Reliever Joe Hagmaier comes in early to help Plainedge defeat Wantagh

Plainedge didn’t just stumble out of the gate on Monday in its critical Nassau Conference IV matchup with Wantagh. It face-planted. Fortunately relief pitcher Joe Hagmaier was there to pick the Red Devils up.

The lefthander was summoned in the top of the first inning after starter Dom Tuozzo, plagued by rust from a bye week, struggled to find the plate. Hagmaier allowed three inherited runners to score, but then kept Wantagh off the board for the next four innings as Plainedge rallied to score a dozen unanswered runs and come away with a 12-5 win at its Edward Byrne Memorial Stadium.

Righty Troy Emmanuel finished the win off with two scoreless innings.

"I had a lot of confidence that we would score runs and come back if I could give them a chance," Hagmaier said. "It was a difficult situation that I came into, but I focused on throwing strikes to get us out and then keeping them off the board."

Plainedge (10-1) trailed Wantagh (9-2), 5-0, after a half inning and started on the road back immediately with four runs in the bottom of the frame. Then the Devils grabbed the upper hand in the fourth.

Emmanuel singled to score Joe Leone with the tying run. After a Ryan Campbell walk, Tim Purack drove a double to leftfield that scored two runs and put Plainedge ahead to stay.

"The count was 2-and-0 and so I was looking fastball and got a fastball," Purack said. "I was able to drive it to left and our guys were quick on the bases."

SEE PHOTOSPhotos: Plainedge vs. Wantagh baseball

The Devils added a pair of runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth.

"It was too big of a game for us to wait on making the pitching move and I thought our relievers would be fresh," Plainedge coach Colin Fratrick said. "Joe did a great job holding the fort and Troy was solid to make it all stand up."

Plainedge used its speed to set up many of its runs, stealing a total of 10 bases in the game, often on such good jumps that there wasn’t even a throw. Emmanuel stole two and Campbell swiped a pair.

Wantagh also was generous. Its pitcher committed two balks and threw two wild pitches and it made three errors in the field.

"Our speed is a big part of our game," Emmanuel said. "We are always looking to turn a single or a walk or a hit-by-pitch into two or three bases. It’s key to our offense."

Leone, Emmanuel, Campbell and Tyler Kregeloh all scored two runs for Plainedge. Joe Fontana, Frank Peretti and Alex Bardi had first-inning RBIs for Wantagh.

The battle in Conference IV is far from over. Plainedge and Wantagh meet again on Tuesday and Bethpage and North Shore are contenders.

"We’ve been good at coming back and so we were today," Fratrick said. "We were down 3-0 to Bethpage after about six pitches and ended up winning 4-3. There have been other games like that. Being able to shake a bad start off and comeback to win tells you a little something about our character."

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.