By Dylan Butler
Brian Honeyman is used to coming into baseball games pitching relief, but getting a late game at-bat? That’s another story.
But with one out in the eighth inning of a scoreless game against the Bayside Yankees, Honeyman delivered an opposite field single to right, breaking a combined no-hitter by Mark Foris and Sean Ellison en route to the Long Island Cardinals’ 1-0 win Monday at Pace University.
Not bad for a guy who hasn’t batted regularly in four years.
“I knew they were coming with a fastball because they weren’t going to waste any pitches because they thought I couldn’t hit,” said Honeyman, a standout at Molloy headed for Queens College. “I just went up there looking for fastballs.”
Following Honeyman’s hit, Frank Turzo laced a single to left field and then both runners — Darin Mastrioianni running for Honeyman and Turzo — advanced on Kenny Bowers’ ground out to second.
Yi-Chang Chiang came in to pinch-hit, but the Francis Lewis standout didn’t need to take the bat off his shoulders as Ellison’s wild pitch bounced in front of catcher Rob Yodice and allowed Mastrioianni to score the game-winning run.
“Very poor pitch selection,” said Bayside Yankees coach Marc Cuseta. “But when our pitchers throw seven innings of no-hit ball and we can’t get a run across the plate it’s hard to blame any one guy.”
Bayside (9-2, 4-2 National Junior Baseball League) stranded eight runners, including five in scoring position with less than two out.
“The bats fell asleep. You knew something bad was going to happen if you didn’t get any hits,” said Bayside first baseman Mike Baxter. “We had chances and we left guys on, and when that happens you don’t win games.”
Long Island (4-4, 3-2) also left eight runners on, including three in scoring position, which has been the team’s bugaboo since the start of the season.
Yankees starter Mark Foris tossed 4.1 innings of no-hit ball but after walking Charlie Foster in the fifth inning, Cuseta pulled the St. Francis Prep standout who is heading to the U.S. Naval Academy in favor of hard-throwing Sean Ellison.
“He was getting the ball up a little in that last inning he was in, but 80 was his (pitch count) max anyway,” Cuseta said of Foris, who threw 77 pitches. “They were getting into the heart of their order, and we were looking for a little bit of a harder thrower in that spot.”
Cuseta certainly got that from Ellison, who struck out seven of the first 10 batters he faced.
The Cardinals’ pitching tandem of Anthony Smith and Honeyman wasn’t too shabby either. Smith, who topped out at 88 mph, threw 112 pitches in 6.2 innings, allowing three hits while striking out nine and walking five.
“I think for the most part the entire game I was living on the outside part of the plate,” said Smith, who is heading to George Washington in the fall. “That really let me get ahead of the batters and then throw whatever I wanted to throw. They were having trouble hitting it, so I just stayed with it all game long.”
Honeyman, who reached a career-high 87 mph, came in with runners on first and second in the seventh inning and struck out Eric Williams before pitching a scoreless eighth to earn the win.
But it was his unlikely eighth inning hit that proved to be the difference for the Cardinals.
“I’d love to take the credit for it, but to be honest, our options at that point were limited and you always want to leave your best pitcher and defense out there and hope to win,” said Cardinals head coach Ian Millman. “Brian’s been bugging me for two years he can hit. He just went with the pitch and won his own game for himself.”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
