Senior Adam Heidenfelder will be anchoring the rotation pic.twitter.com/UnEyFlV8bf
— Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) September 22, 2017
Today I was down at the Jackie Robinson Athletic Complex, home of the SUNY Old Westbury Panthers, to get a good look at the team they will be going to battle with during the 2018 season. They are coming off a 20-16 campaign, but had their season cut short by No. 5 Mount St. Mary’s in a shocking upset.
They graduated 12 players, notably two-time All-Long Island SS Tommy Ziegen, CF Kevin Lao, C Carlos Balmaceda, 3b Michael Cardino in the lineup and RHPs Daniel Aguilo and Trey Pizzutello from the rotation.
With that being the case, the performance and leadership of the returning players that they do have is critical. Second baseman Jesse Russo has batted .399 over the past two seasons and he stole 21 bases in 23 attempts. They will be counting on him. He appeared to look much more muscular, so perhaps his power could see a spike this season. He did slug .581 last season, so it’s not as if he is simply a slap hitter.
Also returning is 2015 All-Long Island first baseman Dean Sheridan. He was not able to duplicate that level of success last year, as his average slipped to .272 from .433 and .368 the previous two seasons, but they still will be counting on him to provide punch in the middle-of-the-order.
The outfield appears pretty loaded with returning CF David Hawley, OF Liam Slattery and a very intriguing transfer in John Fogarty from Adelphi. He won a state championship with Clarke and already has three seasons of Div-II baseball under his belt. They also have some depth with Tyler Roberts returning.
They will be featuring many new faces all over the field. A few players really stood out–mainly 3B Tom Macri who just transferred from Adelphi as well. He only got three at bats last season, but he was a three-year starter at Massapequa and is really a fundamentally solid player. He could really help solidify the infield defense.
There will be a competition at SS between freshmen Mike Manetta (Farmingdale) and Shaun Kaminsky (Babylon). Both are very athletic. Manetta began a 6-4-3 DP on a difficult in-between hop during their intrasquad game.
There will also be a competition behind the plate but Coach Stephan is very high on SJC-Brooklyn transfer John Condon who has some real pop.
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The pitching staff graduated Aguilo and Pizzutello, but they will be counting on two-time Diamond Award winner Adam Heidenfelder (3.40 ERA in 2017) to anchor the rotation. He is coming off a very strong summer season and appears to have returned to his high school form that made him one of the most buzzworthy prospects on the island in 2013-’14. Joining him will be Chris Tessitore (1.17 ERA last season). He is coming off Tommy John Surgery but has been cleared to begin throwing and is poised to be 100% by the time the season begins.
They will be returning a handful of other pitchers that will look to round out the rotation; including Jason Espinal (2.78 ERA over 32.1 IP last season season) and Steven Tellerias (3-0 last season).
While the Panthers may not have the power in the lineup that they had in previous years, they will be counting on a team predicated on speed and defense with no easy outs in the lineup. They will have their hands full with Maritime and St. Joseph’s, but that’s why they play the games. The Skyline Conference has featured a different champion in each of the previous four seasons.
