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Sports

Raiders End Summer Season In Split Doubleheader

JV baseball team faces off against Babylon varsity.

Ending the season with a double-header, the Patchogue-Medford High School Raiders junior varsity baseball team finished with a split against the Babylon High School varsity Panthers on July 29.

"I'm definitely proud of these guys," said head coach Mike Giusto, who noted that the JV Raiders have been playing against varsity teams all summer. This, he noted, is because Pat-Med does not have a JV league for its summer team.

The first game saw starting pitcher PJ Martino helping out his own cause by going two-for-four, including an inside-the-park homerun. Martino pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up only one run in the Raiders' 7-1 win.

In the second game, pitcher Mike Campanella, who also had two RBIs in the first game, battled through three innings, giving up four runs in the Pat-Med 6-0 loss.

After walking the lead-off batter in the top of the first inning, Campanella gave up a hit to speedy Panther Dan Cody, who had three stolen bases. With Cody on second, Panthers pitcher Matthew Finelli ripped a base hit to right, driving in the first run of the game. A second run scored on a throwing error, making it 2-0 Panthers.

The Raiders went quietly in the bottom of the first, and Campanella pitched in and out of trouble to start the top of the second. Following the Raiders' one-two-three inning in the third, the Panthers surged ahead, scoring two more runs to make it 4-0. They added two more in the top of the fourth, with Matt Watt doubling off Raiders reliever Sam Campanella.

Finelli threw four innings of shutout ball before the game was called due to lack of sunlight.

"We were just running out of gas," Giusto said of his team's performance in the second game. While noting that the JV Raiders finished the season 5-16, Giusto said he is very happy with the way the team battled against varsity-level players all summer. "We had a good season," said Giusto, who also coaches the Pat-Med JV baseball team during the school year. "These guys played great. I'm looking forward to the new season."

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