Lynbrook Falls to Island Trees in Season Opener

The Lynbrook varsity baseball team opened its season at home on Tuesday afternoon against Island Trees, but fell 8-3. The Bulldogs (2-0) put up all eight of their runs in the first two innings to cruise to a victory over the Owls (0-1).

Pitcher Mike Witteck picked up the win for Island Trees, allowing just three hits and two earned runs over four innings and striking out five batters.

Danny Grossi had a rough start to his season for Lynbrook, going two innings and allowing five earned runs on five hits and four walks, along with picking up four strikeouts.

“We played a great last five innings, but the first two were ugly to say the least,” Lynbrook head coach Al Marrazzo said. “If you take the positives away from the game and focus on that and then work on what you did incorrectly, then it won’t happen again this year.”

Island Trees picked up an RBI single and RBI double early on in the first off of Grossi. With the bases loaded, Lynbrook walked in a third run. In the second inning, the Owls committed three errors in the field as the Bulldogs put together five more runs, including a two-out, two-RBI double by Dom Raucci.

Lynbrook finally got a run across in the third inning after an RBI infield single by Alex Weingarten. The Owls tacked on two more runs in the fifth inning off of an RBI double by Vin Sharkey to score Andrew Marks and a run by Brian Billelo after an Island Trees error.

After the two-run fifth, Lynbrook was shut out the final two frames to close out the tough loss on their opening day.

Billelo and Sharkey both went 2-for-4 with a single and double each for Lynbrook. The Owls out-hit the Bulldogs, 8-5, in the game.

After the first two innings, Weingarten and Will Norris combined for five innings and eight strikeouts, all the while not surrendering a single hit. Weingarten pitched four of the five innings in relief and collected six of the strikeouts.

“Weingarten and Norris were great today for us, and Grossi will be better because he has a lot of ability and has to focus a little more and just stay calm,” Marrazzo added.

Lynbrook will play in another non-league game at home against Valley Stream Central on Saturday at 11 a.m. before they get into their first crossover league series against Glen Cove on Monday. 

Box Score:       1 2 3     4 5 6     7       R  H  E

Island Trees:  3 5 0    0 0 0    0       8   5   2

Lynbrook:       0 0 1     0 2 0    0       3  8   4

Winning Pitcher — M.Witteck (1-0)

Losing Pitcher — D.Grossi (0-1)