Matthew Oliveto hits two-run double as Hauppauge stuns ESM and claims Suffolk Class AA championship
Hauppague celebrates its win over Eastport-South Manor in the Suffolk Class AA championship on Sunday at Middle Country Athletic Complex in Selden. Credit: Kathy M Helgeson
There’s something magical about this Hauppauge baseball team.
The fourth-seeded Eagles completed a Cinderella run for the ages when they defeated top-seeded Eastport-South Manor, 5-4, in the Suffolk Class AA championship game at Middle Country Athletic Complex on Sunday.
Hauppauge (20-8) was held hitless for 4 1⁄3 innings by Gabe Sikora and trailed 3-0 through five innings, but a five-run sixth gave the Eagles the lead for good.
With runners at the corners, two outs and the score tied at 3, Matthew Oliveto hit a long two-run double to center.
“I was just trying to get one more run in,” he said. “I had no clue that was dropping. Thankfully, it got down. It feels amazing to keep us alive and give us a shot to win a Long Island championship.”
Connor Minihane's two-out, two-run single off Kevin Hoeler in the second inning gave Eastport-South Manor a 2-0 lead. Brady McGowan's two-out RBI double off Nick Poulos in the fourth made it 3-0, but Poulos pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth and retired the first two batters in the seventh before allowing a single by Thomas Gargiulo and handing the ball to Kyle Magill for his first pitching appearance of the season.
The Sharks (22-3) greeted him with their fourth hit batsman of the day and an RBI single by Memphis Lanier that capped a great at-bat, but Magill induced a grounder to his younger brother Brendan at third to end it.
Kyle Magill also crushed an RBI double into the right-centerfield gap with none out in the sixth to cut the deficit to 3-1. He scored on an RBI single by Nick Lombardi, and when the hit was misplayed, Roman Dixon scored the tying run.
“Our energy has been amazing all through the playoffs, and it was a little low to start the game,” Kyle Magill said. “After that, we were rolling, and when our energy’s high, nobody’s beating us.”
Poulos sparkled in long relief to keep the Eagles in the game. “I was just trying to throw strikes and get ground balls,” he said. “Just to give ourselves a chance. I couldn’t wish for anything else. It’s what I’ve been wanting this whole season.”
After losing to East Islip in its playoff opener, Hauppauge earned its seventh straight elimination-game win, ousting six of the nine teams that began the tournament. Eastport-South Manor entered the weekend 22-1, but after losing three games to the Sharks in the regular season, Hauppauge beat them twice.
The Eagles, who earned their second county title in the last three seasons, will face Bellmore JFK in the Long Island Class AA championship game on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Farmingdale State College.
“It is just incredible,” Hauppauge coach Josh Gutes said. “We’ve just been trying to win one game one time, and we did that seven straight times. And in that sixth inning, we just needed to get one run right now to give ourselves a shot, and we scored five. We’ve been staying in the moment and not worrying about what could happen . . . I love these guys. They are such great competitors, and we’ve been locked in for two weeks straight.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
