by Vinny Messana
Injuries are something almost every team needs to deal with. When the injuries pile up, however, it hits a point when it’s simply too much to deal with.
That was North Babylon last season.
After starting the season 4-2, they lost some key seniors and it led to a very difficult second half of the season.
Head Coach Steve Corrado knows this year bodes different for his squad.
“We have 13 seniors on this team,” he said. “Much more experience than you’d expect. The best part about this team is the TEAM, the camaraderie–the way they get along. You can see they are more like a family. We hope that leads to more wins on the field,” he added.
Of those 13 seniors, they have two extremely talented pitchers–Pat McCabe and Steven Burke.
Burke, who accepted a scholarship to the College of St. Rose, might be coming off a tough year in terms of wins and losses, but Corrado noted the caveat there.
“Don’t be fooled by the 0-5 record,” he said. “He pitched well enough to win most of those games, we just didn’t defend him well–guys making errors or pitchers coming in and blowing the save.”
Burke is also the CF and No. 3 hitter on the team. He was named All-League last year, which probably should’ve been All-County based on the numbers. He slashed .417/.481/.458 for a terrific .940 OPS. He also stole 13 bases, and Corrado noted he plays a Gold Glove center field as well.
Co-ace Pat McCabe could probably be a No. 1 pitcher on many teams. He’ll be headed to LIU Post in the fall. Corrado spoke highly of him as well.
“Pat is a baseball coach’s dream. He is a coach on the field. He’s a pitcher’s pitcher. He doesn’t throw–he pitches. He throws four different pitches and can throw them all for strikes. If you look at the stats., he has an incredible strike-to-ball ratio. He’s the type of kid, you can not only see him being a success, but down the road you can see him being someone that can run a program. He comes from a great family, one of them was a coach at St. Joe’s for a long time. He’s going to be a big part of our pitching staff,” he added.
Offensively, the team will not only be counting on Burke but also catcher Dylan Towey. He accepted a scholarship to play at SUNY Brockport. After playing the outfield last year, Corrado noted he is back in the right spot this year. He hit .293 last season with a .339 OBP.
Additionally, they will look for big 1b Joe DeBlasi to provide some punch this year.
“We know he can hit. We went through the learning curve last year, we’re just waiting for him to do it,” he said.
Corrado is high on shortstop Joe Barbuto–who will also be the No. 3 pitcher as well, and 1b/DH Nick Balfe.
Interestingly enough, there are some comparisons between the 2016 North Babylon team and the 2009 Suffolk County championship team.
“That team had nine senior starters–not one underclassmen. Many of those guys played in their junior year. This team has five or six guys that played every game last year,” he added.
June 5 at Dowling
That type of continuity is generally how a team sees a drastic improvement in wins from one year to the next.
They will open up against my alma-mater, Centereach HS. He stated that they know them very well, having played three one-run games last year.
Keep an eye on the Bulldogs as a team that will surprise many this year.
