The wins keep piling up for Sachem North baseball. The Flaming Arrows are now 16-2 with two regular season non-league games remaining before a playoff run.
Aside from timely hitting, good bounces and all the necessary little things to make a ball club tick, the Flaming Arrows have also been helped along by a dominant pitching staff, arguably one of the best on Long Island through this point of the season.
Anchored by Dennis Buckstein, who opened the season with a no-hitter, the staff also sports Nick Morena and Tyler Sutton. Ryan Felske and Tommy Strazza have also eaten up quality innings on the mound.
“They have been the most consistent part of our team this year,” said Sachem coach Tom Gambino.
Sachem recorded its most recent win against league rival Connetquot. It was a 7-6 victory spurred by Hofstra-bound Steven Foster, who scored on a wild pitch in the sixth inning to give Sachem the lead. Rob Sciarrotta was 4-for-4 with two runs and two RBI.
Sachem, currently on a nine-game winning streak (last loss was April 2), has two more regular season games left against rival Sachem East. The split series will start on Tuesday, May 6 for a game at Sachem North starting at 4 p.m. The teams will play again on Friday, May 9 for the annual Tim Crowley Memorial Tournament. Opening pitch will be at 7 p.m. at the Medford Athletic Complex.
The Section XI baseball playoffs begin on May 13. Sachem North is clearly one of the top two seeds in the county right now and should lock up a first round bye. Right now Ward Melville (13-3) and West Islip (14-2) have records hovering around the same wave length as Sachem.
Historically speaking, Sachem has more regular season wins this year then in 2011, their last Suffolk County championship run. Overall, we’re still searching for the single-season program wins mark. Gambino said teams in the 1970s and 1980s regularly played 25-plus games, so there may be others with 15-plus wins.
Either way, Sachem North is just heating up … and the only wins that matter are playoff victories en route to a championship.
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro