Kendall Kendrick's 1-hitter, Josh Jacob's pinch-hit triple give Newfield a Suffolk title

Newfield righty Kendall Kendrick fired his last pitch, a breaking ball in the dirt and blocked by catcher Mike Medina, on a swinging third strike and the celebration was on.

Kendrick’s 10th strikeout and one-hit shutout enabled Newfield to beat West Islip, 2-0, to capture the Suffolk Conference III title Friday in Selden.

Immediately after Medina applied the tag for the final out, Kendrick braced himself on the mound as he was consumed by his Newfield teammates charging out of the third-base dugout to celebrate the first Suffolk County baseball championship in school history. Newfield (17-3) will meet South Side (14-8) for the Long Island Conference III championship at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Pinch hitter Josh Jacob drilled a one-out, two-run triple to deep leftfield in the bottom of the sixth inning to drive home Evan Hughes and Shane Callahan to give the Wolverines all the runs they would need.

While water bottles sprayed over the dog pile, Kendrick crawled around the mound looking for his prescription glasses, knocked from his head during the excitement. Jacob came up big again, finding the left lens that had popped out of the bespectacled pitcher’s glasses.

"I focused on West Islip and the history we have with them," Kendrick said. "The road to the title goes through West Islip, which is a great program. And I knew I had to be at my best to give us a chance."

Kendrick was phenomenal. The Adelphi commit allowed a fifth-inning single to Eric Rivera and walked only one batter. He improved to 3-1 with a 1.45 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 30 innings.

"We had runners on in every inning and couldn’t get the big hit," Newfield coach Eric Joyner said. "Kendall kept us right there until we came up with the key hit."

Newfield loaded the bases in the first and third innings and failed to score. Joyner made the right move, signaling for Jacob to pinch hit in the sixth.

"He’s our quarterback and broke his hand in the football season and missed the baseball season," Joyner said. "He’s an unbelievable hitter."

Jacob, a three-sport athlete, had four at-bats last week, prior to the big moment in the county title game. He swung at the first pitch.

"I knew right off the bat that I barreled it up," Jacob said. "I was focused on that first pitch and that moment. Coach had confidence in me in the biggest at-bat of the season. That hit made me forget about missing the season. I came back just in time."

Newfield assistant coach Mike Prisco, who came into the program with Joyner six years ago, said this team was special in the way they all contributed throughout the season.

"There were so many contributing pieces to this championship," Prisco said. "It was someone new every day. So many guys had their moment in the spotlight."

And Friday night, the spotlight shined on Kendrick and Jacob.

By Gregg Sarra

gregg.sarra@newsday.com@Gregg_Sarra

Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.