Sports
Mineola 9/10 Summer Baseball Continues Winning Streak
Team earns fifth strain victory with 5-4 win against Merillon.
On August 8 the Mineola 9/10 Summer baseball team hosted a team from the Merillon Little League of New Hyde Park at the . Mineola edged out the victory with a 5-4 win, earning their .
As has been the case all season, Mineola pitching held sway as the team utilized five pitchers to nail down the victory: Jimmy Tighe, Zach Buongiovanni, Steven Collica, Ryan Burke and Derek Lekhwani, who struck out the side in the sixth inning to earn the save.
The Mineola defense was led by Dominic Ferreira, who made an unassisted double play on a line drive to third, making the catch and tagging out a Merillon runner attempting to advance.
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In the same inning, secondbaseman Kieran O’Gara made a catch on a high pop-up to short right. Thomas Tugander earned the “heads up” play of the game when he alertly backed up second on a throw from left field to second base. The ball got away from the second baseman but Tugander threw out the runner trying to advance. Late in the game, thirdbaseman Vincent Aidalia threw a frozen rope to catcher Zach Buongiovanni thwarting a Merillon rally.
Key hits were contributed from Mineola players Jimmy Tighe, Ryan Burke, Steven Collica, Zach Buongiovanni, Thomas Tugander (triple), Mike Librandi and Vincent Aidalia.
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The “hero of the game” belonged to Tighe, the brother of Jimmy Tighe, was pressed into service and asked to “play up” because Mineola was short a player at the start of the game, getting on base and playing a major part in the victory.
The Mineola Summer baseball team is a developmental team that stresses fun and learning. Players are assigned to different positions and challenged to try pitching and catching. The team has weekly clinics with guest instructors that develop their pitching, hitting and fielding skills. The clinics have featured a unique, “catcher’s station” at which an older travel team catcher works with the boys on this unique position. They also feature “guest instructors” that focus on a particular aspect of the game.
