In 2018, Newfield was spoiled with a bevy of power arms. On their varsity team, they had five pitchers that would commit to Division-I schools and two more that committed to Division-III schools. After graduating three of those pitchers, they were less equipped to handle a significant injury to one of their three horses.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what would happen when Chandler Giovinco went down prior to the season and required Tommy John surgery. The injury was not just a crushing blow to the pitching staff, but he also led the team with 3 HR and 26 RBI the previous season. Additionally, it was a senior that was in a leadership role.
“Losing Giovinco killed us,” said Eric Joyner, now entering his fifth year at the helm. “Not just on the mound but at the plate. We lost two road games to Centereach in extra innings. When he went down, our youth got a little exposed,” he said.
They wound up with a record of 7-11 and failed to make the playoffs, but the silver lining is that they were able to provide their young players with plenty of playing time. They had only three seniors and they had five freshman (three outfielders, two infielders) start at least one game. Their most impactful player was sophomore Dylan Johnson, who was voted (by our audience) the Axcess League 3 MVP. While the vote is certainly a popularity contest at its core, he was nominated on the strength of his performance. We covered their April game against Smithtown East in which “DJ” went a complete game, striking out 13 and recording the walk-off single.
On his 112th and final pitch of the day Dylan Johnson records his 13th strikeout. We head to the bottom of the seventh of this scoreless battle pic.twitter.com/7emEzolptc
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 18, 2019
He is committed to St. John’s and will anchor the rotation, but will be joined by senior Andrew Monda (St. Joseph’s Brooklyn). While Johnson received much of the attention last season, Monda won four games on the mound and Joyner is fully confident in him to provide stability in the rotation.
Joyner noted that the pitching staff is not nearly as deep as they have been in the past, so beyond those two pitchers the spots will be a battle.
The offense will be counting on three returning players to provide the punch.
Albany-commit Mike Prisco, who is entering his fourth year on varsity is their most feared hitter and can do damage. A natural catcher, he could be moved to the outfield.
“With Prisco in the outfield, we are a more athletic team,” said Joyner. “We are expecting huge things from him.” Post-commit Andrew Roman is the likely starter behind the dish.
Their other All-League player, Anthony Hernandez, is returning. He was their starting shortstop last year, but he will likely play the outfield this season as well, due to the presence of Miller Place-transfer Joe Hackl. Joyner noted that he is an athletic three-sport star that has showed a lot during the football and basketball seasons. While they haven’t seen much of him, there is a chance he locks down the SS spot.
Two other players he mentioned was sophomore Evan Rodriguez, who hit well during his freshman season and junior Dom D’Alessandro who he described as a “talented, twitchy infielder.”
Joyner emphasized that the scrimmages will be crucial because they “have no positions locked – even Dylan.”
They will open their season with non-league games against Sachem East and Connetquot. Their first league game will be on March 30 at Northport. League 3 will consist of Newfield, Centereach, Northport, Huntington, Half Hollow Hills East and Smithtown West.
