Lady Whalers greet a lineup of police, firemen and ems workers as the Pierson Lady Whalers took on the Stony Brook Lady Bears at Pierson High School in a game honoring the fire, police and EMS emergency workers of Sag Harbor on Friday, 5/3/13

By Gavin Menu

An emotional rollercoaster ended with a slam Tuesday night for the Lady Whalers softball team. A grand slam, that is.

With a first-place League VIII showdown between Pierson-Bridgehampton and Babylon looming large yesterday afternoon, one thing had already become perfectly clear over the last week.

The Lady Whalers are the class of Class C in Suffolk County.

Pierson easily defeated Stony Brook, 12-0, at home on Friday, capping a festive day in which the team honored local emergency response personnel. Then on Tuesday, the Lady Whalers knocked off Port Jefferson, 8-4, in dramatic fashion after junior shortstop Kasey Gilbride hit two homeruns, the second a grand slam in the top of the eighth inning that gave Pierson a four-run lead.

Sophomore ace Sam Duchemin shut down the Lady Royals in the bottom of the eighth inning and Pierson improved to 8-5 heading into last night’s home against Babylon (9-4), which occurred too late for press time.

A win over Babylon would have moved the Lady Whalers into a tie for first place in League VIII with just two regular season games remaining before the Class C playoffs begin on May 22.

Pierson will host Southold/Greenport on Monday, May 13 at 4:30 p.m. before wrapping up the regular season on the road May 15 at McGann-Mercy. If Babylon won last night, it would need to lose one its last two games for Pierson to have a chance at sharing the league title.

But before any of that could be settled, the Lady Whalers celebrated on the bus ride home from Port Jeff on Tuesday. Playing without starting second baseman Sabrina Baum, who missed the game because of illness, the Lady Whalers struggled defensively but had enough pop in their bats to make up for it.

Gilbride and Duchemin both went 3-for-4 at the plate and Emma Romeo went 2-for-5. Romeo, Lottie Evans and Erica Selyukova all came home on Gilbride’s late-inning grand-slam heroics.

“My heart was in my throat the last three innings,” head coach Melissa Edwards said late on Tuesday as the team made its way back to Sag Harbor. “It was awesome, it was insane. Their field is in a big ditch and Kasey cleared the whole field. The ball probably went 230 feet.”

Edwards wore her heart on her sleeve at last Friday’s appreciation day, where the team honored the Sag Harbor Police Department and volunteers from the Sag Harbor Fire Department and Ambulance Corps, with chiefs from each department throwing out a first pitch. Edwards experienced their work first-hand when her father, Charles Edwards, passed away following a car crash in Sag Harbor last year.

“At the end of the day, if it had to happen, I’m glad it happened in Sag Harbor,” Edwards said about her father’s accident. “It was really nice to just take a step back and honor them. And a lot of our girls, their parents are these people.”

Many of the first responders stayed for the game, which Pierson dominated from start to finish to officially clinch a spot in the postseason, and enjoyed food provided by the team and boxes of Cracker Jacks that were passed out by players during the game.

“Our jerseys had my father’s name on the sleeve because I personally wanted to thank the community for all they did for me last season,” Edwards said. “It was a tragic event in my life, but the love I received and my family received was something I will never forget. This community pulls together when times are hard and they kept me up.”

The wins are piling up for the Pierson-Bridgehampton baseball team and so is the strikeout total for lefty ace Colman Vila, who fanned another 18 batters in a 10-0 win over Stony Brook on Monday that clinched the League IX title for the Whalers.

Pierson (18-1) played at Stony Brook in the second game of a three-game series on Tuesday and won again, 10-0.

With the team set to wrap up the regular season today, May 9, at home against Stony Brook, the Whalers are in cruise control even as their lefty ace is in overdrive.

“Colman is pitching really well,” Pierson head coach Jon Tortorella said. “All of our pitchers have been doing a great job. It has been our strength all season.”

Spanning his last two starts, which included a no-hitter against Shelter Island, Vila has allowed one hit while striking out 35 in 14 innings, a remarkable total considering the team recorded only 42 outs total. For the season, Vila has 105 strikeouts in 47 innings.

And while League IX hitters are certainly not tops in Suffolk County, Whaler fans should like their team’s chances in a three-game playoff series with Vila potentially able to start two of the games.

And what’s more scary for upcoming playoff opponents is that Pierson’s strength only begins with Vila on the mound. Jake Bennett and Forrest Loesch have proven to be strong second and third starters and Nick Kruel and Tim Markowski have been dominant in relief.

With the team’s defense having played well all season, Pierson’s recent offensive explosion could mean a deep run in the upcoming postseason.

“Complete? Not yet,” Tortorella said when asked if his team’s offense and defense had clicked to create a complete team heading into the playoffs. “We’re moving towards that but there’s still a lot of improvement needed in all areas of our game. Defense and pitching have been consistently strong. We need to do a better job at the plate.”

According to a New York State Sportswriters Association poll last week, Pierson was ranked third in the state among Class C schools behind Lansing from Section IV and Fabius-Pompey of Section III. Haldane, which knocked the Whalers out of the state tournament in a regional final last year, is currently ranked eleventh.

Pierson will most likely have to get past Southold or Port Jefferson, or both, in the Suffolk County Class C playoffs, which are tentatively set to begin on Monday, May 20, and the only Class C school in Nassau County this year is Friends Academy. East Rockaway, which Pierson beat in a thriller to win the Long Island Championship last year, moved up to Class B this season.

All that aside, Tortorella on Tuesday said his focus will remain on the team’s immediate future, ignoring the bigger picture until the time is right.

“We just have to keep moving in the right direction,” Tortorella said. “Every step has to be a positive one.”

That old adage “what a difference a day makes” really rang true this week past. Fishing has definitely gotten much better.

The striped bass are biting. Fish up to 36″ are taking trolled bucktails. You could probably catch them on frames but the grass has been a problem. Fluke fishermen have been working Greenport and the Greenlawns. More shorts than keepers have been caught but there are enough to keep it interesting. Better fluking in the ocean has been reported. There has been a showing of weakfish too.

And those jumbo porgies have shown up in the Peconics. Some fish up to four pounds have been taking clams. I hope you have your boat or tackle ready. Even reports of bluefish are in Shinnecock Bay which means that the Peconics are next. As the water warms fishing should pick up in tempo.

Casters are catching bass and bluefish inside of Shinnecock. Other reports show bass coming from the Peconics for casters. There are still many seals in the area. There are no reports of squid so far.

The Walker Cup, a biennial golf challenge between amateur teams from the United States and Great Britain/Ireland, returns to the National Golf Links of America in Southampton this September, 91 years after the event was founded and first played at the course in 1922. At a press conference in the National’s club house Monday morning, members of the USGA introduced U.S. team captain Jim Holtgrieve who said he is currently narrowing 16 possible team members down to a 10 member squad. Holtgrieve, who led the team to a narrow 14-12 loss in 2011 at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland, said he is optimistic about this year’s chances.

“We didn’t win in 2011, but I want to win this year,” said Holtgrieve. “But, it’s not only about winning. It’s about taking 10 young men to give them the experience of their lifetime, and give them the chance to play for their country.”

Professional golfers who played for the Walker Cup when they were amateurs include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy.

The event will be held over the weekend of September 7 and 8, with practice rounds on Friday September 6, and will feature 18 singles matches and eight foursomes.

Tickets, ranging in price from $25 for the practice rounds to $250 for a 3-day pass including access to a hospitality tent, are currently available at www.2013walkercup.com.

Breakwater Kicks Off May Sailing Series

Skippered by Greg Ames and Steven Kenny, Gossip won the opening race of the Breakwater Yacht Club’s May Series on Wednesday May 1 with a corrected time of 1 hour, 11 minutes and 40 seconds.

Eleven boats turned out for the opening race, among them the club’s own J70s handled by junior sailors as well as an Ericson 38 skippered by the club’s newest board member, Ian Evans.

Lee Oldak, skippering Purple Haze, finished second in 1:13:23 and George Martin aboard Osprey finished third.

As of last week, a total of 13 entries had registered for the May racing series.

Harvey and Schliecher Score, But Bonackers Fall Again

Pierson’s Drew Harvey and Jack Schliecher have been consistent scoring threats for the East Hampton boys lacrosse team this season, although the Bonackers have struggled to keep up in the competitive ranks of Suffolk County’s Division II. Harvey scored two goals and Schliecher scored once in a 15-4 loss to Babylon on May 3 as the Bonackers fell to 4-8 in division play.

The Bonackers will close out their season with two winnable games this week, starting today, May 9, at home against Mt. Sinai at 4:30 p.m. The season will come to a close on Saturday, May 11 with a 10 a.m. game at McGann-Mercy, which is winless in Division II play.

Pierson’s Meg Schiavoni makes the tag at third base as the Pierson Lady Whalers took on the Bayport Lady Phantoms at Pierson High School on Friday, 4/26/13

By Gavin Menu

It has been a tough few games for the Pierson-Bridgehampton softball team, which took its lumps over the last week as it moved through the League VII-VIII crossover portion of this season’s schedule.

The Lady Whalers dropped three straight games to Hampton Bays, Bayport-Blue Point and Shoreham-Wading River over the last week and fell to 6-5 on the season. They still kept pace in League VIII with first-place Babylon (7-4), which also dropped crossover games and led Pierson by just one game going into this week’s action.

The Lady Whalers will host Stony Brook tomorrow, May 3, at 4:30 p.m. and will travel to Port Jefferson on May 7 for a road game at 4:30 p.m. If all goes according to plan, Pierson will have a shot at moving into position for a share of the league title when it plays Babylon on May 8.

Head coach Melissa Edwards this week said the Lady Whalers should improve after having played strong competition in the crossover games, better preparing them for the home stretch of the league schedule and the Suffolk County Class C playoffs, which are tentatively set to begin on May 22.

Pierson dropped a heartbreaker to Hampton Bays on April 24, losing 8-7 after taking a three-run lead into the bottom of the seventh inning. Playing at home on Friday, Lady Whalers ace Sam Duchemin allowed two runs in the first inning as Bayport jumped out early and held on for a 7-2 win.

The Lady Whalers also lost, 12-0, to Shoreham on Tuesday.

“League VII is stronger than us, but I would much rather play teams like this and lose than have those blowout wins,” Edwards said on Friday following the loss to Bayport. “I’d rather have a battle. Winning a game 17-0, that’s not good for our team.”

After Bayport put up two runs in the first inning, Pierson had a scoring chance in the bottom of the first, but Sabrina Baum was thrown out sliding into home plate. Going into the top of the third inning, Edwards moved shortstop Kasey Gilbride to left field in an effort to bolster the team’s defense, but as it turned out, Bayport tacked on three more runs on balls hit directly to the middle infield, where the sure-handed Gilbride normally would have been.

“That didn’t go as well as I wanted it to,” Edwards said with a laugh. “They hit Sam really well one through five and Kasey is my best athlete, and with her arm and her range, I put her out there where I thought the ball was going to be hit. Go figure it gets hit to shortstop three times.”

Edwards said she is looking forward to the Class C playoffs, where Pierson would have to get through Port Jefferson, Mercy or Stony Brook, teams they beat easily earlier in the season. Edwards is unaware of what Class C teams might await in Nassau County or further upstate, where the Lady Whalers fell just two wins short of a state championship last season.

“For the last four or five years, the program has been going up and getting better and better,” Edwards said. “And we’ve become kind of complacent with not setting the bar higher, with just showing up, and that can’t happen.

“I’m setting the bar high for this team, but I have to remember that I have a lot of first-year players in pretty important positions,” she continued. “Still, at the end of the day, if we take care of what we have to do, and if my girls show up and play like they’re supposed to, we will be fine.”

A good week turned even better Monday afternoon for Colman Vila, who has been nothing short of sensational for the Pierson-Bridgehampton baseball team this season.

The Whalers’ lefty ace tossed a no-hitter with 17 strikeouts, allowing just one walk in the first inning, to beat visiting Shelter Island, 9-0, in the first meeting of a three-game series with the rival Indians on Monday.

Vila stated the obvious after the game, saying that pitching the no-hitter did not come easy. He immediately gave credit to his teammates, especially catcher Aaron Schiavoni, and to his head coach, Jon Tortorella, for h  delping achieve the milestone.

“It was definitely hard,” Vila said. “Tortorella said at the start of the game to be smart with my pitches and Aaron called a great game. And there were a couple line drives to Kyle [Sturmann) and Nick [Kruel] where they made nice plays.”

Earlier in the week, Vila decided that he would attend the University of Delaware next year, where he will be given a chance to walk on for his freshman season and play Division I baseball in the Colonial Athletic Association. Vila was not awarded an athletic scholarship, which was less important since he had already secured scholarship money for academics.

“I’ve been talking to the coach and he said if I play well I could have a shot at making the team,” Vila said on Tuesday. “He told me last Sunday he has a spot for me on the fall roster and from there I have to try-out to make the team in the spring.”

Vila’s father, Benito, who is also an assistant coach for the Whalers, said Delaware is short on left-handed pitching and that the strength and conditioning coach was already planning to provide Colman with a workout routine for the summer.

“Playing on that level requires lots of work off the field, as well as in the classroom and after school,” Benito said. “It’s constant and consistent effort, often with little immediate reward.”

Vila on Monday allowed an early walk after an error by third baseman Joe Faraguna that put two runners on base for Shelter Island. But he picked up his pace on the mound and routinely sat down hitters for the rest of the afternoon using an effective mix of fastballs, change-ups and curveballs. What began as a showdown between two talented southpaws quickly became the Colman Vila show as Indians lefty Spencer Gibbs was unable to keep pace.

“His control was a little off early, but then he started finding his groove,” Tortorella said. “He got his location back and when guys put the ball in play, the defense helped him. He did a good job adjusting.”

Offensively, Tim Markowski hit a two-run single in the first inning and Johnny Chisholm came off the bench with a two-run single in the fifth. The Whalers tacked on four more insurance runs in the sixth inning.

The Whalers improved their League IX record to 14-1 and with only five games remaining hold a two-game lead over second-place Smithtown Christian. Pierson can lock up the league title as early as next week. The series with the Indians shifts to Shelter Island today at 4:30 p.m., before wrapping up back at Mashashimuet Park tomorrow, May 3, with another 4:30 p.m. start

Tortorella has scheduled scrimmages against Mattituck and Southampton for the week after the season to help prepare the Whalers for what is sure to be stiffer competition once the playoffs begin.

“Hopefully those scrimmages are a little more competitive,” Vila said on Tuesday, having already shifted his focus to upcoming games and his ultimate goal of winning a state title.

The Pierson-Bridgehampton softball team will host a Sag Harbor Emergency Response Appreciation Day tomorrow, May 3, during a home game against Stony Brook, which starts at 4:30 p.m. Southampton Town Police Officer Todd Bennett will play bagpipes during the pregame and one member from each emergency response team will throw out the first pitch simultaneously. The team will provide food and baked goods for the volunteers next to emergency response vehicles, which, weather permitting, will be parked in left field.

Continued Success for McGowin

Pierson graduate Kyle McGowin, a junior pitcher at Savannah State University, was named the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week after allowing just four hits in a complete game 2-0 win over North Carolina A&T on April 25. McGowin has a perfect 10-0 record with a 1.53 ERA and 103 strikeouts, which is the second most in the nation behind only Carlos Rodon of North Carolina State, who has 105. McGowin, who has been moving up prospect lists for the upcoming Major League Baseball draft this season, is tied for second most in the country with ten wins.

Bonac Lacrosse Splits Pair

Pierson junior Drew Harvey scored five goals and added two assists during the East Hampton boys lacrosse team’s 12-3 win over Hampton Bays last Wednesday, April 24. Jack Schliecher, also from Pierson, scored two goals in the win.

The Bonackers fell back to Earth on Monday, however, with a 10-3 loss to Islip that dropped the team’s record in Division II play to 4-7. With three games remaining, the Bonackers have 87.180 power points and, barring a miraculous finish, will miss out on the postseason.

The team plays at Babylon tomorrow, May 3, at 7 p.m. and will host rival Southampton, which competes only at the junior varsity level, in a scrimmage on Monday at 4 p.m.

We are seeing a few more mild days but winter still lingers with a couple of frosty mornings. Because last year’s spring was so warm we are expecting the same. This seems more like a typical Long Island spring. Water temps are definitely warming up and the fish are starting to show up.

Trap fishermen are seeing the first fluke, weakfish, striped bass and squid. They have been catching bunkers and alewives. Large shiners are in the bay.

Fluke season opened on May 1 and the boats have caught fish in the ocean at Shinnecock and Montauk. There will be fish in the bay but we will see if they bite or not. A few striped bass have been caught both at the local creeks and in the ocean. There are even reports of a couple of keepers. Further west the bass and flounder fishing has been good.

Local squid reports have been quiet. Montauk usually has squid by now. Warm weather is the main ingredient for the season to start. Flounder reports have been quiet with few participants. There are still plenty of seals locally. The diving ducks have left for the northern breeding grounds. I received a call from a local birder that they observed a snowy owl at Sagg.

Pierson’s Forrest Loesch beats the throw home during the Pierson Whalers vs. the Greenport Porters game at Mashashimuet Park on Monday, 4/22/13

By Gavin Menu

Cheers erupted from the Greenport dugout Monday afternoon as a groundball rolled toward Pierson second baseman Kyle Sturmann for a routine out. It was that kind of day for the visiting Porters.

Colman Vila dominated for Pierson (11-1, League IX), just as he has done all season, striking out 13 batters over five innings as the Whalers bounced back from their only loss of the season, a 4-2 setback to Smithtown Christian on April 19. Pierson dominated Monday afternoon with a 16-0 win over Greenport (5-7) to open a three-game series with the North Fork rival at Mashashimuet Park.

Leadoff hitter Jack Fitzpatrick went 3-for-5 with a triple, two runs scored and an RBI. Tim Markowski went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored and each time the Whalers erupted on offense, which they did often thanks to a slew of errors by the Porters, Vila would take the mound in the following half-inning and completely shutdown the Greenport attack.

Throwing his trademark knuckleball, Nick Kruel pitched two shutout innings in relief to close out the game.

“The hard part is trying to still play the game the right way,” Pierson head coach Jon Tortorella said. “When you see another team making mistakes like that, it’s easy to play outside yourself. It’s very important we still understand the right away to play, and we did that.”

In last Friday’s loss to Smithtown Christian, Crusaders ace Jake DiNozzi pitched a complete game four-hitter, allowing just two earned runs while striking out 10. Forrest Loesch started for the Whalers and gave up all four runs in the first four innings, two of which were the result of errors. In the top of the fourth, Loesch and Aaron Schiavoni knocked in runs to bring the Whalers within a run at 3-2, but the Crusaders added an insurance run in the bottom of the fourth inning and DiNozzi took it from there. Vila came on and pitched in relief with two shutout innings, but the Whalers were unable to put together another threat at the plate.

“It was really good pitching,” Tortorella said, giving credit to DiNozzi. “Forrest did a great job too. In those games it’s going to come down to one or two plays. We made two defensive mistakes, and it was really the only two mistakes we made all day. “

Pierson still won two-out-of-three games in the series with the second-place Crusaders (8-3) and now the Whalers seem like a lock to win another league title with just seven games remaining against Greenport, Shelter Island and Stony Brook, teams with a combined 8-26 record as of Tuesday.

“The one thing about this group is we’re taking it game by game,” Tortorella said. “The loss itself isn’t necessarily a good thing, but knowing what it’s like to be down and have to fight back, to have that is good. And more import, we understand playoff-wise, we’re going to face some really good teams down the line. As long as we keep getting better, and doing the right things, we’ll be fine.”

The Whalers, who hosted the Porters again yesterday after press time, will wrap up that series at Greenport today, April 25, at 4:30 p.m. before opening a three-game set with Shelter Island at home on April 29 at 4:30 p.m.

The Suffolk County Class C playoffs are tentatively set to begin on May 20.

By Gavin Menu

A new manager will be at the helm of the Sag Harbor Whalers baseball team this summer, hoping to breathe new life into the program, which is now entering its sixth season.

Brendan Monaghan, an assistant coach at St. John’s University and former all-star with the Long Island Ducks minor league team, will manage the Whalers starting with the opener on Sunday, June 2.

Monaghan recently returned to St. John’s, where he was a first-team All-Big East player, after spending four years as a professional, signing first with the Baltimore Orioles as an un-drafted free agent. In 2011, he hit .291 with 18 doubles and 24 RBIs in his all-star season with the Ducks.

But now he has turned his career toward coaching, and in an interview this week said he was looking forward to taking another step in that progression by managing the Whalers of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League (HCBL) this summer.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to be out there,” Monaghan said. “I’ve heard how great the community is and I’m excited to be part of it.”

Roots for the HCBL began in 2008 with one franchise, the Hampton Whalers, who in their first season won the Kaiser Division of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League, which no longer exists. Four new teams joined the league the following year, and two more joined last year. Today, teams from Center Moriches, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Westhampton, Sag Harbor, the North Fork and Southampton, the league’s defending champion, compete in the HCBL.

The Whalers will host Shelter Island at 5 p.m. on June 2 to kick off a 40-game schedule.

“All the kids are college players and they’re all off at their respective schools right now, so you get about two days of meet and greet and then you just roll it out there and see what fits,” Monaghan said. “You get kids from all over the place, from all different levels.”

Monaghan said this year’s roster includes players from top-level and lower-level Division I schools and from the lower divisions as well. The Whalers roster includes Pierson graduate Brandon Kruel, a junior at Long Island University’s CW Post, as well as Deilyn Guzman, a graduate of East Hampton High School who is now a sophomore at Molloy College. Monaghan said summer leagues are all about the players having an opportunity to continue their development, hopefully in a nurturing atmosphere.

“It’s about making the kids understand what they need to do to get better,” the Whalers new manager added. “As college coaches, we send kids away to play, to get more at bats or more innings. But you also want to win, you want to be competitive. I think you learn more about the game when you’re in a competitive atmosphere.”