East Hampton Wins on Wild Pitch

Sometimes, in order to survive a single-elimination tournament, a team might need to catch a break or two along the way.

East Hampton got one on Wednesday.

Austin Wosleger scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the seventh inning to lift the Bellringers to a 5-4 victory over Career (New Haven) in a Class S second-round game in East Hampton.

Wosleger had begun the inning with a base hit, then stole second, his third stolen base of the game.

“The game gets bigger and he plays bigger,” East Hampton coach Scott Wosleger said. “He always has.”

Adam Michaud bunted Wosleger to third. With Marvin Gorgas and Al Iannone, East Hampton’s four and five hitters in the order due up, Career coach Brad Chernovitz elected to intentionally walk both to bring up Spencer Daly.

With a two-strike count on Daly, Career pitcher Nick Nieves threw one over the head of catcher Joe Tiroletto and all the way to the backstop as Wosleger ran home without a play being made.

“I’m happy we got it somehow, someway, because we deserved it,” Wosleger said. “Our kids hung in there.”

Career (12-10) sent a message in the first inning. With two out, John Olszyk walked and Tiroletto homered to left, the ball barely clearing the fence.

In the second, East Hampton’s offense got rolling.

Gorgas hit a long double to right-center field to lead off the inning. Iannone singled to make the score, 2-1. Daly followed with a double and with one out Austin Shumbo singled to drive in Iannone.

East Hampton got two more in the third. Wosleger walked and proceeded to steal second and third. The steal of third was close, prompting an argument by Chernovitz, but to no avail.

“I wouldn’t have argued if [the ump] called him out,” coach Wosleger said.  “He’s aggressive and he forces the action. He’s a gambler.”

It turned out to be a big call.

With one out, Gorgas (2-for-3) stepped up to the plate and launched a long home run to right center to give the Bellringers a 4-2 lead.

Meanwhile, Iannone had settled down and held the Panthers in check until the fourth inning, when he ran into a bit of trouble. With two out, Terrance Tucker and Derrick Lopes singled to put runners on first and second. Karol Wielechowski pinch ran for Tucker, but there was some confusion over the number he was wearing and he was told to put on a different jersey. During the fuss, Wosleger figured this was a good time for, what else, the hidden ball trick.

“We work on it every day in practice,” Wosleger said. “We tried it three times before and it hasn’t worked.”

With Wielechowski leading off second, Iannone faked a throw to second with the infield acting as though the ball had gone into center field. Shumbo, playing center, pretended as if he was trying to make a play on the ball. Wielechowski, having dove back to second, picked himself up and, amid shouts of “Three, Three” from the Bellringers, took off for third only to be greeted along the way by Iannone, who was holding the ball.

Iannone, 10-0 on the season, quickly got into trouble again in the fifth, but with two on and no outs, rain began to fall, and with lightning in the area, play was halted for about 30 minutes.

When play resumed, Iannone was finished on the mound and Gorgas came in to pitch.

“We’ve been through this kind of delay before,” Wosleger said. “It was an absolute no brainer. There’s no way we can get Iannone loose again.”

The freshman righthander got the first two batters he faced out, but gave up a single to Olszyk to tie the score at 4.

“They got two runs, but they didn’t get three or four runs,” Wosleger said. “I thought that fifth inning was monstrous that we held them in check without it being a very big inning.”

Gorgas pitched a perfect sixth and seventh for his second win in relief in the last two games.

Iannone and Daly also went 2-for-3 for the Bellringers, who had 10 hits. Career had six hits.

East Hampton will play the winner of Old Lyme-Oxford on Saturday in West Haven. The game in Old Lyme on Wednesday was suspended in the top of the sixth with the score tied at 7.