Long Island erupts for 19 runs in rout of Staten Island

Staten Island grabbed the first punch, but Long Island delivered the knockout sequence in the third inning and kept piling on until the 19-3 final at SIUH Community Park became impossible to ignore. Matt Hogan opened the scoring with a two-run homer to right-center in the second off Ducks starter Nolan Clenney, but the FerryHawks’ lead lasted only a few batters before the Ducks seized control in the fourth game of a six-game series on June 26.

The flip came fast. Gavin Collins lined an RBI double, and Long Island drew three straight bases-loaded walks from Alsander Womack, Jorge Bonifacio and Kole Kaler to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead in the third. Nick Decker briefly kept Staten Island close with a two-out solo home run in the fourth, trimming the margin to 4-3, but that was as close as the FerryHawks got the rest of the night.

Long Island then buried the game with a four-inning avalanche that looked less like a one-off burst than a lineup built to punish any pitcher who fell behind. The Ducks scored six in the fifth, one in the sixth, six in the seventh and one in the eighth. Aaron Takacs added a two-run single, Collins finished with two hits, six RBIs, one run and a walk, and Wilmer Difo posted two hits, two RBIs and three runs as the order kept turning over with traffic on the bases.

The loudest swing came from Jacob Robson, who launched a 439-foot grand slam in the seventh for his third grand slam of the 2026 season. Ian Yetsko followed with a 389-foot two-run homer in the eighth, a final layer on a night that showed how dangerous Long Island can be when it forces pitchers into the strike zone and then finishes mistakes with power.

Clenney earned the win and moved to 5-3, while Hiro Yamada took the loss and fell to 0-3. The Ducks backed up the outburst two days later with a 17-3 win in the series finale on June 28, giving Long Island two blowout victories in the set and pushing the clubs farther apart in the Atlantic League standings, where the scoreboard listed the Ducks at 35-25 and the FerryHawks at 10-50 around June 30.