Jack Cheshire in command as Sayville blanks East Islip in Suffolk baseball
Jack Cheshire of Sayville throws from the mound during a Suffolk high school baseball game on May 27, 2021 in Islip Terrace. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Nick Buffardi fired his final pitch, a hard-breaking curveball for a called strike three and the Sayville closer jumped from the mound.
His teammates poured from the dugout to congratulate the senior shortstop turned closer. He put the finishing touch on Jack Cheshire's pitching gem as Sayville shut out East Islip, 2-0, in a Suffolk League IV baseball game in Islip Terrace on Thursday.
The win moved Sayville (7-4) into a third-place tie with East Islip.
"I love the pressure of closing out a game," said Buffardi, who also had six assists and two putouts at shortstop. "I’m in control of what happens at the end of the game. And I love it. It was a pitchers' duel, and our guy deserved the win, he was great."
Cheshire was brilliant. He went 6 2/3 innings and reached a pitch count of 106 with two outs in the seventh. He allowed four hits, walked two, hit one batter and struck out nine for his third win.
"I felt like I had command of all three of my pitches and the defense played well," Cheshire said. "We had it all working in a big game."
Sayville scored single runs in the third and fourth innings. The Golden Flashes played small ball to set up both runs.
Mack Murtha laid down a beautiful bunt for an infield single to open the third. Michael Argenziano followed with a well-placed sacrifice bunt, moving Murtha to second base and CJ Messina lined a run-scoring single to leftfield for a 1-0 lead.
"I work on the bunt every day in practice," said the speedy Murtha, who bunted for another single in the sixth inning. "I got the bunt down and got the offense going."
Sayville added a run in the fourth on East Islip ace John Rizzo, who struggled with his control throughout the game. Buffardi singled, Alex Millwater was hit with a pitch, and Dom LaFroscia dropped a sacrifice bunt moving the runners to second and third. Buffardi scored on Cheshire’s fielder’s choice.
"Rizzo has been so dominant, but he wasn’t himself today," said East Islip coach Sal J. Ciampi. "I could see his velocity was a little down and he hasn’t had issues with location. But we couldn’t score on their guy anyway; he shut us down."
Rizzo (3-1) allowed six hits, two earned runs, walked one, hit four batters and struck out only two.
The only East Islip runner to reach third base was erased on the bases in the sixth inning. Trailing 2-0 with two outs and runners at first and second, Rizzo singled up the middle, where Buffardi made a great play, ranging deep behind the second base bag, to keep the ball in the infield. His throw to first base got away from LaFroscia, who was scrambling to get back to first base.
"He had gone to his cutoff position and then tried to get back to first base," Buffardi said. "And then the play turned crazy."
LaFroscia fired the ball home to catcher Jack Quinlan to catch Ryan Ferremi in a rundown between third and home. Ferremi was tagged out by Cheshire to end the inning and preserve the shutout.
We needed a big outing and Jack gave it to us," said Sayville coach Joe Esposito. "He had his cutter working and our defense made all the plays. It’s a big win."
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
'A basis for somebody to bring a lawsuit' A Newsday investigation found Hempstead Town issued 80,000 school bus camera tickets in districts that did not authorize the program. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie and Newsday investigative reporter Payton Guion have the story.
'A basis for somebody to bring a lawsuit' A Newsday investigation found Hempstead Town issued 80,000 school bus camera tickets in districts that did not authorize the program. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie and Newsday investigative reporter Payton Guion have the story.
