Clarke's Nick Giardino outduels Seaford in Nassau A-IV win
Nick Giardino #10 of Clarke delivers to the plate in the top of the fourth inning of a Nassau County baseball game against Seaford at BOCES Field in Westbury on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. He pitched a complete game in Clarke's 5-3 win. Credit: James Escher
Nick Giardino was waging battles on several fronts as he went to the mound for the seventh inning on Tuesday. He wasn’t about to lose any of them.
Clarke’s senior righthander had seen a five-run lead shrink to just two. The Seaford hitters finally began putting something together against him in the sixth with three hits. And he only had 11 pitches left before crossing the state-mandated maximum of 105 pitches.
He met the moment by recording a pair of strikeouts with eight pitches and then getting an inning-ending groundout on two more as the host Rams held off the Vikings for a 5-3 Nassau A-IV victory. Clarke (5-0) has now taken the first two games of the three-game season series with Seaford (2-2-1).
“He was on third base (in the bottom of the sixth) and was very (ticked) off,” Rams coach Tom Abruscato said. “He even said to me ‘this is not a good performance by me.’ But then he manned up and finished them off. That he was angry he had not pitched better says it all: he’s a winner.”
Giardino allowed one earned run on seven hits and no walks with 10 strikeouts. His 104 pitches included 74 strikes.
“I wanted the ball and I wanted to shut the door,” Giardino said. “The last inning was all about attacking the hitters. . . . I know I can be better than I was today, so all you’re going to see from me moving forward is strikes.”
“To finish the way he did was pretty impressive,” senior catcher Jacob Dandic said. “He’d attacked the hitters every inning and was that much more aggressive there. He really wanted it.”
Giancarlo Rengifo’s second inning double put two runners in scoring position with none out and Dandic got one home with a sacrifice fly and Liam Fonal the other with a one-out single. Clarke tacked on a pair in the third inning when Dandic ripped a full-count fastball down the left field line for a two-run double.
“Such a huge hit right there,” Abruscato said. “He did a great job with that pitch.”
Down 5-0 after Tom Roche draw a bases-loaded walk in the fifth, the Vikings came alive for three runs on three hits and an error in the sixth. Evan Block’s third hit of the game started it and Brian Fader, Kevin Knox and Billy Kind drove in the runs. But they never even got started in the seventh.
“Of course we’re happy with the win, but we all could be much better, especially me,” Giordano said. “We’re Clarke . . . (and) we have a standard to live up to. We want to be the best we can be and we’re not satisfied if we’re not.”
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.
