The Mattituck baseball team has endured a difficult season, winning only one game, but that hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of first-year head coach Joe Tardif.

He keeps it upbeat, with positive reinforcement to his squad.

“It’s a great day to hit!”

“Way to hustle 2!!”

“We’ve got to play winning baseball.”

Tardif was hoping the Tuckers would earn their second win in a Suffolk County League VII home game against Elwood-John Glenn on Friday, May 1, but they dropped a 3-0 decision.

“For the situation we’re in and the program that we have, I stress the little things,” he said. “I stress the fundamentals. Those are the things that are going to close the gap between us and the teams who are a little bit stronger than we are. In a seven-inning game, you don’t have much time to make up for mistakes. Today, for example, we had four missed bunt attempts. We got picked off, had a couple lapses defensively. You can’t do those things. You got to be almost perfect.”

Tardif is considered one of the best athletes to come out of Mattituck. He was a member of two state championship teams (soccer and baseball) during the 2014-15 academic year. He was named the state Class B baseball player of the year and was twice selected as Mattituck’s boys athlete of the year by The Suffolk Times.

He has been patient.

“I talked to them in the beginning of the year and reminded them that baseball is a hard sport,” he said. “It’s very hard. It’s a sport you fail at more times than not. You need to have a certain mindset to play it.  You need to have a short memory. A strikeout isn’t, ‘Oh, woe is me.’ It’s, ‘Okay, I’m going to get the next one.’ That’s the mindset. It’s next play, next pitch, next opportunity to be successful.”

It was anyone’s game through five innings as sophomore right-hander Brayden Kruk and Glenn’s Connor Bletsch tussled in a classic pitcher’s duel.

Kruk fanned the first four batters and finished with 10 strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.

“I was able to locate my fastball on the outside corner very well,” he said. “I was also able to locate my slider. Especially with either a 2-2 or 3-2 count, I was able to drop it in there for a strike as well as throw it down when I needed to get a strike.”

After Kruk struck out Anthony Germano to start the sixth, Armando Muniz doubled to left field. Dillon DeRiggi struck out but reached first on a passed ball. After DeRiggi stole second base, pitcher Bletsch rapped a two-run double to center field. Bletsch scored on Jake Mullman’s single to left.

“Bletsch did a great job,” Tardif said. “He sat on a 3-2 curveball and blasted it to center. Sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap to the other team.”

Reliever Eddie Meier retired the next two batters.

“I was getting tired,” Kruk said. “I was at 70 pitches, and I just started hanging my slider over the plate. They just were sitting back on, and they were able to put the ball into the gap. There’s nothing I can do about that at that point.”

The Tuckers (1-11, 1-10) tried to rally in the bottom of the inning. Pinch hitter Jake Hutchinson led off with a walk, and Michael Buckley followed with a single. But they were stranded as Bletsch retired the next three batters.

Despite the defeat to the Knights (2-10, 2-9), Tardif was impressed with Kruk.

“Brayden’s just a gamer,” he said. “He competes out there, he’s competitive. Anytime he has the ball, we know he’s going to give us a chance to at least be in the game.  He’s smart. He throws strikes, doesn’t walk guys and he does everything I ask. Today, the coaches and I let him and Crosby [Palmeri, catcher] call the game a little bit. They were in sync with almost everything that Crosby was calling, and then Kruk was executing.  It was beautiful to see.”

Despite the frustrating season, Kruk plans to return as a leader next year.

“I’ve learned from the current seniors,” he said, “especially the senior leaders, on how I can develop into being a better leader for next year with the younger guys, and how I could show the same ways that they showed the newer guys and me this year and the year before.”

The post Despite rough season, Mattituck baseball building with strong outings from Brayden Kruk appeared first on The Suffolk Times.

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