Finally — Shelter Island baseball team back in action: Defeats cross-bay rivals handily, 17-4
The Shelter Island School’s baseball team has been anxiously waiting for their second game of the season. Inclement weather, spring break, and long gaps between their games have had the boys playing just one game, now well over a month into the season.
The team is scheduled to play in 14 contests this season — six against the Southold Settlers/Greenport Porters combined team, four against Amityville, and four against the Hampton Bays Baymen.
The team faced the Settlers/Porters combined JV team a few weeks ago, coming away with a 15-2 victory, starting the season off on a positive note. The Islanders continued to showcase their powerhouse offense, taking both ends of a doubleheader — 15-1 and 14-3 — on the road against Amityville on Monday, April 28. And the team came away with another road victory against the Settlers/Porters on Thursday, April 24.
That Thursday contest sported perfect spring baseball weather, sunny, not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the high 60s. Sophomore Evan Weslek, who pitched against Southold earlier in the season, giving up zero runs before being replaced with a 15-0 lead, started on the mound for the Islanders.
A walk put a Porter on first base at the start of the game, and a base hit moved the runner around and home to score their first run. Shelter Island then shut out Greenport’s offense, and in their turn at bat scored four runs. Weslek faced just three batters in the second inning, and the Islanders put another five runs on the scoreboard following multiple base hits and a walk.
In the third, Greenport managed to score two runs following a few walks and a line drive into the outfield, making the score 9-3. Weslek traded positions with his older brother, Harrison, to allow him to close out the game. The Islanders went on an offensive tear in the top of the fourth, scoring 8 additional runs, pushing the score to 17-3.
Greenport added one more run in the fourth, but both teams were unable to score in the fifth, leaving the final score at 17-4 in just five innings of play due to the mercy rule, which allows a game to end early if a team is ahead of its opponent by a large margin after a certain number of innings have been played.
Following the game, the Reporter spoke with Head Coach Peter Miedema. “I would tell you overall, I really enjoyed the fact that everyone got to contribute,” Coach Miedema said. “It just felt like people were starting to settle in, and the season feels official now.”
The boys are eager to get on with the season, now in full swing as the team gears up to play Amityville this week. “We had so many practices without going live — it’s a whole different animal once you start real games,” Coach Miedema added.
