Coach Eric Reichenbach knew he had an extremely young team in 2019. In fact, it featured six freshmen that received regular playing time – the most in his 16 year tenure.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into the season with all those freshmen,” said Reichenbach. “Playing varsity as a freshman is like playing four years up. They certainly exceeded my expectation – we wound up competing for a league championship until the last week of the season,” he added.
His team composed of six freshmen wound up finishing with a league record of 9-6 – losing in the postseason to East Islip – but a remarkable feat for such a young team. What they did have was three senior pitchers and the League MVP in SS T.J. Werner.
“T.J. is everything you’d want in a player – if he was 6’2 I’d be talking to MLB scouts right now. He’s an unbelievable kid. He got a cup of coffee as a 9th grader but this will be his third year as the varsity starter. He’s pretty quiet, not a rah-rah guy but a lead-by-example guy. T.J. is in the gym seven days a week, twice per day. We want everyone to do the things T.J. does, if we had an entire team like him we’d be very successful,” he added. The Farleigh Dickinson-commit batted .362 with a .500 OBP, 19 stolen bases and committed only one error at SS which earned him Suffolk County Gold Glove award. He stands at only 5’4, the shortest varsity player on the island.
They also had three other All-League players that are all back this season.
3B Matt Carrera batted .320 with a .400 OBP as a freshman and will man the hot corner. Those two on the left side mean that the Mustangs are in good shape this season when a ground ball is hit to the left of second base. CF Paul Gomes batted .311 with 16 stolen bases, drew 14 walks, scored 18 runs and drove in 11 runs out of the leadoff spot.
“Gomes covers gap-to-gap, he’s pretty sure-handed and is just a solid high school center fielder. He will be attending Fordham University but will be focusing on is academics.
Their fourth All-League player was catcher Nick Cergol. Now entering his senior year, they can count on him to provide a veteran presence behind the dish. He battted .362 and led the team with 2 HR and 18 RBI. He will be playing at SUNY Plattsburgh next year.
The biggest question mark will be the pitching staff. They return only nine innings from last year. Five of those came from Chris Fazio, who is now a senior and expected to be in the rotation. The other four of those came from Dan Kellachan, who is expected to anchor the rotation. Reichenbach is very confident in him after what he has shown since the season ended.
“He played pretty high level ball last summer with the Lumberjacks and he will probably slot in as our No. 1 pitcher. He has great command and great breaking stuff. The other spots are up for grabs but Reichenbach noted that he has 9 pitchers that will likely get innings.
They will compete in League 7 once again, which featured four playoff teams last season.
“The league was actually very tough last year. Shoreham is always good but they were the real deal last year with that pitching staff. Miller Place had Nealis as their ace and Rob Morales – who I think was the best catcher in the league. Those two teams were really good – I’m proud of our guys that they even competed with them.
This season they will get a break with both Shoreham-Wading River and Miller Place heading to League 6 which “helps us in league play but we will have to see them at some point in the playoffs.”
They open up against Center Moriches on March 31.
