Lucas Eagleston belted an RBI triple and soon scored in the fifth inning for Giac Squad.
By Rich Bevensee
Opposing pitchers Jeremy Leone and Jameson Hummel were tossing zeroes at each other and were bound to be the story of the game until Alex Kute stole the spotlight with the final swing of the game.
Kute, entering the game as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh inning with no time left on the game clock, wasn’t really concerned that walking to the plate was his only exercise to that point.
With one out and the potential winning run in scoring position, the lefty hitting Kute lofted a 2-2 pitch into shallow right field to score courtesy runner Jacob Varghese and propel the Giac Squad to a 3-2 walk-off victory over previously undefeated Rochester (N.Y.) Seminoles Showcase in Week 2 of the Super 17 Invitational Powered by Victus on Friday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“That was great,” said Kute, a rising senior at Mepham High in North Bellmore, Long Island, N.Y. “I was on the bench almost the entire game. I got to come in, got my chance and I delivered. I’m happy I could produce for my team.”
The win salvaged a 2-2 finish this week for the Giac Squad, which is based in Farmingdale, Long Island, and named for program founder Joe Giacamantonio. Earlier this week the Giac Squad defeated NE Mariners American, 4-3, and lost to Baseball U PA Prospects, 10-1, and to the 2027 Boilermakers, 8-4.
The Seminoles (3-1) had their undefeated week spoiled by Giac’s guys. They registered wins over the CT Tides, 5-4, Wow Factor NE National, 11-1, and MVP South Shore Fiore, 3-1.
Leone, who left the game with the score tied at 2-2, threw six innings and struck out five while allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits and two walks. Pat Annello pitched a scoreless seventh and got the win.
Leone, a 6-3, 230-pound righty and rising senior at Holy Trinity in Hicksville, Long Island, allowed two runs, one of which was unearned, on one hit, one walk and two errors in the top of the third inning while a slight mist shrouded ‘The Nation’ and made things slippery for all pitchers.
In his other five innings of work he was dominant, holding Rochester scoreless and permitting just one hit and one walk.
“It was pretty good actually,” Leone said. “I’ve been working a lot in the gym, trying to keep my weight forward and repeat my arm action. Velo was a little down – it was a little slippery on the mound – so I was trying to stay in the zone more. The changeup has been a struggle for me for a little bit but today it was really good.”
Leone, who has drawn a lot of interest from Division 2 and 3 colleges, said he wasn’t concerned with allowing Rochester to draw first blood or pitching from behind. Giac didn’t rally to tie the game until the bottom of the fifth.
Jack Barons rounds first after his fifth-inning double for the Seminoles.
“It’s baseball. It’s gonna happen when you give up runs,” Leone said. “You have to keep a clear mindset and just focus on throwing. For me it’s just, First pitch ground ball. That’s all I ever think about. That’s the mindset I was taught to have.”
The reason Giac was playing from behind the first four innings was because of Hummel, a 5-11, 175-pound righty and rising senior at Aquinas Institute in Rochester. Hummel pitched four shutout innings and didn’t permit a single base hit.
“I had my slider going, I was throwing the curveball a little bit, the fastball was there and I have a splitter occasionally,” Hummel said. “I liked my slider a lot, it was working really well today. It was throwing people off-balance and I was getting a lot of strikeouts with it.”
Hummel did, however, give up six walks, which kept Giac in scoring position in two of his four innings.
“I would say it was a good outing but I gotta’ limit my walks,” Hummel said. “I have to extend more because I was shortening and I was definitely leaving the fastball up and slipping a little bit.”
Rochester took control with two runs in the third inning. Jason Frederick reached on an infield error, advanced to second on Parker Schaffer’s base on balls and scored on an infield error. Jack Lander made it 2-0 with an RBI single to drive in Schaffer.
Giac finally evened the score in the bottom of the fifth off Seminoles reliever Barry Austin. Lucas Eagleston tripled with two out to drive in Joe Arlia and one pitch later he scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the seventh and facing Seminoles reliever Jackson Forney, Giac’s Leo Alesia led off with a walk and gave way to courtesy runner Jacob Varghese. Arlia came up with no outs and sacrificed Varghese to second. Mikey Arteca then walked to set the stage for Kute.
“My mentality was to put the ball in play, try to get something out of the infield,” Kute said. “On that last pitch I was sitting on a fastball because I was a little early on his last fastball so I thought he would try to get me with it again. But then I saw the curveball dive down and I took it and got it over the second baseman’s head.”