East Hampton Baseball Set To Make First Playoff Run In 11 Years This Week

The East Hampton baseball team played its first playoff game in 11 years on Tuesday against the same team they played with in their final League VI three-game series last week, Mount Sinai.

The Bonackers (10-8 in League VI, 11-9 overall) were swept by the Mustangs in that series, but as head coach Vinny Alversa pointed out, they didn’t have one of their top starting pitchers, Jack Dickinson, due to a strained oblique he suffered in the series finale with Sayville back on May 4. Speaking before practice on Monday, Alversa was waiting on word on whether Dickinson would be available for the first game of the playoffs on Tuesday, and that would largely have an effect on how the rotation and lineups would be set this week.

The baseball playoffs are back to a double-elimination format this season after being single-elimination last season due to the pandemic-shortened schedule. The winner of Tuesday’s game advanced to play at Shoreham-Wading River on Wednesday, while the loser will play this Thursday, May 12. For up-to-date bracket info, go to sectionxi.org.

Prior to their final home game on May 11, East Hampton honored its two seniors, Colin Ruddy and Avery Siska, a pair of players who Alversa holds in high regard for multiple reasons. The George Washington University-bound Ruddy has proven, for the second year in a row, to be one of the top pitchers in Suffolk County. Alversa said he knew what he was getting when he first saw the right-handed pitcher six years or so ago.

“After one of our seasons ended five or six years ago, I went down to watch our middle school team play and even in seventh grade I could tell Colin was going to be a leader of our program. Sure enough, for five years on varsity, that’s exactly what he’s been,” he explained. “He has a work ethic like I’ve never seen before and I honestly think he hasn’t even touched his full potential. I think we’re going to be talking about him in a few years, he’s not done working. He’s just one of those kids that can’t stop and we’ll be watching what he does. Who knows what else he has coming for him in his future but he has that work ethic and he is a true pitcher.”

Siska will be attending Fordham University where he may look to play club baseball.

“What I love about Avery is you can ask him to play anywhere on the field and he does it very well, never questions anything,” Alversa said. “He loves playing the game and he’s been such a big part of rebuilding our program. And he and Colin have done such a great job of setting the example for the other guys in this program.”