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| Photo Credit: Baseball Player Magazine |
Two consecutive years the Massapequa Chiefs were on the verge of capturing the Long Island Championship. Each time they came tantalizing short.
“We had runners on second and third with a good hitter at the plate,” said Head Coach Tom Sheedy. “We thought we would win, but it didn’t work out. That’s baseball,” he added.
“West Islip is a fundamentally sound team, they made no mistakes. They had a great pitcher on the mound and so did we,” he added.
That great pitcher the Chiefs had on the mound, Alex Cosenza, was an All-County pitcher. He went on to graduate and is now playing at Hofstra University, like many of their best players from 2014.
In total, the Chiefs lost eight of their starters from last year and they are all playing college ball. Sheedy noted that each year they generally have six to eight players play collegiately, but it has been as high as 10 guys.
The downside to that, is that the 2015 team is lacking in experienced players. Only one starter from 2014, Jesse Nakashian, is with the team this year.
“He’ll probably be our No. 3 hitter.” said Sheedy. “We’ll also be counting on his leadership–to make sure things are going the way they’re supposed to,” he added.
The team will also be dependent on catcher Mike Wall, whom Sheedy described as a “good hitter with a strong arm” behind the plate. “He works hard enough to be the catcher we want him to be”.
On the mound, Sheedy noted that there are no big names, “no Alex Cosenza’s” this year but they’re pretty deep. The staff is consisted primarily of sophomores and juniors that were on JV last year and a couple seniors coming back from injuries or that did not play last season. Three of the pitchers have previous varsity experience in “limited but big spots”.
That does not both Sheedy because of they have been working hard, the deep talent pool of Massapequa and the winning formula that they have put together in recent years.
The Chiefs are supposed to open up the season on March 30 against Baldwin but that is not definite to happen because of the field condition.
There will be a meeting this week with the coaches of the committee to decide whether to push the season back. Sheedy noted that the pitchers have only thrown once. While they would be able to throw each pitcher three innings at a time, he stated that not many teams would be comfortable with doing that.
