Center Moriches defeats Marlboro, 5-1, to advance to the Class B New York State semifinals pic.twitter.com/9h7Q3GRINq
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 2, 2018
Losing the New York State Class B Championship was not something Center Moriches was interested in.
Trailing by four runs in the sixth inning against Binghamton Seton Catholic Central, the Red Devils were staring defeat in the face and the prospects of a long bus ride back to Long Island as runner-ups. A seemingly innocuous at bat by DH Brad Sakellarides, however, mounted an improbable seven-run rally which featured a go-ahead hit by 1B Robert Copozzi.
The Red Devils handed the ball to reliever David Franchi, who promptly slammed the door and delivered the first State Championship in program history. They had previously competed in the State Tournament in 1998.
Head Coach Dennis Donovan, who is the program hit leader at UCONN, fielded a tremendously talented team that rolled through all of its Long Island opponents before hitting their first challenge of the season. They even cruised to an 11-1 victory in the LIC against Wheatley at SUNY Old Westbury.
The winner in that game, Liam Pulsipher, was named All-State, League MVP and is now at Stony Brook. The son of former big leaguer Bill Pulsipher, was a critical part of the team’s success. Despite all the talent on the team, he was easily their most reliable “big-game pitcher”. Replacing his production in 2019 will be a great challenge.
“He was basically named the MVP of every round,” said Donovan. “He’s as big of a big-game pitcher as there is. He was basically unstoppable. Every time we needed him, he just dealt,” he added.
He and Franchi were the only two starting seniors on the championship team, which bodes extremely well for them.
Counting recent college commitments, eight of their nine starters are college-bound.
Many eyes will be on Maryland-commit David Falco. He was the team’s closer last season and 3rd baseman. He turned heads this summer with his high-octane fastball. He has a chance to join Glenn Gibson (2006) and Paul Gibson (1978) as players that were drafted out of CM. Falco has touched 94 MPH and has an impressive slider which generates swings and misses. Donovan noted the plan is to have him eased into the rotation considering he is being stretched out from one-inning outings.
He is far from the only capable player. In fact, Franklin Pierce-commit Andres Auffant will likely anchor the rotation, and Marist-commit Robert Copozzi will slot behind him.
“He’s got great size,” said Donovan. “He’s got a lot of talent. He’s grown into his body. He’s one of those kids that shot up quick. We are hoping to get him more time on the mound,” he added.
Behind the plate, the team has a rare luxury at the varsity level–having not one, but two college-bound catchers in Alec Maag (Eastern Connecticut State) and Brad Sakellarides (Herkimer CC). Both of them are capable of handling the hard-throwing staff, provide leadership and also can handle the bat. Offensively, they will also be counting on Adelphi-commit Matt Alifano, and the aforementioned Falco and Copozzi.
Donovan noted they will split the time behind the plate, being that they both work great with the staff.
A team with eight college players could dominate almost any high school team so it’s no wonder they had so much success last season. This team has six, with some more in the pipeline; including Liam’s younger brother, Leyton. With the elimination of League 9, that means some more inferior competition for the reigning State Champs.
Donovan does not think it will have much of an impact on the standings, though.
“It seems like every year there’s some sort of changes going on in Leagues 7, 8 and 9. We can’t worry about what we can’t control. We are going to be challenging ourselves with some scrimmages against big-schools like Longwood, Floyd, Bellport, Mt. Sinai and Newfield.”
They will open up at home on April 1 againt Pierson/Bridgehampton. Look for them to compete for another county championship this season with the familiar foes such as Babylon and Mattituck.
