(Photo Credit: Michael Tito and Joe Ippoliti)
Entering his 15th season as Head Coach, Michael Milano has built Seaford into one of the elite programs in Nassau County, having won 48 games over the previous three seasons. This year, they will be returning a number of impact players such as Vinny Pecora, Nick Calandra, Zach Grof, Andrew Chico and John Leonardi. I had a chance to speak with him on their upcoming season and recapping their 2017 season and here’s what he had to say…
It was another strong season for you guys in 2017, what were your overall takeaways?
In 2017 we were 17-2 in the regular season and entered the tournament as the #1 seed. All teams then had over a week off. Some teams could get it going offensively, after that break, but we just could not for whatever reason. We faced a tremendous performance from Kyle Bacchus (senior at Floral Park) and lost the playoff opener 5-1. Bacchus scattered six hits, struck out eight and walked five on 120 pitches. In Game 2 we rallied at home late to beat Hewlett, 2-1. We dropped game 3 to Floral Park, again, just unable to get going offensively the way we had all season. We were very happy with the way we played for 2 months leading up to the playoffs. We felt we played pretty clean baseball throughout the regular season, losing only once to Island Trees 1-0 on April 17 and once to Mineola 3-1 on April 7.
You graduated Axcess Conference MVP Andrew (A.J.) Cain last year, what did he mean to the program?
Andrew Cain was just named NE-10 Rookie of the Week and I am not surprised at all. The sky is the limit over his collegiate career. I feel he was an absolute steal for New Haven and I give them tremendous credit for getting him to commit there. The coaches up there have an absolute, complete ballplayer who can literally do it all. Over his time here in Seaford, as any hole needed to be filled over his four years with us, he filled it. He played 4 or 5 positions over 4 seasons, always remaining in the middle of our lineup. Andrew will always be remembered as a wonderful player, and more importantly a wonderful person, that we are proud to say was a top Seaford High School baseball player over the past two decades. I cannot speak much about players prior to 1999 but I feel those players from back then, who saw AJ play, would agree that he was one of the top players in school history. We wish him all the best. We are very excited to have his sophomore brother, Joe, in our program.
What do you feel like is the strength of this year’s team?
I always feel the strength of our team (or any team) should be pitching and defense. We feel confident that we can compete on the mound, every inning of every game and then make the plays that need to be made. We will have a new middle infield in 2018 but we have confidence in these new starting varsity players. Our JV program is elite, in my opinion, under the direction of Coach Eric Corsini (a former player). Consistently kids come up, ready to step into to the varsity lineup. With only one Middle School team in the district, Coach Corsini has a ton of work to do in a pretty short time when he gets these 9th graders. Fortunately for us, Seaford is a very small community. What we may lose in numbers, we gain in awareness of who the kids are and what they are up to during their youth baseball careers. We get to know these ballplayers as early as 2nd grade sometimes and then we can follow them through their little league careers right up in to Seaford High School.
I feel we have as strong a thrower-and-receiver as there is behind the plate in the county. We are proud of the catchers we have had here over the years and senior 3-year starter Vinny Pecora fits our mold. Vinny is athletic, strong-armed and tough. He will look to improve upon his all county numbers in 2017 and has his eyes set on making the playoffs and then producing throughout them. Vinny will play at Molloy in 2019 and this season will work hard to mold a pitching staff to where it needs to be. Returning All-County Senior Zach Grof won every game he pitched in 2017 (7-0) including a complete game 2-1 win over Hewlett in the playoffs. He beat every team in our league, truly an accomplishment for any 1st year varsity pitcher. Zach will work to remain our consistent day 1 starter in 2018. Senior Nick Calandra was called up late in his freshman season to play with the varsity and there he remained. His defensive development at 3B has been a joy to watch and with his offensive skill, he has a big senior season in his sights.
What can you say about the competition in the conference ?
Conference A Baseball is tremendous baseball and I’m not sure if many people realize it outside of our sport. In 2018, it is 28 ball clubs and well over half can win it all, in my opinion. Winning, or even just making it to the Conference Championship, is as challenging and grueling a process as there is in any sport on Long Island. Getting out of group play is a big achievement all of us coaches hope for. We were able to escape our group in 2014 (the year the format changed) and it was a great feeling for the team. The amount of seasoned, exceptional coaches, players and programs in Class A Baseball is daunting at times. Other than in 2008 & 2009 when Class A baseball was “ability or power ranked” we have played pretty much the same group of teams in the regular season. I love our league A4. We are the 7 smallest schools in Class A baseball. I feel the coaching & program traditions/styles throughout League A4 makes it a great league. Seaford, Clarke, Island Trees, Mineola, Locust Valley, Cold Spring Harbor & Valley Stream South all have veteran coaches that know how to beat each other from many many years of experience. Of my 15 years, I can’t really remember many seasons where we didn’t have a three game clip vs Clarke, Mineola, Trees, etc. It is exciting to be a part of these rivalries. You just hope to avoid sweeps vs these proud programs.
