Ward Melville baseball preps for league play

By Steven Zaitz

The Ward Melville Patriots baseball team played a scrimmage against Brooklyn-based Grand Street Campus this past Sunday, March 24.

After the all-day and night downpour on Saturday, the skies were blue on Sunday, but that didn’t mean it was ideal baseball weather. With the early-morning start time, a whipping wind, and a temperature that barely crawled into the 40’s, it was a day more suited for ice fishing than baseball.

It looked like Ward Melville was playing with some frozen fingers early on as a botched bunt play and an outfield overthrow in the second inning led to four unearned runs for the Wolves, who would win 5-1.

Nick Carnovale, Andrew Poxon and Ben Ferraro pitched for the Patriots.

Ward Melville played again on Monday and had a big, late-inning rally to beat Brentwood 9-8. First baseman Joe Karpowicz and outfielder Danny Cornish had RBI singles in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Patriots were down by 8-5 entering the inning. 

Pitcher Jason Stiles threw three scoreless innings for the win in relief of starter Patrick Duryea. The Patriots played their final non league game on March 27 against East Islip and will start the regular season with a three-game set against Connetquot on April 2.

— Photos by Steven Zaitz