Smithtown West baseball pulls together for victory over North Babylon
Dom Crema hits two-run single to give Smithtown West a 4-2 lead over North Babylon in top of second on Friday, April 29, 2022. Credit: James Escher
Smithtown West learned in the course of two days earlier this week how frail momentum in a baseball season can be. The Bulls rolled into this week’s three-game regular season series with North Babylon atop Suffolk IV and having won six of seven. Things changed as the hard-swinging Bulldogs rallied for a one-run victory Tuesday and posted a blowout on Wednesday.
“Good teams show they’re good by responding when things don’t go well,” Smithtown West coach Al Nucci said. “The wheels fell off a little bit earlier this week. It was time to dig in.”
The Bulls resumed control of their season on Friday by rallying from an early two-run deficit with a four-run second inning and then navigating several threats en route to a 6-4 triumph over host North Babylon.
The Bulls were looking up at the Bulldogs after Liam Daly’s two-run homer to rightfield in the bottom of the first. They loaded the bases on an error and a pair of walks and got back-to-back two-run singles from Jack LaPrarie and Dom Crema to go ahead for good.
“We felt this was a must-win, like a playoff game,” Crema said. Added LaPrarie: “Those two losses were demoralizing . . . we’re walking out of here feeling a lot better about ourselves than we did when we got here.”
With Smithtown West (10-5, 10-5) needing to ‘dig in,’ it had the right guy on the mound in Jack Flood. The senior righthander opened the season as the Bulls’ No. 2 starter and performed poorly enough to be demoted two weeks ago to No. 3 of three. He responded to the challenge with a four-hit complete game win last week.
Flood may have given up the Daly homer, but once the Bulls took the lead he refused to give it up over his 5 1/3 innings no matter how many times the Bulldogs (7-7, 7-5) threatened. In earning the win, he allowed four runs (three earned) but stranded seven North Babylon runners, four in scoring position. Brady Austin struck out four in recording the final five outs for the save.
“Getting demoted was a real motivator,” Flood said. “It set the clock for me. It was time to get it together and be the pitcher I was expected to be.”
“He wasn’t throwing strikes, enough so that we had to move him down,” Nucci said. “He made the pitches against a great hitting team today.”
The Bulldogs plated a run in the third and had two aboard when Flood got an inning-ending double play grounder. After Smithtown West added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the fourth for a 6-3 lead, Flood got another inning-ending ground ball with two men on in the bottom of the inning. Though he allowed an unearned run in the fifth, he got a strikeout with two men on to snuff the threat.
“Our team getting this win was huge,” Flood said. “After my last two starts, I feel like I am back.”
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.
