There are many inherent obstacles of playing in the northeast–namely the weather.
Riverhead is one of the only teams that has a legitimate gripe with their travel. While most schools on the east end of Long Island are either Class A, B or C schools, they are the only AA. This is an issue in terms of travel because their shortest bus ride is 45 minutes.
That’s the first problem.
Secondly, the official start time for Suffolk County is 4 pm. The reality is that with school ending at 2pm and the baseball team needing to wait until the regular buses leave at 2:20, the earliest the bus can leave is at 2:30 pm. With most of their rides lasting over 1 hour, this means the team has roughly 20-30 minutes to get off the bus, get dressed, take infield/outfield or batting practice and have their starting pitcher get ready for a league game.
“We’ve tried to do some different things like taking batting practice before the bus leaves, but then they wind up sitting on a bus for an hour and they lose what they did in BP on the bus,” said Head Coach Rob Maccone.
“Most teams don’t like coming out to us but they only have to deal with it either once or twice per year,” he said. “For us, it’s every road game,” he added.
That’s on the “easy” 45 minute rides to schools like Centereach or Newfield. The longer rides has had a tangible effect on them in the past.
“If you look at it, our worst innings are always the first inning when our pitcher is still trying to get loose,” he said.
And one time it actually cost them a postseason appearance.
In 2016, the bus driver for Smithtown West took the wrong route and the team arrived late, forcing the game to begin at 4:45. The game was called due to darkness in the 6th inning with Riverhead trailing by 1 run. Smithtown West was awarded the victory, and Riverhead finished with a record of 9-9, missing out on a postseason berth by one game. With a team that featured power-hitting D.J. Chandler in the middle of the lineup, they had a chance to turn that into a comeback victory and it’s not far fetched to believe it.
Since then, they have had two difficult seasons–failing to make the postseason each time. They are now in League 2, “with the big boys”, according to Maccone.
They will be competing with the likes of Commack, Connetquot, Sachem North and Bay Shore.
“We are an unknown for most of the teams,” said Maccone. “It’s a good and a bad thing–our guys are also unfamiliar with them,” he added.
Maccone went on to add that while they have played Bay Shore and Walt Whitman in the past, he has never faced teams like Lindenhurst and Sachem North.
Additionally, they are a very young team. After graduating a big group of 11 seniors last year they have only five this year with three of them having logged any significant time at the varsity level.
He is high on sophomore Colin Bendernagel, who received some time on varsity as a freshman last season. He also mentioned junior Isaiah Barbieri, who was up a sophomore last season.
Additionally, they have some transfers from McGann-Mercy in Riverhead.
“It helps getting those transfers but it also presents a challenge to the coaching staff to get to know them,” he admitted.
Their season will begin on April 1 against Sachem North, the alma mater of Maccone, which he noted will be really cool.
Prior to then, they are hoping to get some outdoor work for the first time in years since the weather has been especially cruel the past several winters/springs.
“Usually when it’s above 35 degrees we try to go outside at least for a little bit to have a catch because when the season starts the games don’t really get cancelled–even when they probably should. Pushing it back a week should help, but then against it hasn’t snowed yet so who knows,” he said half-jokingly.
