Strong first start for Wantagh's Milito

There were three openings in Wantagh's rotation when the baseball season started. It's safe to say that now there are only two.

Senior lefthander Shaun Milito, making his first varsity start, gave the Warriors a needed lift when he threw a complete game and allowed seven hits in a 10-5 win over Division yesterday in a Nassau Conference IA-IIA Class A crossover game in Levittown.

Milito shut out Division until the Blue Dragons scored an unearned run in the sixth inning. He struck out seven and started 19 of 30 batters with a strike. His location, pitch efficiency and pinpoint control of his curveball kept Division off balance as Wantagh built a 10-0 lead.

"We felt he would give us a great chance to win because he throws a lot of off-speed stuff," Wantagh coach Keith Sachs said. "And he's a lefthander and Division likes to run, so we wanted him to keep them close at first base."

Well, Sachs and his players really had very little to be worried about. Milito allowed only two baserunners through the first five innings. And Matt Santorufo, who led off the second with a single, was thrown out trying to steal second by catcher Dom Desiderio. The Blue Dragons stole 16 of 17 bases through their first five games.

"He couldn't have pitched better and set the tone for the game," Sachs said of Milito. "I thought we came out and swung the bats and some guys really came through."

Leadoff man Ryan Sliwak got things started against Division's Owen McHugh in the first inning. Sliwak drilled a single that eluded the leftfielder, and Sliwak raced all the way to third and scored on Desiderio's long double.

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The Warriors scored five times to take a 6-0 lead in the third inning, keyed by Nick Frendo's two-out, two-run single to rightfield. "That's my thing, I hit everything hard to rightfield," said Frendo, who had two hits and three RBIs. "I just go with the pitch."

Mike Rumel, who started the third-inning rally, added a two-run single in a four-run sixth. Greg Welch, who got his first three hits of the season, said it's all about the team.

"We're coming together, and it felt great to get my first few hits of the season," Welch said. "And Shaun did the job out there."

Milito tired in the seventh and gave up four hits and four runs, three of them unearned.

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"I had good command and hit my spots," he said. "It was a good win."