Mepham baseball making waves en route to Nassau quarters

Mepham sent a shiver through the Nassau Class A baseball playoffs this week with a pair of upsets to reach this weekend’s quarterfinal round.

The 19-team tournament has four brackets with each playing double-elimination to determine a semifinalist. The 13th-seeded Pirates defeated a pair of season-long contenders, No. 4 Clarke on Tuesday and No. 5 Carey on Thursday. It forced them into Friday’s elimination game with the winner needing to beat Mepham two straight to reach a semifinal series.

“High school baseball can be hard to figure,” Mepham coach Eric Passman said. “We were an average team all season and then the playoffs come and we’re playing clean and hitting.”

Centerfielder Michael Cuccinella was the defensive star in the 6-5 win over Clarke and an offensive star of the 13-3 takedown of Carey.

Mepham moved to the lead in the top of the seventh against Carey on a three-run homer by Bryce Bowers and Cuccinella made two top defensive plays to make it stand up in pitcher Leo Asta’s complete game.

“He tracked down a bomb that could have gone over everyone’s head for the first out and he made a great diving catch of a ball that was heading to the gap for the second out,” Passman said.

Cuccinella and Bowers had four RBIs apiece in the run-ruled victory over the Seahawks.

“There were glimpses of what we could do when we lost two one-run games to Garden City,” Passman said. “MacArthur was the top team in out division and we saw it again in 2-0 and 4-1 losses to them. Now we’re seeing it come together.”

Mount Sinai has won 12 straight, 16 of last 17

Mount Sinai was an experienced team coming off its first Long Island championship, but its season couldn’t have started any worse. The Mustangs were wiped out in three games by Sayville— 15-6, 6-2, 10-4.

“We played the worst baseball I have ever seen in the [those] three games,” coach Eric Reichenbach said. “I think we made 13 errors in the three-game series. Since then, we’ve made some defensive changes that have worked out beyond belief.”

Reichenbach was speaking Wednesday after third-seeded Mount Sinai claimed its 12th straight game and 16th out of 17 since that series, a Class A Conference IV pool play win at Shoreham-Wading River.

“We moved our freshman, Ben Franquiz, over to short,” Reichenbach said. “The kid has been lights out. He’s been there for 16 games now and has not made an error. That’s been huge because then we moved Matty Carrera back to his normal position at second base, and he’s been solid.

“And ever since Will Rodgers came back from his preseason injury, he’s been at third base, and the infield defense has been beyond solid.”