Big sixth inning sinks Bucks against North Fork Ospreys
One inning was all the North Fork Ospreys needed Wednesday night at home to beat the Shelter Island Bucks.
The 6-11 Ospreys, in last place in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth on their way to a 10-3 victory.
Heading into the bottom of the sixth, the score was tied at three. But then the floodgates opened. Of the seven Osprey runs scored, five were unearned.
The gift runs included two scoring on a dropped third strike on centerfielder Nick Heath. In a bizarre chain of events, the dropped ball got away from Bucks catcher Mac James of the University of Oklahoma and his throw to first to get the runner went flying into right field. Bucks’ right fielder Kevin Brantley of Hofstra University then had trouble picking up the ball allowing the Heath to make it around the bases and score. In an at bat where he struck out, Heath ended up scoring.
Mike Wallace of Fairfield University started the game for the Bucks and allowed just one runner to reach base over the first three innings before giving up four hits and three runs in the bottom of the fourth.
By the end of the game it may have been hard to remember, but the Bucks did strike first in this one. The Island boys took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth after centerfielder Cody Howard of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas hit a single and stole second putting him in scoring position for designated hitter Joe Burns of St. John’s University, who singled to score Howard.
The Bucks’ runs in the fifth and sixth innings also came via small ball, a strategy that has mostly worked for the 8-7 bucks, who now are one game out of first in the HCBL.
In the fifth, James reached base after an error and then took advantage of another Ospreys error to reach second. Shortstop Justin Jones of UNLV then brought James home on a single. In the sixth, Burns hit a single and stole second and put himself in scoring position that allowed him to score on a double by first baseman Jimmy Jack of Loyola Marymount University.
Burns was 2 for 4 in the game with a run scored and an RBI, but afterwards, he still wished he he’d done more. “I didn’t hit the ball as well as I wanted to but I guess I still got hits and I got an RBI,” he said.
Burns, who leads the league with a .375 batting average, has recently had to adjust from catching almost every game to DH’ing more since James has joined the team. He’s enjoying the new role.
“I think it just allows me to focus on hitting more the past few games,” Burns said. “I’ve been able to reflect on my at bats and throw them away if I have a bad one and come back the next time and have a good at bat.”
Burns and the Bucks are back in action again on Friday at Fiske Field. They will first finish a game suspended due to bad weather a couple of weeks ago before playing a full game against the Southampton Breakers.
The suspended game will commence at 3:30 p.m. with the full game expected to start at 5 p.m.
