Christian McPartland on the mound pic.twitter.com/1ogiE0u2Ag
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 17, 2019
Coming off a 26-7 season which culminated in capturing the Region XV Championship, expectations are sky high once again for Suffolk CC. Second year Head Coach Jason Galbraith is extremely confident in his squad this season having guided them to the Super Regionals in his first year at the helm.
“This is probably the best infield in the region,” said Galbraith. “The infield is absolutely amazing. I don’t see anyone having better defense than us,” he added.
There are certainly reasons to be excited especially with the presence of Chad Pike, who transferred from Dayton State after winning the League MVP at Southampton HS in 2017. Pike is an exceptional talent, younger brother of former minor league Chris Pike. He is expected to play SS and contribute innings on the mound. His double play partner will likely be Albany-transfer Greg Kwiecinski.
Joining them is sophomore Jimmy Calabrese, freshman Nick Doczy, sophomore Christian Lent among others. Galbraith said “we are loaded with middle infielders”.
The outfield is slated to feature Gregory Almonte and Andrew Fenton along with a competition to round out the final spot. That is one spot that they lost some production from last season.
Despite losing Joe Valentino (8-0 record, 5 CGs, 92 K, 1.12 ERA) and Tyler Schmid (5-1, 2.45 ERA), the pitching staff should be strong once again. They were fortunate to get Stony Brook-transfer Liam Pulsipher, who will likely anchor the staff and provide similar production to Valentino last season. Pulsipher helped lead Center Moriches to the 2018 New York State Class B Championship in 2018 and we named him a top-30 player on Long Island the previous season.
Joining him in the rotation is freshman Kevin Hahn (Bayport-Blue Point) and sophomore Ciaran McGinnis (Connetquot). That is three solid starters, but the two X-Factors are two injured arms that could really get them over the edge.
Branden Falco (Kings Park) and Chandler Giovinco (Newfield) are both coming off injury and Galbraith is expecting them to be ready for the season. Falco was at Miseridcordia before transferring to Suffolk last season and suffering an injury in his first start. Galbraith said he was sitting 87-89 before the injury. Giovinco tore his UCL during a scrimmage last season and decided to attend Suffolk rather than Hofstra.
With them back, they “will have five legitimate starters” according to Galbraith. They also showed Christian McPartland, younger brother of Cody who looked good in their intrasquad. With a clean arm action and a filthy curve, he could certainly represent a great option in the late innings.
“Whether they stay on track we’ll see, but we are in very good shape.”
Coach also mentioned that they have won their conference four straight seasons so they are not fixated on that being their goal. They are trying to prepare for the regionals, which is why they schedule a trip to Myrtle Beach, followed by eight games against Division-I & II JuCos before their conference season.
