WEST NYACK, NY — One week after Massapequa International softball came within a game of the little league softball world series, a Nassau County baseball team is looking to do the same: Port Washington little league baseball.
For Port, the road to Friday night's finals included a 2-1 effort in pool play, with an 11-0 win over New Hartford Saturday, July 25 and an 8-3 win over Maine-Endwell on Sunday, July 26 followed by a Wednesday night loss to Florida, 7-5.
Port rolled to a 6-1 semifinal victory over Twin Town, with Jack Gomez opening the scoring on an RBI single before Max Dempsey hit a three-run home run to open the lead further. On the mound, Drew Theoharis was able to close the door on Twin Town and punch Port Washington's ticket to the finals.
Friday night, those finals will pit Port Washington against Mid Island, a Staten Island squad that opened its tournament with a 7-2 win over Penfield before handing St. James-Smithtown — the other Long Island representative in the state tournament — its second loss of the competition.
Mid Island finished its pool play with a 5-2 loss to Twin Town before beating Florida 11-1 in the semifinals.
Ahead of that final matchup, it looks like there's relatively little to separate the two teams: Each went 2-1 in pool play, both giving up nine runs across the three games, then beat the team that the other finalist lost to in the semis. Perhaps the lone separating factor is on offense, where Port Washington outscored Mid Island 24-14 over three games. Factoring in the semifinals, that scoring tally stands at 30-25 in Port's favor.
A stream of the finals Friday night will be available on PDF Sports' YouTube page, starting at 8 p.m.
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