Tucker Brown helps Hauppauge baseball team force deciding game in Suffolk Class AA finals against ESM
Tucker Brown of Hauppauge singles home two runs during the Suffolk Class AA baseball final against Eastport-South Manor on Saturday, May 30, 2026 in Selden. Credit: Dawn McCormick
The Hauppauge baseball team has spent most of the last two weeks walking a tightrope. Since losing its opener to fifth-seeded East Islip on May 20, the fourth-seeded Eagles have won six consecutive elimination games in the Suffolk Class AA playoffs to stay alive.
Now, after their latest triumph on Saturday night, they sit one victory away from a second county title in three years.
Hauppauge defeated top-seeded Eastport-South Manor, 7-3, in the Suffolk Class AA finals at Middle Country Athletic Complex in Selden to force one more game in the double-elimination tournament at 11 a.m. on Sunday. The Eagles (19-8) snapped the second 11-game winning streak of the year for the Sharks (22-2).
Hauppauge struck out only five times and racked up 14 hits. Tucker Brown led the charge from the leadoff spot, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs. He also made one of the Eagles’ three diving plays in the field.
“I was just seeing the ball well and keeping it simple: get the barrel to the ball and provide as many plays in the field for our pitchers as possible,” he said. “That’s who we are; it’s our identity. I think we just want it really bad right now.”
Brown opened the scoring in the top of the second when he punched a two-out, two-run single to shallow right-centerfield. The Eagles made it 4-0 in the third when Nick Lombardi pulled an RBI double into the leftfield corner and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brendan Magill.
Ethan Williams finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored out of the nine hole. The Eagles’ bottom of the order — Giuseppe Calabrese, Matthew Oliveto and Williams — went 6-for-10 with a triple, two RBIs and four runs scored.
“As long as we can get on base, we give our top guys chances to drive in runs and keep us in it,” Williams said. “Even though I may be the nine hitter and they may underestimate me, I’m still going to do my job for this team.”
Michael Crafa held ESM scoreless until there was one out in the sixth, allowing two earned runs and four hits and striking out six batters in 5 1⁄3 innings.
Reliever James Migliore turned a comebacker into a 1-2-3 double play to escape a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. He allowed a home run by Thomas Gargiulo in the seventh but recorded the save.
“We never doubted it from the start,” Migliore said. “We’re not going to stop; we’ve just got to keep winning. No one wants it more than us. We wake up every day wanting it more than every team and fighting every single pitch of every single inning. We want it more.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
