accomplished with a young team,” Oceanside head coach Mike Postilio said. 

Chris Wasson’s single with two outs in the bottom of the 11th completed the series sweep for Massapequa, which advanced to face No. 1 Plainview in the county finals. Christian DeNave pitched three scoreless innings of relief of Nick Collins to earn the win. Collins and Oceanside’s Matt Carey, a junior All-Conference selection, both allowed a run in the first inning and nothing in seven innings thereafter.

“Our pitching and defense were tremendous,” Postilio said. “Massapequa’s pitchers did a great job also. We had seven hits in the series.”

The outcome ended the second-seeded Sailors’ season at 17-5-1. It was their third straight year of at least 17 wins. They won 18 games in 2015 and ’16 and had only three seniors on the roster this spring — Jared Campo, Tyler Judd and Anthony Adames.

Junior Brendan McFall and Massapequa’s Dan Gdanski engaged in a pitcher’s duel in the series opener. Gdanski kept the Sailors off-balance by changing speeds and scattered six hits and walked one while striking out seven in a complete-game shutout. McFall, who had seven wins this spring, allowed just a two-run single to Michael Cottone in the top of the fifth.

“Brendan had a heck of a year,” Postilio said of McFall, who earned All-County honors and posted a 0.93 ERA with 50 strikeouts in 60 innings. “We knew we had something special with him going back to last season,” he added.

McFall earned Oceanside’s first playoff victory when he tossed a gem against No. 7 Herricks on May 16, taking a 6-1 decision. He went the distance and gave up just three hits and struck out four. Sophomore Jake Lazzaro (home run, three runs scored) and junior Dylan Judd (2 RBIs) provided the bulk of the offensive support.

Herricks forced the quarterfinal series to go the distance with a 2-1 walk-off home win in Game 2, but the Sailors rolled to an 8-1 triumph in the finale with the season on the line for both teams. Junior All-Conference pitcher T.J. Thorne (four strikeouts) got the victory and benefitted from a total team effort at the plate in the process. Judd, an All-County catcher who batted .357, scored twice and swiped two bags, and Lazzaro and classmates Austin Vlahakis and Leo Alvarez drove in a run apiece. Vlahakis and sophomore Chris Siklas were All-Conference choices as well.