Here at SUNY Old Westbury for the Fall Ball Series Powered by @EastCoastSP pic.twitter.com/JYtmcj2REn
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 2, 2019
(This is the second installment of the 2019 Fall Ball Series which began with NYIT on Saturday. We will continue these through out the month of October. We will have interviews and video highlights at each of the local college campuses. Please make sure to visit East Coast S & P by clicking here.)
Not all champion-less seasons are created equal.
In the case of the 2019 Old Westbury Panthers, their surprised postseason run which featured an upset over No. 2 ranked USMMA certainly left a positive taste in their mouth. The team featured only one senior position player which means they will return seven of those eight starters this season.
Head Coach Rod Stephan is excited for this group.
“We did a good job to make the finals last year,” he said. Stephan, who is entering his 10th season at the helm, went on to add that “Farmingdale played outstanding. They were firing on all cylinders–offense, defense, base running. But I expect to win it this year,” he added.
They last won in 2015, while the tournament was hosted by St. Joseph’s. Since that time, St. Joseph’s has won twice, Maritime won once and Farmingdale once. They have been in the mix every year, and have even seen four players (Tommy Ziegen, Jesse Russo, Tim Ingram, Christian Tessitore) into pro ball.
The program has consistently performed well and last year’s team was just the latest example. They won 23 games, which brings Stephan’s career total to 213 wins against 146 losses. Additionally, he had four players named to our All-Long Island teams in each season from 2015-2018.
The biggest challenge this team will face is replacing the production of last year’s 1B John Condon. He led the team in batting average (.373), hits (56), doubles (12) and total bases (73). He owns the program record for career hits with over 200.
He will be replaced by Peter Capel, who is a very similar type of player. Capel can rake as well–he actually led the team in RBI with 41 and batted .311 while playing in all 40 games. He will be counted on to provide the punch in the middle of the order.
The pitching staff will have to replace Adam Heidenfelder and Christian Tessitore. They were reliable anchors atop the rotation. Heidenfelder won their playoff opener against St. Vincent’s and led the team with a 1.89 ERA over 47.2 IP. He fired three complete games despite coming back from labrum surgery in 2018. Tessitore was equally as effective. He fired 50.2 IP and compiled a 3.20 ERA.
Regardless, they are confident in the arms they are returning.
Anchoring the staff will be hard-throwing sophomore Patrick Quinn, who bounced back from early-season struggles to lead the team in innings pitched with 60. He is a strikeout pitcher–as he notched 57 and held opposing batters to a .222 AVG.
He started the Skyline Conference Finals against Farmingdale, a game the Rams would take 8-5.
“This year we are working harder and hoping to get back to that spot,” said Quinn, who regularly sits at 90 MPH with his fastball despite a small stature.
The rest of the rotation is up for grabs but Stephan mentioned a few pitchers he’s counting on such as Brandon O’Brien, Brandon Wright–a hard-throwing transfer from Gettysburg, Matt Bohenek, Joe Sarni, Billy Amendola, Rohan Raju, Nick Wendling, Nick Vitale and Steven Tellerias.
The strength of the team may just be in their defense. They are supremely confident in the outfield defense of Sean Paprocki, John Dell’Ollio and Drew Robertson from left to right in the outfield. Stephan said they are as good as it get, especially with Dell’Ollio’s elite speed patrolling the vast outfield of Old Westbury.
The left side of their infield will feature Shaun Kaminski at third and Mike Manetta at SS. Both will be starting for their third straight season.
Manetta is coming off an outstanding summer in which he was the Player of the Year in the Texas Scout League. He also batted .341 with 34 runs scored and a .411 on base at the top of the order despite missing some time with an injury. He is back to full strength and they are very confident with Manetta as the SS and catalyst.
Second baseman Brandon Wilson hit .311 last year and will be back. Behind the plate Michael Borsch is returning. He’s as good as it gets defensively and held his own with a .274 AVG with a .345 on base.
They brought in some talented freshman such as Jacob Taormina (Farmingdale), Jason Barry (Hewlett) and Oscar Fajardo (Brentwood).
There’s no question they are primed to contend once again in 2020 and Coach Stephan isn’t satisfied with an appearance in the Finals.
