Three-Peat for Wantagh baseball

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Now they’re a dynasty.

The Wantagh Warriors put an exclamation point on a third straight Nassau Class A baseball championship with nine runs in the top of the seventh Monday afternoon to complete a sweep of the best-of-three county finals with a 14-3 victory over Division at SUNY-Old Westbury.

Anthony Vano, Patrick Willix and Ryan Murphy each went 3-for-4 and combined to score six runs and drive in six to back the pitching of Matthew Reich, who allowed three hits and struck out eight over 4 2/3 innings. Junior Mason McLane, the only non-senior in Wantagh’s starting lineup for Game 2, recorded the last seven outs to earn the save.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Anthony Fontana, who was the winning pitcher in the series opener and takes an 18-1 record over his last 19 decisions into this Saturday’s Long Island Class A title game against Shoreham-Wading River or Rocky Point at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue at 4 p.m. “If anyone would’ve told me three years ago we’d win all these championships, I would’ve said thought were crazy,” he added.

The Warriors (23-2) have won 75 of 85 games along with a pair of L.I. crowns and one state title (2016) in three seasons. “There’s so much talent throughout Nassau Class A baseball and it’s so difficult to win,” Wantagh coach Keith Sachs said. “I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. Each group has been special and there’s been incredible synergy from team to team. This year, our seniors really showed the way. The experience factor was huge.”  

The Warriors, who staked Fontana to a four-run lead in the first inning of last Saturday’s 5-2 victory, highlighted by McLane’s two-run single, didn’t get the bats going until the top of the third Monday against Division starter Robert Bradley. A one-out hit by Murphy sparked a three-run rally, capped by a two-run single off the bat of Willix.

Vano (three RBIs, three runs) singled to open the fifth and eventually scored on a wild pitch for a 4-0 lead. Reich cruised through four innings and whiffed his counterpart to start the bottom of the fifth before the Dragons did some damage. A couple of singles, a hit-by-pitch, and a hard-luck strikeout/wild pitch brought McLane to the bump with two outs as Division got within 4-3.

“Reich’s been solid all year and got better every time he went out there,” Sachs said. “We never have the guys who bring the radar guns out, but they sure know how to pitch. And I can’t say enough about McLane. We gave him the ball in a lot of pressure spots and he always came through.”

McLane got an insurance run to work with when Vano was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth and Jake Castellano touched home for a 5-3 lead. McLane struck out the side in the bottom of the inning, and the floodgates opened in the seventh, removing all the drama but the final out, a soft fly caught by Willix in right.

“It’s just amazing,” Willix said. “Hopefully we can get the state title back and go out with a bang.”