Petrella leads Sayville in winner's semi

The postgame meeting for Sayville was missing someone. After the team was clapping it up following their victory, the loudest applause came for pitcher Nick Petrella, except he wasn't there.

Petrella was 150 feet away getting ice applied to his right arm by the trainer. The Golden Flashes turned around and saluted him and he certainly deserved it.

Petrella pitched six innings and allowed four hits, three walks and struck out seven. For good measure, he hit a two-run homer for top-seeded Sayville in a 9-2 win over No. 4 Kings Park Friday in a Suffolk Class A winner's bracket semifinal.

Sayville (20-2) will host No. 2 Shoreham-Wading River at 11 a.m. Monday in a winner's bracket final. Kings Park (13-9) will host No. 6 Mount Sinai at 11 a.m. Saturday in an elimination game.

"I was able to throw my fastball for strikes early in the count and get them out with my changeup," Petrella said. "I was able to settle in after we scored those runs in the first inning. I was able to throw strikes and wasn't afraid to attack hitters."

Sayville scored four runs in the first inning highlighted by a two-run single by Joseph Kacinski to give the Golden Flashes a 4-0 lead.

"He blew one past me," Kacinski said, "so Coach [Ryan Cox] told me to shorten up. I did and he threw me a curveball and I put it down the line."

SEE PHOTOSSayville 9, Kings Park 2

Sayville scored just two runs in a win over Islip in the first round and spent Thursday's practice focusing on hitting line drives and up the middle.

"We focused on hitting down on the ball," Petrella said. "We hit too many pop-ups against Islip. We were swinging for the fences. At practice we hit everything to centerfield."

Kyle Van Duyne stole home and Tom Hannan had an RBI single in the third to make it 6-0. Petrella hit a two-run homer and Van Duyne added a sacrifice fly in the fourth to extend the lead to 8-0.

Petrella took care of the rest.

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"He attacked guys on the hands and went soft away," Cox said. "It worked really well for him. He did exactly what we needed him to do and he did it offensively, too."