No. 4 Sachem North wins winner's bracket final in Suffolk Class AAA baseball playoffs
Sachem North's Sam Morreale pitches in the third inning against Smithtown East in the Suffolk Class AAA baseball winner's final at Smithtown East on Tuesday. Credit: Neil Miller
Sachem North is back on the doorstep of a county title.
Powered by senior righthander Sam Morreale’s gutsy start, No. 4 Sachem North earned a 2-1 road win over third-seeded Smithtown East in the Suffolk Class AAA baseball winner’s bracket final Tuesday. Sachem North – seeking its first county title since 2011 – punched its second consecutive ticket to the county final.
Morreale struck out five, walked two and allowed four hits and an earned run in six-plus innings. After he walked the leadoff man in the seventh inning, junior righthander Jacob Tonnies retired the next three batters for the save.
“I was just pitching for strikes,” Morreale said. “I wasn’t really (looking) for strikeouts. It's really easy to pitch when I have the best defense in the county behind me, so I don't have to worry about striking kids out because I know the defense has my back.”
Sachem North (19-5) needs to win only one of a potential two games against either Smithtown East (20-4) or No. 1 Connetquot, which will host the Bulls in an elimination game at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, for the crown.
Sachem North will face Wednesday’s winner at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Middle Country Athletic Complex in Selden.
“Every team left is legit, so nothing's going to be easy,” Sachem North coach Tom Gambino said. “That's what happens when you get down to this point. We'll see what happens. We're going to just keep doing what we do, and hopefully get a big hit when it counts at the end and we’ll get it. But to say anything has been done yet would be foolish.”
Smithtown East had a runner on second with one out in the fifth inning, but Sachem North closed the inning with a chaotic 4-5-2-1-4 double play. Second baseman Jack Pitman fielded a grounder and, after seeing the runner who was on second round third, threw to third baseman Travis Szober. Szober started a rundown, which ended with Morreale tagging the runner at home. Morreale then fired to third base – covered by Pitman, who tagged the batter.
“It was kind of a momentum shift for us,” Morreale said.
Sachem North took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on RBI singles by Lucas Singleton and Kevin Lysohir. Smithtown East limited the damage in the inning as leftfielder Nicholas Piccoli threw out a runner at home and Tom Fanning, who allowed three hits and no runs in 4 1/3 innings, entered in relief to strand the bases loaded with two outs.
Smithtown East scored on Evan Schickler’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly.
“We'll be fine,” Bulls coach Rob Christensen said. “We just got to stay true to ourselves and play good baseball.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
