Sliwak's triple helps Wantagh oust Kings Park

Ryan Sliwak knew he caught a break when a 1-and-2 pitch on the outside corner was called a ball in the bottom of the fourth inning Sunday. The Wantagh second baseman took the pitch with the bases loaded and two outs.

"The ump gave me a generous call on the outside corner," Sliwak said. "It could have gone either way. I was glad he called it a ball because I was looking fastball on the next pitch and got it."

Sliwak took advantage by ripping a line drive to rightfield for a three-run triple to highlight a five-run inning that gave Wantagh a lead it never relinquished. Wantagh went on to a 9-2 win over Kings Park in the Long Island Class A championship/Southeast Regional final at Farmingdale State.

"Pressure is part of the game and I want to be up in that situation," Sliwak said. "We put a nice inning together and I wanted to get a hit. I'm just glad I came through."

The fourth inning began with a three-base error and a sacrifice fly by Kyle Ambury to bring Wantagh (23-5) within 2-1. With runners at first and second base and two outs, Mike Rumel hit a slow grounder down the first-base line and tried to avoid the tag. The first-base umpire didn't make a call and Wantagh coach Keith Sachs sent Kevin Cohen home from second base since time was never called. After the umpires huddled, it was ruled an infield hit and the bases were loaded before Sliwak's hit that made it 4-2.

"The first-base umpire didn't see a tag and the play was still alive, so we scored," Sachs said. "When he asked for help, no one else saw a tag. Then he put the guys back on base. I think we got the worse end of the call. Then we got the hit, so I liked the way it turned out. To come up with a hit with everybody yelling from both sides and everybody rattled and stressed out was big."

Wantagh starter Matt Dybus said, "The way we saw it is the ball never lies and he hit the triple."

SEE PHOTOSClass A LIC: Wantagh 9, Kings Park 2

Dybus took over from there. Chris Kalousdian and Nick Venier had run-scoring singles for Kings Park (17-8) in the third, before Dybus retired 11 of the final 13. Dybus threw a five-hitter, walked one and struck out five.

Matt Benedetto went 2-for-4 with an RBI, Ambury was 2-for-3 with three RBIs, Cohen went 3-for-4 and Tom Meagle was 2-for-3 with two RBIs for Wantagh.

Wantagh will play either Cornwall or the winner of Lakeland and Maine-Endwell at 10 a.m. Saturday in a state semifinal at Union-Endicott Hgh School.

"We were ranked fourth in our league and we weren't happy about that," Dybus said. "We thought we were ranked low."

SEE PHOTOSHigh school sports -- June

No disputing that.