Not since 2009 has Head Coach Mike Herrschaft spoke this confidently about a pitching staff. Back in those days, I was in his office to discuss how we would be game planning for the opposition.
“This might be the best staff we’ve had”, he told me with a smirk knowing that the 2009 staff might think otherwise.
Regardless, the Centereach Cougars have a very good chance to shock League 4 this season with a legitimate pitching staff that has opposing coaching noticing. Eric Russo, Sean McGuinnes and Matt Hirsch are all pitchers that work in the low-to-mid 80s with command and have all had some degree of success at the varsity level.
Sean McGuinnes (Centereach ’17, College of St Rose-commit) pic.twitter.com/BE4CTIGwPB
aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) February 3, 2017
Herrschaft, not one for hyperbole, stated that “all three of those guys could probably be the No. 1 pitcher on at least 50 percent of teams in Suffolk County.” He noted that Russo has improved the most through out his high school career, while he was typically always behind the other two in the depth chart, “he’s now pushed himself equal to them–at least.”
The offense won’t need to be quite as dynamic as their last postseason appearance in 2010–when the team compiled a .375 AVG–but they will need to be at least average. “We should be an average high school hitting team, which is about .260,” he said.
None of the returning players hit .300 last year.
His biggest concern is the defense, which was particularly weak in 2016. They committed 75 errors and was directly responsible for four losses in the seventh inning on overthrown balls on ground balls to infielders. Those four losses made a huge difference in the standings. He noted that they have lost 21 one-run games over the past three seasons.
For that reason, he has move all of last year’s infielders into the outfield in order to help out the pitching staff.
He is also excited about the current crop of sophomores. He stated that he’s carrying four sophomores that could start this year–“otherwise I wouldn’t have them with us on varsity.”
The last time he had that number of underclassmen was in 2008, the year prior to winning back-to-back League III titles.
“I’m blessed when I have kids with that natural talent. Gifted kids are gifted kids and I’m fortunate when I have them.”
While the league will be very competitive once again with the reigning Long Island Champions in West Islip, among others, Centereach has at least warranted some pre-season chatter for the first time in several years and could make a playoff run.
