Chris Desiderio, Garden City sweep their way into championship series

Walk, single, single — bases loaded, nobody out for East Meadow. Chris Desiderio had an early problem to try and solve on the mound for Garden City.

The Trojans were trying to complete a two-game sweep in the Nassau Class AA semis and move on to the championship series. The teams were scoreless in the second Saturday at East Meadow.

“I just knew I had to bear down, pitch to contact, throw strikes,” Desiderio said. “Got the bottom of the order up. Make a play.”

After getting a swinging strikeout, he induced a comebacker and threw home to start a double play. Problem solved. Or as Jets coach Bill O’Connor put it, “That’s a killer.”

Desiderio skillfully weaved out of traffic that time and other times, leaving eight on base over five scoreless innings. The second-seeded Trojans emerged with a 4-1 victory over the No. 3 Jets.

So Garden City is going to pursue its first Nassau crown since 2021 when it last made a title round.

“It’s an opportunity,” Trojans coach Dave Izzo said. “You don’t get it too often. It’s exciting. The boys have been working hard. So I’m glad we have a chance to compete for a championship.”

They will compete against either top-seeded Bellmore JFK or No. 4 Carey in a best-of-three showdown beginning at 1 p.m. Thursday at Farmingdale State. That other semifinal series is tied at 1-1.

“It would really mean a lot to me (to win it) with my boys, my last year playing baseball in high school,” senior catcher Shea Burns said after delivering two hits, including an RBI single.

These boys are up to 21-4. The strength?

“Pitching and defense,” Izzo said.

Desiderio yielded five hits and five walks, but the junior lefty’s escape skills helped him improve to 7-0.

Skylar Lang relieved him and escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the sixth.

And then with the potential tying run at the plate after Daron Lake’s RBI single, Jimmy Trocchia induced a game-ending 4-6-3 double play. The Jets left 11 on base.

“They had the key hits and unfortunately we didn’t have the timely hits today,” O’Connor said.

Garden City took a 1-0 lead against sophomore lefty Matt Esslinger (5-1) in the third on Evan Cabral’s sac fly.

Burns grounded his run-scoring single into right in a two-run fourth, driving in Kyle Walsh, who had three hits. Lang capped it with a two-out, bases-loaded walk, Esslinger’s final batter.

Mateo Fortney added an RBI single in the fifth.

“We get hits when we need them,” Burns said.

East Meadow, with 12 seniors, exited at 17-7.

“The kids really did well,” O’Connor said. “… I’m excited about next year, too. There’s a (good) young crop of kids right now.”