On Wednesday afternoon, the baseball team closed the regular season with a 12-3 win over former rival Southold in their first match-up on Oaklawn Avenue in four years.

The Bears opened the scoring in the 2nd inning when Seth Laureano led off with a walk before coming home on a Jojo Franco single and an error by the right fielder. Franco later scored on a passed ball before RBI singles by Alex Baaden and Sebastian Perez gave the Brook a 4-0 lead. Aaaron Babaev needed just 11 pitches to get through the bottom of the 2nd before running into a bit of trouble in the 3rd. After the sophomore sat down the first two batters of the inning, the Settlers staged a rally, loading the bases on a hit by pitch and a pair of walks before a walk and a double cut their deficit back to 3-4. Babaev recovered to strike out the last batter of the inning, then threw up a zero in the 4th after the Bear offense broke it open in the top half.

A Franco single, a Sam Ribeiro DiCanio hit by pitch, and a Jadden Rodriguez single plated the first run of the inning. A Baaden sacrifice fly, an Isaiah Gibbs double, a Perez single, and a two-run error by the shortstop gave the Brook a commanding 10-3 lead they would not relinquish. The Brook added two more runs in the 6th on an E1 and a Tyler Jones single and Rodriguez and Ribeiro DiCanio yielded just two combined hits over the final three innings to shutdown the Settler offense and nail down the win.

Now the Bears wait to see if they have earned an at-large bid into the NYSAIS Tournament. They will find out their postseason fate tomorrow.

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