Hampton Bays Baseball Relishes In Its Spoiler Role, Sweeps Bridgehampton/Ross

The Hampton Bays baseball team embraced its role of spoiler last week.

Bridgehampton/Ross came into its three-game series with the Baymen needing to win at least one of the games to stay in playoff contention, with a series against Port Jefferson and Pierson upcoming. The Baymen, who are not eligible for postseason play since they play down in League VIII instead of League VII, a two-year developmental move by the program that was approved by Section XI, completed a three-game sweep of the Killer Bees after a 14-4 home victory on Friday. They had won the first game of the series, 11-5, at home on April 26 then won game two, 6-3, in Bridgehampton the following day.

Hampton Bays head coach Robert Pinney said he and his players were well aware of the situation going into last week’s series and they seemed to relish the role of spoilers.

“That was a little bit intentional,” he said of the sweep. “If you can’t make it you don’t want someone else getting there, and we used that as fuel for the fire. We told them that game one, that if they take at least one from us they’ve got a shot at the playoffs, and we’re not going to make that happen.”

Hampton Bays sophomore Patrick Donahue, who started on the mound on Friday, actually got the offense going in the bottom of the first, when his drive to deep left took one hop over the fence for a ground-rule double that drove in senior Aidan Kamp with the game’s first run. Bridgehampton took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third when a double to deep right field by Hugo Kapon drove in Yudai Morikawa with the tying run, then an error later in the inning allowed Kapon to score the go-ahead run.

But a bases-loaded walk by Donahue forced in the go-ahead run for the Baymen in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 3-2 ball game, then, due to a number of walks and errors, they scored eight runs total in the bottom of the fifth to break the game open.

Donahue finished the game 2 for 2 at the plate with three walks, three runs scored and an RBI. And he only gave up one earned run on four hits with 10 strikeouts in six innings on the mound.

“It was great,” he said of the win. “I was happy to throw strikes. It’s been rough the past couple of weeks throwing strikes, and it really helped today.”

Pinney said Donahue has become a do-it-all type of player for his team, from being a team captain and leading the team both on the field and off it.

“He’s the team captain, team leader. He lets them know when to go, when to cheer, when not to cheer. He’s a gamer,” he explained. “Shortstop when he’s not pitching, leadoff hitter, best pure swinger we have, followed with Séamus in the three hole.”

Pinney was talking about his freshman leftfielder in Séamus Smith, who has really come through in his first varsity season. He didn’t record a hit on Friday but produced nonetheless, scoring a run and driving in another. He was also walked twice, one of them intentional.

“Pat’s hitting over .420 right now, Séamus is creeping up to .400. It’s great to have both of them in the lineup. When I see them up you know it’s going to be something good,” Pinney said.

“It was great to come out here and compete and almost knock them out of the playoffs,” Smith added. “They just need to win three games to get in, so it’s good to get the sweep there and maybe have them a little down the next couple of series.”

Despite this being the first varsity season for Bridgehampton in over 40 years, after a 6-0 start to the spring with sweeps over Shelter Island and Greenport, head coach Lou Liberatore was all-in for his team making the postseason. While that’s still doable, having to take three of six from either Pierson or Port Jeff is going to be a tall task.

“I’ve said this from day one, we focus on getting better day by day. If we do that the results take care of themselves,” Liberatore said. “We know this is uncharacteristic of us this week against Hampton Bays. We’re hoping to come out against Port Jeff, play our game against a quality team like that. The longer we stay in the game the better chance we have at stealing one.”

Aside from making things difficult for their opponents, Pinney said getting the sweep was big for his own team in the fact that, as long as it takes care of its next two series against Shelter Island and Greenport, it will finish with a 10-10 overall record, 10-8 in League VIII, which should go a long way when the team goes back to its original League VII next year.

“We definitely needed this,” he said. “We won these three, we win the next six we’ll finish at .500, 10-10, which is good, especially heading into the new league next year. It’s going to be tougher competition so I want them going in with a chip on their shoulder a little bit, ready to go for next season.”

Hampton Bays began its three-game series with Shelter Island on Tuesday and will wrap it up this Friday, May 6, on Shelter Island at 4:30 p.m. Bridgehampton began its three-game set with Port Jeff on Tuesday and will finish that series on Friday at home at 4 p.m.