Long Beach snaps losing skid

Long Beach entered the finale of last week’s series against Conference AA-IV baseball rival Bellmore-JFK mired in a nine-game losing streak and in danger of being swept by the Cougars for a second consecutive season.

But the Marines, especially senior pitcher Chris Ryan, had other plans. Ryan tossed a complete-game three-hitter with only one walk and seven strikeouts to lead Long Beach to a 3-2 home victory on April 18. Of his 100 pitches, 62 were strikes.

“He had way more control than any of his previous starts,” Marines coach Jason Zizza said of Ryan, who earned all three of the team’s wins through 12 games. “He looked confident from the start, and hopefully this is a big step in the right direction for us,” he added.

Long Beach (2-9 in conference games) erased a 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs on three hits against Kennedy’s Mike McCormick. Sophomore Eric Zeppa reached on a hit-by-pitch, and senior Jack Fagan followed with a sharp single. Junior Sam Berk tied it with a double to score Zeppa, and Fagan scored the go-ahead run on sophomore Tim Brosnan’s single up the middle. After an error loaded the bases, Berk scored on senior Steven Suskind’s grounder to second.

The Cougars answered with a run in the sixth, but Ryan retired the side in order in the seventh as the Marines celebrated for the first time since March 30. “It’s a feel-good moment,” Zizza said. “It’s a huge weight off our shoulders to beat a team that’s pretty much owned us the last two years.”

Kennedy swept Long Beach in 2012 and took the first two games of last week’s series, 8-4 on April 15 and 5-0 the following afternoon. The Cougars and Carey are all but locks for two of the conference’s three playoff spots with seven wins in 11 games apiece, leaving the Marines, Elmont and Herricks in the mix for the other berth.

“I keep telling the kids we just have to keep collecting wins,” Zizza said. “Our kids don’t give up. Their fighters and they love playing baseball. They would play all three games of a series in one day if we had lights.”

Long Beach led the series opener 2-0 on run-scoring hits by senior Andrew Judge, its No. 1 starter, and Fagan, but Kennedy scored five times in the top of the fourth and added three more runs in the fifth. Still, McCormick needed to close out the game in the seventh after senior Matt Firpo’s team-leading 15th RBI brought the tying run to the plate.

“This is the hardest-working team I’ve ever had,” Zizza said. “We’re looking forward to the rest of the year. With three games against Elmont and three against Herricks, we can still reach our goal of making it into the playoffs.”