Port Washington Little League beaten by Bayonne for first loss in Metro Region
BRISTOL, Conn. — The Port Washington 12U Little League baseball team is still human.
The squad suffered its first loss of the Metro Region tournament, 12-2, to New Jersey’s Bayonne on Monday afternoon at the Little League East Region headquarters.
Following the tough loss, Port Washington manager Dave Gabriel said: “That’s baseball.”
“Today wasn’t our day,” Gabriel said. “They were the better team and we didn’t play our brand of baseball. We just have to get back to doing what we’ve been doing. Kudos to [Bayonne], they put the ball in play and they put pressure on us, but we made mistakes today that we haven’t made this whole summer and we can play better in the field.”
Despite the loss, Port Washington’s Williamsport hopes are still alive. The team will next face Connecticut’s Darien in an elimination game at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The winner of Wednesday’s game will take on Bayonne in the championship at 7 p.m. Friday.
For now, Gabriel said his team’s focus is to bounce back.
“We’ll do something as a team, bond and get away from baseball for today,” Gabriel said. “We’ll come back tomorrow, get a good practice in during the day and then we’ll be back on Wednesday, ready to play.”
Port Washington fell behind early, giving up four runs in the bottom of the first inning. Bayonne’s Mason Rincon uncorked a two-run homer over the centerfield fence and AJ Tapia hit a two-run double before first baseman Max Dempsey closed the inning with a putout.
Michael Gabriel scored on a wild pitch to earn Port Washington's first run and Brandon Kien hit an RBI single that scored Ethan Spitalnik and cut the deficit to 4-2 in the top of the second.
Bayonne scored on a wild pitch, but Port Washington ended the second inning with an impressive 9-2-6 double play. Carlo Cafferata caught the leftfield fly ball on a hop, sending it to Drew Theoharis, who tagged a runner at home before throwing it to Kien, getting the out at second base to end the inning trailing 5-2.
Rincon pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third to keep Port Washington from chipping away further before Bayonne’s hitting broke the game open. Two-run hits from Chase Klimkowski and Joey Dwyer put four more on the board, and Brayden Gaitan's RBI single extended Bayonne's lead to 10-2.
After not having pitched beyond Long Island competition, centerfielder Walt Cassens got on the mound for the final 1 ⅔ innings in relief, striking out one. Gabriel said his composure under pressure is a testament to Port Washington’s depth.
“Walt has been playing great centerfield for us, and he looked good on the mound,” Gabriel said. “We took him in from the field, he warmed up and he pitched well under not great circumstances.”
Though morale may be low following the tough loss, Cassens said his team’s pride will help it bounce back for Wednesday’s game.
“Even though we’re representing the whole state, we’re still Port Washington and we’re still representing our town, which is kind of crazy,” Cassens said. “I’m looking forward to playing good baseball with my teammates.”
Following another 1-2-3 inning, Port Washington surrendered a Bayonne single and a walk before intentionally walking Rincon to load the bases before Jett Bridges connected on a walk-off two-run double. Because of a 10-run rule, the game wrapped at 12-2 after four innings.
Dave Gabriel said the intentional walk is not a decision made lightly, but it was an attempt to minimize the damage at that stage in the game.
“It’s tough, because [Rincon] is a really good player,” Gabriel said. “He can do a lot of damage when he gets up to the plate and we saw that earlier in the game. We want to take it situation by situation and we want to pitch to him, but we missed the spot and he took advantage of it.”
With Port Washington’s Williamsport dream on the line, Gabriel said the plan is to take it day by day.
“I tell the boys, ‘One pitch at a time, one game at a time,’” he said. “I’m not worried about Friday. Right now, it’s all eyes on Wednesday.”
Tess Ferguson is a reporter on Newsday's high school sports staff. She joined the team after graduating with a journalism degree from Ithaca College in 2025.
Long Island's Own
