Shelter Island Bucks play Westhampton for HCBL Championship

After the Shelter Island Bucks survived a grueling three-game semifinal series against Montauk, the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League regular season champs return to action this afternoon against the Westhampton Aviators.

The Bucks took the regular season series 4-3, but are coming off two straight losses to Westhampton in the final week of the regular season.

While Montauk lived and eventually died because of their reliance on power hitting, the Aviators compiled a 26-15-1 record in the HCBL with  a great balance of stingy defense and above average hitting and pitching.

Buck’s Head Coach Jamie Quinn went up against Westhampton Coach Dan Luisi in the HCBL All-Star game when they were selected to manage the North and South squads, with Coach Quinn’s club coming out on top 2-1.

Ten Aviator players were named to the team, led by shortstop Colin Brockhouse and leftfielder AJ Montoya.

Westhampton grinded out a three-game series against the North Fork Ospreys to reach the championship, dropping the first game on Monday afternoon before rallying to take the final two contests. A 6-3 win on Wednesday afternoon at Aviator Field, highlighted by a 2-run triple by Westhampton’s Matthew Spruill in the seventh inning, prevented North Fork from reaching their fifth final in seven years.

Though the Aviators lead the HCBL in relatively few statistical categories, they are consistently strong in virtually all key measures of the game. Westhampton hits .276 as a team, just one point behind league-best Montauk and just marginally above Shelter Island. Montoya leads the team with a 343 average, while fellow All-Stars Logan McRae and Brockhouse will challenge Shelter Island’s pitching as well.

With such a quick turnaround between the semifinals and finals — just one day off — both teams will be without a number of available arms.

Westhampton’s twin aces, Logan Frati and Michael Toner, started the team’s two wins on Tuesday and Wednesday and will likely not throw today. Shelter Island’s Zack Bahm, who leads the team with a 1.48 ERA, threw only 23 pitches in his team’s first game on Monday and could potentially pitch again this afternoon.

The Aviators commit fewer errors than any team in the HCBL and will likely need to keep that trend going against Shelter Island’s offense, which continues to fire on all cylinders through 45 games.

First pitch is 4 p.m. on Friday at Fiske Field.