by Joseph Langan
Joe Pellegrino gives Commack a 6-5 lead in the fifth ! pic.twitter.com/BtXySTeslf
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 25, 2019
Despite another successful season, Commack had their title hopes dashed late in the postseason at the hands of a rival. In a hard fought 8-6 battle against Ward Melville, Commack was knocked out of the playoffs in a contentious back-and-forth affair.
Coach Bonin and his team are out for revenge this season, knowing that last season’s abrupt ending doesn’t show how good Commack really is.
“The way our season ended last year, who we lost to and when we lost to them is still something myself, Coach Salmon and the returning guys haven’t gotten over.”
With the bad taste left in his mouth Coach Bonin is pushing his players to be the best versions of themselves, making them focus on a specific goal throughout the season. This year, Coach Bonin is focusing more on fundamentals of the game, creating a stable building block for his talented players to build off of.
“Having a well-rounded team that can do a little bit of everything well (will make us better). We need to do a better job at holding each other accountable and needing to win instead of wanting to win. Everyone wants to win.”
With Coach Bonin and his assistants instilling great qualities into their young players, they expect these qualities to be carried out on the field. While Commack lost the 2018 Silver Slugger winner Tim McHugh (St. John’s University), Drew Silverman (New Haven) and Jake Krzemienski (Boston College), Coach Bonin chooses to look at the great talent he has now in order to bring back home a championship.
Commack will rely on the help of their upperclassmen and veteran players to head the charge going into 2020. Joe Pellegrino and Anthony Foti, both Adelphi commits, will play a big role in leading both the infield and outfield for Commack this season. Jack Reardon (New Haven) will anchor the infield defense, with his great work ethic Coach Bonin says, “he is as solid as they come at shortstop throughout all of Long Island.” Leading the pitching staff this season is the third-year varsity senior Drew Vincent (Oneonta). Vincent is composed and has a sense of the big moments, or as Coach Bonin would say, “having ice in his veins.”
Joining him in the pitching staff is hard-throwing, UCONN-commit Craig Pihlkar.
With Commack’s core of great committed talent they are poised and hungry to be back on top in League 2. Coach Bonin plans for his players to “play hard and play with class”, more importantly adding “we will stick together and play the way we practice. There aren’t any magic words that I have that nobody else has. We work hard, we stick together and we trust each other most importantly.” Statements like this make it clear to see why Coach Bonin and his team have been so successful over the past three years and don’t have any plans of changing that narrative.
They will compete in League 2 with Connetquot, Lindenhurst, Walt Whitman, Riverhead, Sachem North and Bay Shore.
They will host Connetquot on March 30 in the first of a three-game set.
