Babylon tops Carle Place in LI Class B baseball championship game
Catcher Charlie Murphy of Babylon gets Thomas Schoch Carle Place out at home during the Long Island Class B baseball final on Saturday, June 7, 2025 in Farmingdale. Credit: Dawn McCormick
The ball had barely left the infield in the bottom of the fourth inning, but Babylon’s three-run lead over Carle Place was suddenly in danger.
Tommy Schoch hit a leadoff single that trickled through the left side, Ryan Kang hit an infield single and Colin Driscoll had a bunt single to load the bases with no outs.
Babylon coach Michael Birnbaum called for a mound visit. The message was simple.
“I went out to just settle them,” Birnbaum said. “Told pitcher] Gavin [McDonnell], just keep working. They haven’t gotten the ball out of the infield, and if you do that again, they won’t score.”
McDonnell retired the next three batters with only seven pitches: a fielder’s choice groundout to third baseman Brett Coffey to get Schoch at home, an infield fly and an unassisted groundout to first baseman Tobin Gold.
The senior righthander’s Houdini act preserved momentum for Babylon, which added two insurance runs in the top of the fifth inning en route to a 6-1 win in the Long Island Class B baseball championship game Saturday at Farmingdale State.
McDonnell tossed a complete game, striking out four, walking one and allowing eight hits and an earned run.
“Just get outs,” McDonnell said of the fourth inning. “The score doesn’t matter. Just get as many people out as you can. You can only control throwing the ball for strikes.”
Designated hitter Aidan Kistner, who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored, had a unique vantage point from the dugout.
“Just keep on rooting for my guys — yelling for Gavin, yelling for everyone,” Kistner said. “Just keep on talking to him, and he got out of it. It was great.”
Babylon (20-3), which lost to Wheatley in the Long Island Class B final last year, won its first Long Island title since 2023 and sixth in program history.
“I tell them all the time, whether it be a win or a loss, next season starts after the last pitch of the season,” Birnbaum said. “They came out, we’ve came out winter every day. We were there at the school until 10 p.m. on weeknights . . . but it’s a testament to the way they work.
“Hopefully we got a lot more baseball. We got 14 innings to go, hopefully.”
Babylon will meet the winner of Sunday’s game between Section X’s Canton and Section II’s Mechanicville in a state semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday at Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton.
“Friday, just come watch,” McDonnell said. “It’s going to be fun.”
After a 34-minute rain delay, Babylon took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Kistner and Joe Cavallo (2-for-4, two RBIs) each had RBI singles and Gio Rodriguez scored after a two-out infield error.
Johnny Harkins hit a one-out double in the fifth, and Kistner scored him with a triple. Jake Ostertag’s sacrifice fly plated Kistner to make it 5-0.
Carle Place (18-7) got a run back in the sixth on Driscoll’s RBI infield single, but Babylon answered in the seventh as Cavallo’s RBI double made it 6-1.
Schoch struck out five in a complete game for the Frogs, who won their first Nassau title since 2003 last month.
“The message was really just, ‘It wasn’t our day, guys, but let’s remember what we accomplished this year and how this team is the first team to win a Class B Nassau County championship since 2003,’ ” Carle Place coach Stephen Laurino said. “And more importantly, on a deeper level, this team changed the culture of Carle Place baseball back to what it used to be in the ’80s and the ’90s, when we were winning every year.
“They changed the culture back to get us going back that way, to be competing for county championships every year.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
