Sal Mignano knows a thing or two about competitive baseball. He is the father of Shoreham-Wading River baseball, winning 583 games over 38 seasons, capturing 12 league and 7 county championships.
After the cancellation of the 2020 high school season following the coronavirus pandemic, he wanted to do something to help out. Problem is, he was stuck in San Diego since the end of February once the thick of the pandemic hit NYC.
The idea was simple – put together a tournament of Suffolk County teams using Town of Brookhaven’s state-of-the-art fields.
He ran the idea past Eddie Morris, commissioner of Parks and Recreation for the Town and he was onboard. All it took was three or four conference calls and the foundation was set.
The two biggest obstacles was that baseball had not yet been given approval from Governor Cuomo to take place in New York and that most high-end players are in the midst of their travel seasons by early June let alone early July. The approval was given a couple weeks ago so that took care of the first obstacle.
Fortunately, with the help of Pat-Med coach Anthony Frascogna over a dozen teams registered within the first couple days. Once the word started to spread, teams continued to register. Currently, there are 36 teams registered for the five-day tournament. Teams are guaranteed to play four games. Being that seniors were unable to play their varsity season, many of the top players decided this was a great opportunity to pack the excitement of a high school season into five days.
Initially, Sal stated that teams would face each other regardless of school size but once the volume of teams continued to pour in, it made it a no-brainer to separate them by enrollment as they do during the school year.
They opted to call the two divisions the Coastal and the Atlantic “like they do in the ACC”, said Mignano. He also said he debated “using legendary high school coaches as the names for the divisions” but opted to go with the geographic title.
The tournament had gained enough traction that two prominent Nassau County coaches and a few New York City schools asked to join but they were told this was strictly for Suffolk County. The tournament was also capped at 36 teams because each team will be playing at least four games and possibly as many as six.
The tournament will be exciting not just because it’s our first baseball fix of 2020 but because all the best teams and players will be apart of it. Connetquot, Sayville and Center Moriches are the reigning champs and will all be there. Also West Islip, Longwood, Commack, Shoreham-Wading River and Ward Melville are all teams that made deep postseason runs last seasons that will be there.
The pitching match ups are also reason for excitement – could we see Miami-commit Rafe Schlesigner (Sachem East) and St. John’s-commit Dylan Johnson (Newfield) on Wednesday? How about Notre Dame-commit Brock Murtha (Sayville) and Boston College-commit Aidan Crowley (Shoreham-Wading River) ? I’m also looking forward to watching Stony Brook-commit Tommy Ventimiglia (Longwood), who should pitch at some point next week.
Before each team’s first game, the coach will stand at the mound and honor his seniors as a nice gesture for their contributions to the program.
With all the planning that went into the tournament, plus TOB’s summer season which starts on the 13th, it’s been an especially crazy time for Mignano and his staff.
“Are we ready? I’m not sure but we’re pretty close,” said Mignano.
Make sure to keep it locked onto our social media accounts for in-game coverage, postgame interviews as well as postgame articles on axcessbaseball.com.
Notes:
-Players will not be forced to wear masks but will have the option. Spectators must wear masks when they cannot properly maintain six feet of social distance.
-Umpire will stand six feet behind pitcher as opposed to behind the batter.
-Only two spectators per player is recommended.
-No spectators between the 1st base dugout and third base dugout.
-Only three players allowed in the dugout at the time. The bleachers will serve as an extension of the dugout.
-There will be no plaques for champions or MVP awards. Coaches voted against it.
-Stealing and leading will be allowed. “We don’t want to change the game dramatically,” said Mignano.
-Wood bat only, as Town of Brookhaven typically does for their varsity division.
-Two hour time limit during pool play. No time limit in playoffs.
