Ward Melville Wins Long Island Title

Junior righthander Chris Cepeda squeezed the comebacker in his glove and sprinted toward first base before flipping the ball to Phil Carballeira for the final out.

Then mayhem ensued as the entire Ward Melville baseball team converged on its star pitcher, burying Cepeda under a sea of yellow jerseys and assorted arms and limbs.

Cepeda continued his clutch postseason, tossing a three-hit shutout as the Patriots edged Massapequa, 1-0, Tuesday to claim the first Long Island Class AA championship in program history.

“I knew Chris Cepeda was throwing a gem today,” Ward Melville Coach Lou Petrucci said.

No one was more impressed than senior Anthony Kay, who scored Ward Melville’s lone run and is the staff’s ace. “Unbelievable – that’s all I can say,” Kay said of Cepeda’s performance. “I knew he was in a zone. I knew he could do it.”

Nassau champ Massapequa (20-6) threatened in the top of the seventh. Brian Flecker reached on a fielder’s choice and went to second on a groundout one batter later. That set the stage for No. 9 hitter Matt Pagano, who gave the capacity crowd of 750 at the Dowling Sports Complex in Shirley something to chew on when he lined an 0-1 pitch down the right field line just foul.

“I was really, really confident today in my fastball and my pitches,” Cepeda said. “I knew I could get out of it. I loved that moment.”

Cepeda, who earned his seventh win of the year and finished with three strikeouts, served up a 1-2 pitch that Pagano grounded back to the mound. Game over.

Related: Game Photos

The Patriots have had more famous hurlers. New York Mets second round pick Stephen Matz, a 2009 graduate and star pitcher, may be Ward Melville’s most famous baseball commodity. But these Patriots are fast rewriting the program’s history.

Kay and Cepeda have been as unhittable as any pitching duo in the state of late.    

Ward Melville (20-5), fresh off its first Suffolk title, moves on to the state Final Four Saturday 10 a.m. at Binghamton University. The Patriots will face the Shenendehowa-Baldwinsville quarterfinal winner.

The Patriots scored their lone run in the bottom of the first. Kay’s one-out bunt single was followed by Greg Coman’s double. Kay came home on junior Kyle Pedroli’s ground ball to second.

Fundamentally sound and improving week by week, Ward Melville is on a roll. Just one more weekend of baseball is left. And the usual suspects – the Hills Wests and Connetquots – are finished.

Ward Meville is now two wins from an improbable state championship.

“If someone told us at the beginning of the season we would do this I wouldn’t believe it,” said Kay, who will start Saturday’s semifinal. “But we did it.”