By Dylan Butler
While he would have liked a little more run support, Brian Duffy had no complaints about the pace of the Bayside Yankees National Junior Baseball League game Monday at Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y.
The Little Neck native cruised in the Wood Bat division game, giving up just six hits in 6.2 innings before Mike Wanamaker closed things out for the Senior Nationals in a 1-0 win over the Long Island Mudcats in less than two hours.
“It helps me get into a rhythm. I feel fresh throughout,” said Duffy, a 6-foot-2 righty at Archbishop Molloy. “It’s not good that we’re not scoring runs, but it’s good that the game goes quick.”
Duffy barely broke a sweat, striking out seven on just 76 pitches. Mixing a lively changeup with a decent fastball, Duffy didn’t give up his first hit — an infield single — until the fourth inning.
In the fifth inning the Mudcats had runners on second and third with one out, but Duffy got Mike McLasky to weakly bounce back to the mound and then got Ricky Caputo looking at a changeup on the outside corner for strike three.
“His changeup was working well,” said Bayside catcher Gavin Walsh. “And his fastball was locating well on the outside, which the umpire was calling all day.”
Duffy, who usually goes about five innings, quickly got the first two outs of the seventh but then allowed back-to-back infield singles to Mike Orbon and McLasky.
Duffy’s father and Bayside pitching coach George Duffy then called on hard-throwing Wanamaker, who was the designated hitter, to close the door on the Mudcats’ rally.
After walking Caputo to load the bases, the Nyack High School standout struck out Long Island pitcher Bill Purdy to end the game.
Bayside (6-6, 5-1) scratched the game’s only run across in the bottom of the fourth. After Brian Mason legged out an infield single — the only hit Purdy allowed — Matt Acevedo reached on an error.
A throwing error by Caputo, the Mudcats second of three miscues on the left side of the infield, allowed Mason to score on the same play.
“It’s a lack of production,” Bayside head coach Ryan Nevins said. “But it takes about 40 to 50 at-bats for them to get used to the wood (bats).”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by email at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
