Southampton loses Class B regional final

PURCHASE, N.Y. - Southampton ace Chris Pike ended his high school baseball career much the same way he defined it - on the mound, covered in dirt, ball in his hand.

This time, though, the Mariners trailed big early and had resorted to chipping away at Westchester's Kennedy Catholic in the Class B regional final. Pike didn't start the game, not after his eight-inning performance against Oyster Bay on Sunday, but he pitched the sixth to give Southampton a chance in the seventh.

Pike picked a runner off second for his last play, but Kennedy reliever Matt Kern retired the side in order in the top of the seventh as Southampton lost, 9-5, Tuesday at Manhattanville College. Kennedy (18-4) advances to the state championship in Binghamton on Saturday.

"I wanted to come in with the game closer," Pike said. "But if there was any way to end it good on a bad day, it was like that."

It was a rough outing for the Mariners (19-5), who allowed one run in the first and six more in the second to fall behind 7-2. With two runs in and a runner on second in the second, Ricky Wesnofske intentionally walked Joe Smith and unintentionally walked JT Flanagan to load the bases. Kennedy pitcher Erik Bauer broke it open with a three-run double to left, and John Giordano followed with an RBI single.

"The intentional walk there was to set up the force, and it just didn't work for us," Southampton coach Jim Coady said. "Ricky, he's one of the best pitchers we've got. He just wasn't feeling it today."

Wesnofske popped his elbow and had to be replaced by Colin Buoniello after 12/3 innings. While the Mariners performed damage control, Buoniello took charge on the mound and with the bat. His two-run double in the first had given Southampton the early lead. Buoniello added an RBI single in the fifth to make it 9-3. The Mariners scored twice more in the inning on Alex Soyars' double to right.

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"Right now it's tough to think about the good," Coady said. "But they battled hard and battled back and we can learn from that."

Chapel Field School 6, Smithtown Christian 0: Ryan Martinez went 1-for-3 with a double for Smithtown Christian (3-15) in the Class D Southeast Regional final in Kingston. Dylan Prince gave up five hits and allowed four earned runs for Smithtown Christian. Danny Menendez hit a two-run homer for Chapel Field School (14-7).