Hills West Rebuilding on the Fly

By Vinny Messana

Over the past three seasons, Half Hollow Hills West has flown under the radar as one of the most successful teams in all of Long Island.

They have compiled a record of 54-17 while winning the League IV title two of those years. Unfortunately, all three years they ran into red-hot teams in the postseason, whether it be Connetquot in 2013, West Islip in ’14 for Smithtown East this past season.

After going 15-5 they were pitted against another League champ. Despite getting out to an early 6-0 lead in the first inning, they were held in check by Greg Maitles and defeated 8-6.

Head Coach Tom Migliozzi, now in his 24th season, knows things would have been different had he had his ace, Aaron Glickstein, who went down with a torn UCL in February that required Tommy John surgery.

“Without a doubt,” he said in regards to whether Glickstein’s presence would’ve made a difference in that game. “He was the best pitcher on Long Island. During the third week of his junior season he learned how to throw downhill and threw 48 consecutive scoreless innings. He was an automatic win,” he added.

Now the team will be forced to replace him, who went on to accept a scholarship to pitch for Matt Senk at Stony Brook. Despite being just one year removed from the ligament replacement, he is close to 100 percent ready.

They also lost star pitcher Jon Faraci, who won three games and went on to attend St. John’s University on a baseball scholarship.

Infielder Owen McMenamy was a key cog in their lineup and attended Iona College on a scholarship. Outfielder Nick Lombardi accepted a scholarship to play at NYIT.

So, is he concerned this team is not yet ready to win at the level they have sustained for several years?

Not when he has another ace, Bradley Camarda. in line to fill the void.

“Bradly beat out all our other pitchers to start that first playoff game as a sophomore,” he said in regards to him, not at all sounding unsure of his young ace.

He accepted a scholarship to pitch at Hofstra beginning in the fall of 2017.

“Hofstra’s pitching coach, John Habyan, is very pleased with Brad’s mechanics. He feels his potential is through the roof and he’s only starting his junior year,” he added.

The rotation will be rounded out by a “bunch of kids who are not proven”, according to Migliozzi. They all, however, bring something to the table.

Evan Alcazar has a difficult arm angle to pick up. James Madden has a great change up. Peter Jacobs has a great curve, while Frank Tricamo has the velocity. Only the latter two have pitched at this level.

He also noted he doesn’t know what to expect from the offense at this point. He believes they will be tough to get out because of their mental toughness.

“We have a bunch of kids that will dig in and be a tough out, maybe without hitting the ball 400 feet. We’re just going to have a bunch of tough outs in our lineup,” he added.

They kick off the season against Huntington on March 29 at home. It might not be a team with four Div-I prospects, but under Coach Migliozzi, they have not had many down years so it’s impossible to count them out.