JV Baseball: Indians trounce Port Jeff in opener

After a 4-12 record last year, the Indians JV baseball team is aiming for a successful season this time around. So far, so good.

The Indians travelled to Port Jefferson Tuesday afternoon and brought home a resounding 10-0 win.

Shelter Island saw a strong performance from the bullpen. “Our pitching was tremendous,” explained Coach Peter Miedema. “All our pitchers threw strikes.”

Senior captain Andrew BeltCappellino took the mound in the first four innings, striking out five batters. His brother Matt BeltCappellino pitched the fifth and sixth and Hunter Starzee finished up in the seventh inning.

The infield saw its success not from flashy plays but good fundamentals. “Nothing spectacular, but every play that should be considered routine in baseball was routine for us — we made plays,” Coach Miedema said. He noted a strong performance from their second baseman, freshman Thomas Mysliborski.

Good fielding is crucial, but it’s runs that win games. Three of the Indians’ runs came from BeltCappellino, 2 from freshman M. BeltCappellino and the other 2 from sophomore Starzee. As far as their hitting, “We were pretty balanced down the lineup,” Coach Miedema said.

The Indians likely could have earned an even larger margin of victory were it not for a fluky play in the first inning. With Indians runners on first and second base, a line-drive went straight to a Port Jefferson fielder, who dropped it. It allowed him to turn an easy double play on the Indians runners who had mistakenly turned around to tag up.

But in the end it didn’t matter; by the third inning, the Indians led 4-0, and they tacked on another 6 runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The 13-player squad was hoping for a repeat of Tuesday’s performance in their two rematches with Port Jefferson.

The score of yesterday’s game between Port Jefferson and Shelter Island at Fiske Field wasn’t available when the Reporter went to press. Their next game is tomorrow at Port Jefferson at 4 p.m.