Baseball: Indians gain momentum with another victory
It sounds simple, but it’s the first step to winning ball games, according to Indians Coach Peter Miedema: “You hustle to your spot, you know your situation and your head is in the game.” That’s just what the Indians did to score another strong victory against Port Jefferson on March 30. It was the second time in a row the Indians beat the Royals by 10 runs.
The Royals got on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning with one run, but the Indians answered back in the bottom of the inning when senior captain Andrew BeltCappellino and sophomore Hunter Starzee each sent a runner home.
They extended their lead in the next inning with help from Riley Willumsen’s sacrifice fly that advanced two runners. Spencer Gibbs, who had several strong hits, crossed the plate along with Matt Dunning, Myles Clark, Matt BeltCappellino and A. BeltCappellino.
The Indians got some help from fielding errors by the Royals like repeated wild throws and dropped balls, helping turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples.
Junior pitcher Jay Card pitched the first three innings, throwing a couple of strikeouts. “So far, pitching has been pretty solid,” Coach Miedema explained. “We haven’t been walking teams.”
Willumsen, Gibbs and M. BeltCappellino batted runners in during the third inning. By the time M. BeltCappellino took the mound in the fourth, the score was 10-4, Indians, and it seemed clear Shelter Island would take the victory.
M. BeltCappellino stayed on the mound for the rest of the game. “He pitched pretty well, he did a good job at the plate,” Coach Miedema commented.
The Indians’ true success on March 31 lay not in big hits or flashy throws but executing basic plays in the field correctly. There were very few dropped balls or wild throws for the Indians. “It’s very simple things of just running to your spot and being down and ready that makes the game so much easier. The kids are making the plays that you have to make to be successful. Not to be great, but just to play baseball.”
The Indians had another strong at-bat in the sixth inning, scoring another 5 runs: Dunning, Clark, Willumsen, Gibbs and M. BeltCappellino all crossed the plate.
By the end of the game, the Indians in the field were a well-oiled machine, retiring the Royals three up and three down in both the fifth and sixth innings.
The temperature plummeted in the final innings, eliciting some grateful murmurs from the spectators when the Indians didn’t have to go to bat for their last licks.
Coach Miedema is pleased with the conservative game the Islanders have played so far: “We’ll give up a run if we can get an out or two, limit the [number] of big innings and everything else usually takes care of itself at that point.”
The team’s April 1 game against Port Jefferson was rained out. The Indians beat Ross on Tuesday, 9–4. The score of yesterday’s game at Ross was not available when the Reporter went to press.
The Indians play Ross at Fiske Field at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow.
