It was just two years ago that West Islip rode the right arm of sophomore James Kory and senior Nick Arnold to their second Suffolk County Class AA championship in seven years.
Having lost in the first-round of the playoffs to Smithtown West last year, however, the team is not one to rest on their laurels and are looking to ride their pitching staff back to June baseball.
Kory, now a senior, will be leading the rotation and hitting in the middle of the order. He will be joined by another senior, Ray Weber, who will be heading to the University at Albany in the fall. Weber, a returning All-County player, will play SS when he’s not pitching.
Sixth year Head Coach Shawn Rush stated that they are essentially “co-aces” and either of them is worthy of the first start of a series.
“We have always been a team that prided itself on pitching and defense,” said Rush. “We have a quality staff. There’s four or five guys behind them (Kory and Weber) that are quality arms,” he added.
To name a few, there’s Tom Montigio–who pitched quite a bit last season, Jimmy Mattera–who defeated North Babylon, Riverhead and Bellport, and Jon Risedorf.
The offense will be no pushover, either, for the Lions.
Catcher Nick Valenti will be tasked with providing pop on offense as well as handling the talented rotation.
“He ended up playing a lot more than expected last season,” said Rush. “He worked really hard to get himself into tremendous shape. He’s caught all of these guys, so he’s developed a good rapport with them,” he added.
They will be counting on sophomore Jake Guercio to be an impact bat. He logged significant time as a freshman in 2015.
Last year’s team has high expectations, coming off the title run the year before. They knew they had a tall order in replacing an elite pitcher like Nick Arnold, who won eight games the previous year. They also had to replace leadoff man extraordinaire Sam Ilario, currently at the University of Rhode Island. He batted .543 during the regular season in 2014. Players of that ilk don’t grow on trees.
Additionally, they had to deal with a Half Hollow Hills West team that was looking to exact revenge for the County finals.
They were swept, losing by the scores of 7-2, 3-2 and 10-9. They recovered to finished 11-10 and still qualify for a playoff berth.
Smithtown West overcame a 4-1 deficit to defeat them 5-4.
Now with one more year under the belt for their juniors and seniors, they figure to be a tough out in the playoffs–assuming they qualify.
