BY ADAM RONIS
Islip is going for its second consecutive Class A state title and has a 20-game winning streak. The semifinal opponent is Pittsford Sutherland (Section V). I'm here at NYSEG Stadium. Laura Albanese is covering Massapequa against Hilton in a Class AA semifinal. She's at Union-Endicott HS with no wireless connection, so she'll send me some updates.
FINAL SCORE: MASSAPEQUA 4, HILTON 0
Massapequa will play in the state championship game at 4 p.m.
ISLIP WINS 5-4 and will play in the state championship game scheduled for 4 p.m., but it will likely start later since Islip's game went 2:45 pushing back the other semifinal. Also, some rain is heading here, so there might be a delay. Check back for more coverage.
Bottom 7: Burke faces the top of the order. Brill flies to center for the first out.
Topf gets caught looking for out No. 2. Coleman singles to center on an 0-and-2 pitch. Osterman hits a grounder to shortstop Rogers, who commits an error. Might not have got an out if he fielded it cleanly anyway. Menard with a full count swings and misses.
Top 7: Brian Papszycki grounds out to third for the first out. Going dunks a single into centerfield and Tom Cronau is the pinch runner. Provenzano hits an infield single to put runners at first and second one out. Once again, Islip threatens. Swisher is being taken out of the game. Craig Cymerman, a lefthander, is into pitch. Espinal is up to bat. He walks on four pitches and in a the blink of an eye, coach Jim Capellupo snatches the ball and sends Cymerman to the dugout. Never seen anything like that. I'd love to see that happen to Elijah Dukes. At least his pitch count (4) was low. Ryan Fennell comes in with the bases loaded and based on warmups, he throws very hard. Tom Kriss is up and he is 2-for-2 with a walk. Kriss was behind 0-and-2 and the count is now full. Kriss walks to score the go-ahead run. Very impressive at-bat and I've seen that from Islip all season. They all work deep counts and that was a typical Islip at-bat. Islip leads 5-4. Matt Kriss strikes out on three pitches. Rogers is up. He flys to center on the first pitch to end the inning. Islip 5, PS 4
Bottom 6: Burke gets a strikeout and fly ball to leftfield for the first two outs. Brad Kaczka hits a pinch-hit double to left-center. Githens grounds out to second for the final out. Still tied heading to the seventh. Islip 4, PS 4
Top 6: Tom Kriss leads off with a single to leftfield. Matt Kriss gets hit by a pitch. Rogers and Burke are up. This is the time for Islip. Rogers tries to bunt twice and then hits a line drive to left field on a 1-and-2 pitch. Burke is up. Burke fouls out to first for the second out. Schlittenhardt is now up. He hits a slow roller to the first baseman, who beats Schlittenhardt to the bag for the final out. A huge missed opportunity for Islip. Islip 4, PS 4
Bottom 5: Johnny Brill walks to start the inning. Topf tries to bunt him over and pops it up behind home plate. Provenzano makes a nice diving catch for the out. Patrick Coleman flied out to center for the second out. Brill steals second base with Osterman at the plate, who had an RBI double his last at-bat. Burke walks him, althought the 2-and-2 pitch looked like a strike to everyone in the press box. Burke strikes out Menard to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4
Top 5: With two outs, Stephen Provenzano singled to leftfield. Espinal strikes out to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4
Bottom 4:Excellent leaping grab by third baseman Matt Kriss on a grounder and he makes a strong throw to first to retire the leadoff hitter. Dillon Lowe reached on an infield single and Burke tries to pick him off and the throw goes into rightfield sending Lowe to second. Nick Flemister gets caught looking for the second out. Tom Githerns also strikes out looking for the final out. Burke has five strikeouts. Islip 4, PS 4
Top 4: Rogers led off with a single and got caught stealing. Burke then hit a blast to deep centerfield, but it's 400 feet away and it was caught on the warning track. Schlittenhardt grounded out to second to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4
Bottom 3: Islip commits an error to start the inning. With one out, Sean Osterman hits a drive to deep centerfield for an RBI double to tie the score at 4. He gets picked off second base and Menard grounds out to short to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4
Top 3:Islip takes advantage of a PS error. Second baseman Brian Topf dropped an easy pop-up about 30 feet behind second base to allow Going to reach second base. With two outs, Matt Espinal singled to score Going and give the Bucs a 4-3 lead. Tom Kriss singled and after a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, PS takes out Menard. Ryan Swisher is the new pitcher. Matt Kriss strikes out to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 3.
An update from Laura Albanese, Massapequa leads Hilton, 4-0, in a Class AA semifinal in the top of the fifth inning. Mike Mandarino has allowed four hits in four innings.
Bottom 2: Great job by Burke after a tough first inning. A quick 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout and two grounders. Just what he needed after exerting a lot of energy in the first inning.
Top 2: Kyle Menard continues to struggle with his control and Islip couldn't take advantage. He walked the first two batters in the inning, but a sac bunt attempt didn't work as Menard got the out at third. Rogers was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out and Burke hit a sac fly to tie the score at 3. Jason Schlittenhardt grounded out to second to end the inning. Menard has thrown a ton of pitches. It has taken 54 minutes to play one and a half innings.
First inning: Islip took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI double by Robert Rogers and RJ Going had an RBI single. Chris Burke had a rough first inning for Islip. He allowed a three-run double and walked two in the inning. Islip trails 3-2 after one inning.