Pyz, Venier lead Kings Park to Suffolk 'A' final

The Kingsmen triumphantly ambled to the bus marked "Kings Park School District" while a smattering of fans clapped politely along the way. Maybe it wasn't a hero's farewell, but for this team, the No. 6 seed that has made its home on the road, it's become a sweet and familiar signal that it lives to play another day.

Kings Park (16-6), which took down No. 2 Islip and has won all three of its postseason games as the lower seed, came out the winner again Friday at Mount Sinai, defeating the No. 5 Mustangs, 5-2, in the Suffolk Class A winners bracket final.

This time a stellar performance by Chris Pyz and timely hitting by Nick Venier out of the two-hole sent the Kingsmen to the Class A final Tuesday (taking place, naturally, anywhere but Kings Park).

"I like [playing on the road]," Pyz said. "You're an underdog. I like to ruin everyone's season on [their] own field."

Pyz did plenty to ruin Mount Sinai's day. The righthander allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings.

It wasn't all he did. With Kings Park leading 3-2 in the sixth, the tying run on first and none out, Pyz used his deceptive and well-honed pickoff move to cut off a Mustangs rally.

"I practice it every day," Pyz said. "He put his head down and I threw it under his chin."

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The next batter, Doug Putkowski, singled to left and stole second. But Pyz retired the next two batters on a flyout and a grounder to shortstop (a play that was heralded with an exclamatory fist pump by first baseman Brandon Haney on the receiving end).

Mount Sinai moves to the losers bracket and plays Hauppauge on Saturday in an elimination game.

Kings Park scratched and prodded to get at starter Tyler Badamo. With Michael Zucker on second base in the third inning, Venier singled to left to open the scoring. Venier struck again with the score tied at 1 in the fifth, waiting on Badamo's curveball and poking a two-out single past second baseman Matt Esposito's outstretched glove to drive in Dylan Ierardi and Shane O'Leary.

"It was a good pitch, but I tried not to do too much," Venier said. "We surprised them. A lot of teams underestimate us. We come out playing."

Kings Park tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh on Haney's two-out RBI single and a wild pitch.

For coach Mike Prisco, watching his team execute little things in hostile territory was no surprise.

"We haven't left our game plan," he said. "It's about being the guy who picks the next guy up . . . This isn't new, winning against good teams on the road."