East Hampton's Colin Ruddy leads parade of powerful pitching performances

Miller Place’s loaded lineup had been producing an average of 11 runs per game in a 7-0 start, quite a challenge for a pitcher. But Colin Ruddy is no ordinary guy with a baseball in his right hand.

The 6-5 senior from East Hampton emerged from the other side of seven innings on his home mound Wednesday with an 89-pitch, three-hit, one-walk, 1-0 win, a masterpiece complete with 15 strikeouts.

“It was probably one of the better performances I’ve ever seen, especially a pitcher from East Hampton,” coach Vinny Alversa said. “I mean, he’s legit, Colin. He’s right up there with the best on Long Island, hands down. He was lights out.”

It was a week of lights-out pitching performances.

Let’s take Wednesday as a prime example.

Patchogue-Medford’s Josh Knoth’s 20-K, perfect game against Riverhead certainly stood out. 

There was St. John the Baptist’s Kyle Chase also no-hitting St. Dominic, fanning 11. Port Jefferson’s Luke Filippi fired a one-hitter with 18 strikeouts against Greenport to help coach Jesse Rosen win his 100th game. Sachem North’s Chris Kelly allowed only three hits and fanned 14 in a 1-0 shutout vs. North Babylon. 

Centereach’s Dominick Persichilli, Holy Trinity’s Sadier Vicioso and Manhasset’s Theo Zacharia were among some of the others who excelled that day.

Ruddy excelled with an aggressive mentality.

“There was no holding back,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to be cute or anything. It was just attack, attack, attack and … use my confidence on the mound to make them know, like, I know my stuff’s better than they could hit.”

So now he’s 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA after four starts. The George Washington commit has fanned 55, walked three and allowed five hits over 26 innings. 

“He gets ahead,” Alversa said. “He’s got command of all four pitches, and he works. … I know in the mornings, I’ll pass him sometimes and he’s headed to the next town over at 5:30 in the morning to go work out, and then he goes to school.”

100 reasons to smile

Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK won a 10-0, five-inning game at East Meadow Monday. That also marked the 100th victory for ninth-year coach John Givargidze.

“It means I’ve been around some good baseball players and some coaches who have helped along the way to get the guys ready,” Givargidze said. “It’s really more of a program thing than an individual thing.” 

Givargidze felt so touched about what happened after the game. His players presented him with two balls. One had “100TH CAREER WIN” on it. The other was signed by all the boys.

“It meant the world just for them to think about me,” Givargidze said.

Of course, that win came with a great pitching performance. Senior righty Dylan Banner threw a 63-pitch no-hitter. The Albany commit struck out 12, walked none and hit two.

“He’s very efficient with his pitches,” Givargidze said. “He’s a bulldog, really.“