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In the middle of the Westhampton lineup for the great majority of the season, Cole Miller (Georgia Tech) has been asked time and again to do one thing: drive in runs. On Tuesday night at Cochran Park in Peconic, the sophomore carried out his duties and, as a result, lengthened the second-seeded Aviators’ season by at least another day.

With a pair of doubles, including a bases-clearing two-bagger to break a 1-1 tie in the seventh, Miller drove in all four Aviator runs as they knocked off No. 3 North Fork, 4-2. The teams play a do-or-die game three on Wednesday at Aviator Field beginning at 4:30pm. The winner will advance to the HCBL championship series to face fourth-seeded Center Moriches, which knocked off regular-season champ Sag Harbor in a pair of extra-inning games, including a 3-2 victory Tuesday in 10.

“We’ve been working hard to get here all year, and for me to come up in a big spot, I give all the credit to my teammates for putting me in that position,” Miller said. “They brought in a sidearmer and I just tried to stay inside the ball,a nd I was lucky enough to get the barrel on it.”

The seventh-inning rally began with a two-out walk to Joey Havrilak (Akron), and when Ryan Spaulding (Ball State) singled, that chased Ospreys starter Tyler Knight (Virginia Tech). Reliever David Deliz (Wright State) hit JC Brandmaier (Dowling) with the first pitch he threw, bringing up Miller with the bases loaded. Miller lined the ball into left field and the ball skipped past a diving Michael Fries (Butler) and rolled to the wall, allowing all three runners to score. Miller went 3 for 4 on the night, with his sixth-inning double to center knotting the game at one apiece.

North Fork’s golden opportunity to answer back came in the bottom of the eighth when it loaded the bases with nobody out on singles by Mike Hayden (Saint Anselm), Tom O’Neill (Yale) and Ryan Solberg (Wisconsin Milwaukee), who just beat the throw to first after grounding a ball over the second-base bag. Then came the pitcher’s best friend – a routine double play ball – and Spaulding flipped to Rick Alessi (Tampa) for one and Alessi fired to first for the twin killing. North Fork did cut the lead to 4-2 on the play, but reliever Myles Gentry (Mississippi State) prevented further damage by striking out Tyler Bethune (Lipscomb) looking.

Jim Ploeger (Arkansas Pine Bluff) came on to slam the door in the ninth, doing so on a popped-up bunt and two strikeouts. It secured the victory for Westhampton lefthander Kyle Raleigh (Ball State), who gave up six hits and one run over seven innings. The senior walked two and struck out five.