Yet again, Rye baseball (14-5) found a way. In the first of two games against Harrison to close out the regular season, the Garnets won 6-5 Thursday in nail-biting, walk-off fashion.
Rye led 5-0 before letting the Huskies battle back to tie the score, but senior captain Lucas London called game, driving in Nolan Hutson for the winning run with an eighth-inning single. London also earned the win on the mound by getting the final five outs.
The Garnets’ fifth straight win, against a rival in extra innings, was one of their biggest of the season, as the team aims to secure another league title and make a push to preserve the No. 1 seed in next week’s playoffs.
Rye took charge from the jump, with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Hutson led off with a single, senior Jamie Morris reached on an error, then London walked to load the bases. Senior Jackson Pineault drove in the first run with a ground out, then junior Luke Ontaneda added a two-run single.
Hutson singled again in the second inning, then stole a base and scored on a Morris sacrifice fly. In the third, Miles Silber singled to score fellow junior Ben Fineberg and make it 5-0.
However, the five-run lead in the third inning disappeared by the seventh. Harrison scored one in the fourth and sixth. Starting pitcher Michael Bubeck allowed three runs (two earned) with five strikeouts in six-plus innings, before London relieved him in the seventh.
Down to their final out, the Huskies hit back-to-back singles to tie the score.
“We just kind of took our foot off the gas and didn’t really play winning baseball for the rest,” said Rye coach Mike Bruno.
Bruno was pleased the team came through with clutch base running in the eighth, but believed it shouldn’t have come down to that.
“Hutson reached on an error and stole second,” he said. “But you know, not really something that we should’ve been in a position to do.”
London’s single to left field brought Hutson home for the win. Rye achieved one of its pre-season goals: beating Harrison. Now, the Garnets will go for the sweep in their regular-season finale, 4 p.m. Saturday in the annual Andrew Gurgitano Memorial Game.
