County Playoffs: Deer Park Sinks West Baseball

A day after stunning top-seeded Lindenhurst, the Deer Park Falcons traveled to Dix Hills Wednesday and handed Hills West a 6-1 loss in the second round of the Class AA county baseball playoffs. 

The ninth-seeded Colts got on the board first against Deer Park pitcher Tom Kastelan in the bottom of the third when third baseman Luke Stampfl smashed a triple to drive home Matt Natale, who singled earlier in the inning. 

Kastelan shut down the Colts the rest of the way, though, allowing six hits and striking out eight in the complete game. 

"We had a nice matchup," West head coach Tom Migliozzi said after the game. "Unfortunately, when it comes to the playoffs, you can't leave that many players on base and you can't go into the seventh inning with four hits and really deserve to win a game." 

It was in the top of the seventh inning when Deer Park, the 16-seed, blew the game open. With the game tied at one, Lenny Baldassare led off with a single against West's Mike Kaufman, who was solid through six innings.  

Two batters later, Deer Park's Joe Paparella pounded a double to score Baldassare and put the Falcons on top for good. Deer Park would tack on four more runs in the inning.

The Colts loaded the bases in their last chance at bat in the seventh, but southpaw Kastelan got out of the jam, striking out Dylan Mouzakes to end the game. 

"Deer Park did an unbelievable job for their program by knocking off number one Lindenhurst," Migliozzi said of the Falcons 1-0 victory in the first round, "but they've got two good lefty pitchers and a good lefty pitcher can beat anybody."

Unfortunately for Hills West, that proved to be way too true on Wednesday. 

The Colts still have more baseball to play, though, as they will host the 10-seed, West Islip, Thursday at 4 p.m. in the losers' bracket. This time they will be playing for their season.