Tripptree helps SWR baseball avoid sweep

BY ADAM RONIS | adam.ronis@newsday.com

9:36 PM EDT, May 8, 2008

Suffolk HS League VI Baseball, Harborfields HS VS Shoreham-Wading River HS

Shoreham-Wading River's Kevin Tripptree pitches against Harborfields. (Newsday/Bob MItchell / May 9, 2008)

Shoreham-Wading River's Kevin Tripptree faced an unenviable task against Harborfields Thursday. The senior pitcher was trying to salvage the third game of the series after his team lost the first two games against a potent Harborfields offense that averaged 9.1 runs in its last eight games.

Tripptree wasn't flustered. He went six innings, allowing six hits, four earned runs, struck out six and walked three to help visiting Shoreham-Wading River win, 10-5, in a Suffolk League VI game.

"It's like any other game," Tripptree said. "We needed the win and I just needed to come up big for my team. You can't treat it any differently."

Tripptree started the seventh but tired and allowed an infield single and two walks before being removed. Two of the runners scored.

"He kept them off balance with his breaking pitch down in the zone," Shoreham-Wading River coach Sal Mignano said. "He did an excellent job. He got ahead of the count and the curve was the key against a good hitting team."

SWR (12-7, 10-5) showed it can hit, too. Bryan Kelly went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, two runs and a walk. Chris Catan went 2-for-2 with an RBI triple and five runs, and Jon Raimondo went 3-for-3 with a triple and three RBIs.

Raimondo, a senior second baseman, hit .267 as a part-time player last season and is now the No. 3 hitter.

"The improvement he has made from last year to this year is because of hard work," Mignano said. " ... He's close to .400 this season."

Kelly and Joe Yovino hit sacrifice flies in the fourth to give Shoreham-Wading River the lead for good at 5-3.

Harborfields (14-5, 12-3) is tied for first place with Rocky Point (12-3) with three games left. Harborfields, which went 2-1 against Rocky Point, plays Westhampton and Rocky Point plays SWR to end the season.

"This was the worst game we played this season," Harborfields coach Gene Rochler said. "We had some bad at-bats. You want to finish strong, but today we were lethargic."