Baseball team plays two spirited games at home
Monday the Shelter Island School junior varsity baseball team took the field at home against Bishop McGann-Mercy and came away with an 8-3 victory on one of the coldest days the team has played.
With Luke Gilpin as the starting pitcher, the Indians were up by 2 runs in the first and remained in the lead for the rest of the game.
The fourth inning featured Eric Thilberg turning a single into a run scored after stealing second, third and home, all while Junior Gil was still up at bat.
Gilpin looked ready to run home again in the bottom of the fifth, but settled for a sliding triple.
Junior Gil was good for a double and then after stealing two, it was another run for the Indians.
Nick Young took to the mound and by the bottom of the sixth inning it was 8–2 Indians. After one last RBI by Mercy in the seventh, the inning quickly ended with a double play by Lucas Quigley Dunning with the tag out at first and a throw to Gilpin at third to end the game.
The news wasn’t as good against Port Jefferson at Fiske Field April 26. Despite a home run deep to right field in the seventh inning by Gilpin, the Indians lost 11–7.
It was a rough first few innings for the Indians with five runs scored by Port Jeff and the Indians still scoreless until the bottom of the fourth. Senior Dan McCafferty, new to the game in his last year here, got a solid hit deep to left for an RBI.
With Port Jeff leading 8 –5, Thilberg was called out at first to the shock of Coach Mike Dunning. Normally a quiet leader on the field, Coach Dunning got vocal with his disagreement of the call and Coach Peter Miedema followed suit.
After some heated debate, a stern warning and a quick caucus between umpires, the call was reversed.
It was a few minutes before the Port Jeff team — who had gone to their dugout after what they thought was the third out — got back on the field to join Thilberg, who had been happy to wait.
Gilpin was the heavy hitter of the day with a home run in the final inning.
This fan is looking forward to wearing sunscreen instead of a coat.
