Riverhead Beats North Fork in Tight Extra Inning Contest

The Riverhead Tomcats and North Fork Ospreys played an exciting game that went the full eight innings at ultimately saw Riverhead beating North Fork by a final score of 4-3.

The Ospreys would get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI double by Brayden Thompson (Bates) that scored Max Doninger (St. Peter’s) to give North Fork a 1-0 lead.

Riverhead answered back in the top of the second on an RBI single from Matt Hesselbirg (Mercy) to tie the game at 1-1. Hesselbirg would give the Tomcats the lead in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly that scored Evan Schickler (Rider) as Riverhead now had a 2-1 lead.

The score would last until the bottom of the seventh as Josh Polanco (Molloy) came on to try and get the save for the Tomcats. North Fork would load the bases with one out as Thompson stepped up to bat and would work a five-pitch walk to tie the score at 2-2.

Polanco would work his way out of the jam by getting Manny Carreras (Pace) to pop up to third base and get Cam LaGrassa (Brown) to ground out to short to send the game to the eighth inning.

In the eighth inning with a man on and two out, Schickler would homer for Riverhead putting the Tomcats back in the lead up 4-2.

Polanco would face trouble in the bottom of the eighth as North Fork would get a run to score on a passed ball that scored Mike Siano (St. Lawrence) cutting the Tomcats lead down to one run.

The Tomcats would turn to Hesselbirg to get the final out of the game as he would get Doninger to fly out to right field giving Riverhead an extra-inning win.

For Hesselbirg in addition to his save on the mound, his two RBI in the game marked his fourth consecutive game with at least two RBI. Hesselbirg now currently leads the HCBL in RBI on the season with 14 while batting .412.