Carey's Ryan Degnan wins pitchers duel with Calhoun's Brian Chin
Teagan Graham, third from right, and Carey teammates mob together in celebration after a ball put in play by Dom Romano, right, resulted in a run and 2-1 walk-off win over Calhoun in a Nassau Conference A2 baseball game at Carey on Monday. Credit: James Escher
So much impeccable pitching. So little to do with the outcome of the game. That’s just how it went in the Nassau A-II first-place battle between Calhoun and host Carey on Monday as the teams opened their regular season series.
Seahawks starter Ryan Degnan retired the first 17 Colts he faced, lost the perfect game on an eight-pitch walk in the sixth inning and then the no-hit bid and shutout in the seventh. However the 6-4 righthander ended up with a complete-game one-hit victory with 14 strikeouts.
Calhoun starter Brian Chin didn’t allow a hit in 5 1/3 innings before reaching the state-mandated pitch limit, got the only hit off Degnan in the seventh, scored the go ahead run and then watched it all come apart.
Carey scored twice with two outs in the last of the seventh — on a bases-loaded balk and a game-ending throwing error — to eke out the 2-1 victory at the Seahawks’ Bob Walpole Field.
“You witnessed a couple of bulldogs out there,” Carey coach Doug Robins said. “Degnan was absolutely dominating and [Chin] was putting up zeros, too. I can’t speak to how our two runs scored but I was glad it made [Degnan] a winner.”
“Two pitchers pitching their hearts out and laying it all on the line,” Colts coach Art Canestro said. “The game had a real playoff feel.”
“Neither one of us was going to budge,” Degnan said. Added Chin “that’s the kind of game you love to be in.”
The vast number of key plays were uncommon and unusual. The first was Joseph Moryl’s 11-pitch walk in the fourth inning that ran Chin’s count up to where a complete game became virtually impossible.
“He was throwing hard and that at-bat was fight, but in the end I think it forced him from the game,” Moryl said. Robins called the walk “the difference in the game.”
Carey (12-0-1, 12-0-1) and Calhoun (13-1, 12-1) took the scoreless tie into the seventh when the Colt’s broke through. Chin doubled to left and slid in just ahead of the tag. He took third on a sacrifice bunt and then scored when Degnan thought he could catch him off third and threw errantly allowing Chin to dash home.
Chin and reliever Shane Linett were one-out from a combined no-hitter in the seventh when Justin Babiak laced a single to right to break it up. “[Chin’s] pitches were invisible, but having him out of the game gave us a chance,” he said.
Jake Berenger drew a walk and Matteo Trufano was hit by a pitch to load the bases when PJ Kakarios was summoned to replace Linnett. Before he could throw a pitch a game-tying balk was signaled.
Jeremy Clark hit a soft grounder to third base and pinch runner Michael DeMarco bolted from third to the plate. A good throw to first would have forced extra innings but it sailed wide as DeMarco stepped on the plate with the game-winner.
“I wasn’t sure if [Clark] would beat it out but I had to score,” DeMarco said. “In as hard-fought a game like this, you want to come up on the winning end.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
