FerryHawks edge Ducks 2-1 behind strong pitching duel

One swing changed everything at SIUH Community Park, and Long Island did not have enough answers after it. The Ducks lost 2-1 to Staten Island on June 27 in the fifth game of a six-game series, after Gregori Cano’s fifth-inning triple erased Wilmer Difo’s early lead and flipped the game for good.

Difo put Long Island in front in the third inning with a solo home run to right field off Nick Payero, giving the Ducks the kind of slim advantage that usually matters in a game this tight. It did not last. Cano drove a two-run triple to right in the fifth off Tanner Jacobson, and that was the decisive swing in a game where every pitch carried postseason weight.

Payero was the sharper starter over the longest stretch. He improved to 2-5 after working seven innings, allowing one run on four hits and two walks while striking out six. Staten Island never needed more than that because Cano delivered the only scoring burst the FerryHawks could manufacture, and Pedro Payano finished it by recording the final four outs for his first save. Payano struck out three and walked two, closing down any late Ducks push.

Jacobson was good enough to win most nights, but not this one. He took the loss and fell to 1-3 after allowing two runs on two hits and one walk in 4.1 innings, with six strikeouts. Long Island could not cash in once Staten Island seized the lead, and the Ducks were left with a lone run from Difo’s homer to show for a night when the margin for error disappeared quickly.

The result landed in a series that had already swung violently. Long Island had beaten Staten Island 19-3 on June 26, one day after the FerryHawks won 11-4 on June 25, and the June 27 game brought the temperature all the way down into a true pitcher’s duel. The clubs were set to meet again in the series finale on June 28 at 1:30 p.m. in Staten Island, with Long Island scheduled to return home Tuesday, June 30, to open a three-game homestand against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.

Long Island entered its 26th Atlantic League season still carrying the league’s all-time lead in wins and attendance, with 724 sold-out games, while the Atlantic League describes itself as MLB’s first Professional Partner League and says it has sent more than 1,450 players to MLB organizations. On a night like this, though, the bigger numbers never mattered as much as Cano’s one swing.