Chris Carson circles the bases after his two run home run...

Chris Carson circles the bases after his two run home run that gives Lindenhurst the 2-1 lead during the Suffolk Conference I loser's bracket final in West Islip on Monday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff

Another cliffhanger. Another improbable win. And the Lindenhurst baseball team lives another day.

The Bulldogs pulled out their third narrow victory of this postseason when Chris Carson drilled a two-run home run over the right field fence at West Islip to start a three-run rally in the top of the seventh inning as it came from behind to defeat the Lions 3-1 in a Suffolk Conference I semifinal round game.

Lindenhurst (18-6) had been completely flummoxed by West Islip starter Evan Byrnes. It didn’t manage a baserunner for five innings off the sophomore righty and, when Ty Napoleon broke up the perfect game with a sixth-inning single, the Lions picked off the pinch runner to make it 18-up and 18-down through six.

But Thomas Charlwood opened the seventh with a six-pitch walk to bring Carson to the plate. He connected on a 1-and-1 fastball for the blast and a 2-1 lead. Craig Moruzzi would score a back-breaking insurance run with an alert dash home from third on a wild pitch.

Carson’s homer also earned him the win as the Stony Brook-bound lefty completed a four-hit complete game by retiring the Lions in order in the bottom of the seventh.

The Bulldogs have won three of four games in the double-elimination conference tournament by a total of four runs, including a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Lions (20-5) last Wednesday.

“There have been so many exciting late moments,” Lindenhurst coach Rob Moore said. “Sometimes they’ve seemed destined this season. We have a special group of seniors and they’ve made it that kind of year.”

“We don’t want close games, but we’ve had some of these and it just always seems to happen at the end for us,” Carson said.

Third-seeded Lindenhurst advances to the conference finals to face top-seeded Commack and needs to beat the Cougars twice without losing a game to reach the Suffolk Class AA championship series and face the Conference II titlist. Commack is 4-1 this season against the Bulldogs.

“We’re going to do what we do best against them, which is fight to last out,” Carson said.

The Lions manufactured a first-inning run when Frank Romano singles, took seconds on a sacrifice, stole third and scored on an Erick Burciaga squeeze. From that point on Carson held them in check in the duel against Byrnes.

The Carson homer came on a fastball where Byrnes was trying to beat him up and inside, “but it just got too much plate,” Byrnes said.

“I wasn’t thinking home run, but thought something in the gap could score (Charlwood) because he’s so fast,” Carson said. “(Byrnes) hadn’t given us much to work with, mixing pitches and hiding the ball well with his delivery. We got this today, but he’s going to be great.”

Carson finished with eight strikeouts. Byrnes also fanned eight in 6.2 innings.

“Chris is the kind of player that almost makes you expect things like what he did today,” Moruzzi said. “He’s a game-changer, a big-game player.”

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