Farmingdale baseball's Grayson Aristy comes through with bat and arm for Dalers in wild win
Grayson Aristy of Farmingdale looks to throw a pitch during a Nassau baseball game against Port Washington at Howitt Middle School in Farmingdale on Monday. Credit: Sam Johnston
Two resilient baseball teams had spent the better part of six innings trading the lead. Now Farmingdale owned a one-run edge heading for the seventh, and coach Frank Tassielli sent a sophomore to the mound to try to make sure Port Washington was done scoring runs.
“I think he’s a big-game player,” Tassielli said of Grayson Aristy, a JV grad who’s the starting left fielder. “To put him in that spot, I’d rather see this now than stick him out there in a playoff game where we don’t know. But I think the kid’s got some ice in his veins.”
The young lefty coolly closed it — 1-2-3.
Farmingdale emerged with an 11-10 victory Monday on its Howitt Middle School turf in the opener of a three-game Nassau AAA-I series, moving the Dalers to 3-1.
“Coach Tass had a lot of trust in me to go out there and close out the game,” Aristy said. “So I went out there and did what I did. I trusted my defense out there.”
Aristy delivered the save and provided the win because he launched a drive against reliever Alex Milner that carried nearly 360 feet to center with the wind for a go-ahead RBI triple that capped a two-run sixth. Mateo Morales’ solo homer had evened it at 10-10.
That rally came after Charlie Byers’ RBI double capped a two-run rally that provided Port Washington with a 10-9 advantage in the top of the inning against Jake Mora, the winner in relief.
“We put together good at-bats,” coach Matt Holzer said after his Vikings dropped to 2-2 despite 16 hits, including three from Josh Itzikowitz, three more with three RBIs from Jake Wilber and two doubles with four RBIs from Michael Iuorio.
“I loved the no-quit mentality this team has, and I think we’ll be just fine.”
Iuorio ripped a three-run double in the first.
But Farmingdale, which fell to Massapequa in last year's Nassau Class AAA finals, scored one in the bottom half and six in the second, highlighted by a grand slam from Mark Reo and a solo shot by the next batter, Lorenzo Cimino, that made it 7-3.
“I think we can make a run through the playoffs and go through there and give dare I say Massapequa again, give them a run,” Tassielli said, “because they’re going to be one of the two or four teams back there. They’re always the top of the mountain.”
