After three straight seasons of first-round postseason losses, Harborfields appears ready to break through. Coach Casey Sturm says they “are ready to change that.”
He will go to battle in League 5 with a roster filled with high-end players. He stated that outside of 2018, “this is probably the most talented team we’ve had, but at the end of the day you’ve gotta play.”
The strength of the team is certainly the starting rotation. They return four capable pitchers, led by New York Tech-commit Jack Greco. He is entering his fourth year of varsity baseball and is one of the top pitchers on Long Island.
“He has grown leaps & bounds each year,” said Sturm. “Last year was probably his best year. He can basically do whatever is necessary – he can run the bases and play defense too. He’s as close to an all-around five-tool player that there is at the high school level,” he added.
Joining him in the rotation is Flagler-commit Corey Phelan. The hard-throwing southpaw was the winning pitcher in the game we covered last season and he is the perfect complement in the rotation to the right-handed Greco. Rounding out the rotation is SUNY Ulster-commit Evan Lauda and Alex Kropp.
Sturm said it’s big that they have four pitchers that are all returners from last year’s playoff team. The only pitcher they graduated with significant innings was Kyle Gordon. They also graduated first baseman Luke Nee, whom he called the “heart & soul of the team”.
In the absence of Nee, Sturm will turn to catcher and SUNY Maritime-commit Anthony Madigan to be the leader of the team.
“I feel Nee’s leadership sort of rubbed off on him. He will pick up the pieces in terms of leadership for this year,” he said.
Madigan is regarded as one of the top catchers in Suffolk County thanks to his absurd pop time in low 1.9s. He is the perfect catcher to handle their talented pitching staff.
Their offensive attack is spearheaded by junior Sean Keys. The left-handed hitting third baseman is coming off being named All-County as a sophomore. His numbers jump off the page as he hit .433, smacked two HRs and led the team with 10 XBH and drove in 13 runs.
Two other legitimate bats in their lineup are 2B Matt Torres and CF Ryan Steele. Sturm noted both have garnered interest from schools already.
With all their talent this season, Sturm called it ‘put up or shut up time’ for his team. He said they have hit very well in BP but the test will come during the game when they are tasked with doing the small things such as bunting and executing hits & runs.
He is pleased with the team’s depth, which he said “breeds competitiveness.”
They will open up against Eastport-South Manor on March 30. He said they haven’t seen them in a couple years so it will be a good test. Before that, they will play a non-league game against Kings Park, who is coached by Andrew Abreu – he had spent the past few seasons as Sturm’s assistant.
He joked, “I wasn’t going to let Abreu off the hook without playing us – it’ll be fun to beat him.”
