by Chris Sacchi
Dylan Johnson delivers ! The sophomore rips an RBI hit and gets himself a 1-0 in a classic pitcher’s duel ! pic.twitter.com/jJEi1gFUYf
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 18, 2019
Head coach Eric Joyner and his Newfield squad are more than ready to start this 2021 season, for a variety of reasons.
The first can be said of so many teams across the country; they are ready to make up for lost time after a canceled 2020 season.
“We’re fired up. The boys are chomping at the bit,” Newfield said. “They’re definitely hungry. The workouts have been intense.”
Also part of the equation is Newfield’s desire to bounce back from what Joyner called a “rebuild” year in 2019 (7-11 record.)
“We felt last year that we were poised to do some things,” coach said. “We felt as though that we could do some things in the county.”
Last year’s team graduated eight seniors, six of which have moved on to play college baseball.
How is coach feeling about this year’s team?
“When you lose the school season [in 2020,] you’re going into the following season, and you’re going to have question marks,” Joyner said, although he adds, “We do have some talent.”
Leading the way in that department is senior right-hand pitcher Dylan Johnson.
“He’s one of the top pitchers in the state, if not the northeast,” Joyner said. Johnson is committed to St. Johns, and has continued to work on his body. According to coach, “He’s now two or three inches taller and about 30 pounds bigger,” which takes him to about 6’2 and 205 pounds.
Another pitcher who is set to be a workhorse on this staff is Adelphi commit Kendall Kendrick.
“He’s got a plus curveball. Velocity is improved and the kid can pitch,” Joyner said of the senior righty. “He’s a hell of an athlete.” While Joyner said there may be some uncertainty heading into the year, he has two college-committed aces to help pilot the ship.
“We’re certainly look at those guys to really be able to perform on a weekly basis for us, at a high level,” coach said. “They’re both seniors now.”
Johnson and Kendrick “were already pretty much in the fabric of playing regularly” as position players back in 2019, which Joyner says give them a jumpstart “understanding what varsity baseball is about.”
So while Joyner has a pair of aces, he also strongly believes in his stable of “eight to ten arms” that will throw valuable innings because of the team’s schedule.
“Having four games a week, we feel as though that kind of caters to where we are right now, having some pitching depth,” Joyner said. “They gotta stay healthy and they gotta perform, and they have to get better, but at least on paper it’s favorable for us.”
Senior Zack Cronk, who got some innings in the 2019 season, is what coach calls a “crafty righty, strike thrower, lots of movement on his pitches. He can throw three or four pitches for strikes.”
Junior Jacob Galaz “is new to varsity baseball,” but according to coach, “he’s gotten a lot better over the last year. He’s a mid eighties guy. Probably a little bit better at six foot three. So he’s got the picture frame.”
“We’re looking for him to gain some experience, he needs mound time, but so far in the bullpens, he’s shown the ability.”
Junior righty Evan Hughes is another pitcher who stands tall on the mound.
“I couldn’t believe how much she’s grown in the last six months,” Joyner said. “His dad is big. So he’s gone from like 5’10” to a full 6’4” now.”
Sophomore southpaw Logan Prisco stands at about 6’3”, and coach calls him an exciting prospect, while fellow lefty senior Shane LaFrese will add more balance to the mix.
Finally, junior Troy Meyers is another 6’3’’ pitcher who coach can factor into a talented group of arms.
As you might be able to tell from the heights of these guys, there are a lot of multi-sport athletes on the roster.
“Most of these kids are multi-sport athletes,” Joyner said. “You don’t see it a lot today. A lot of sports specificity. But the Newfield baseball program, we welcome it. We want you to play in other sports and learn how to compete. We think it definitely helps them to be able to compete on another field.”
Joyner adds, “It’s tremendous, as far as the development of the athlete. For our sport, for the other sport they play, just to be an athlete. Not just a baseball player, but be an athlete.”
On the offensive side, a group of seniors lead the way.
Catcher Mike Medina is committed to St. Joes in Brooklyn.
“He’s got a good baseball player build, he’s packed on some muscle in the last year. There’s no doubt about that. He’s worked,” Joyner said. “He can play third, and he catches, he hits. A mature kid who can provide some leadership.”
Senior Shane Callahan is a versatile player that is committed to Uitcia. According to coach, he can play all over the outfield and the corner infield spots; anywhere to get his bat in the lineup.
“We figured him hit in the middle of our order. He’s a powerful kid. If he can show the ability to stay on contact, utilize that power, we think that he can be a presence in the middle of our lineup.”
Another senior who has had extensive time at shortstop, who coach has previously described as a “talented, twitchy infielder” is Dom D’Allesandro.
Behind them is a group of talented juniors who all got some valuable varsity experience in 2019.
Evan Rodriguez, Josh Jacob, Anthony Bautista, and Steve Lumme all got at-bats as freshmen, which coach believes will give them a leg-up this season.
“That little cup of coffee that those freshmen got on the Varsity 2019 is coming into play here, as far as their experience and knowing the pressures of varsity baseball.”
So while coach says “jobs are open” in this 2021 season, he has a lot of talented players that have worked hard all offseason. Maybe the fact that there are so many open spots has pushed his players.
“It’s definitely fun, having the question marks. We get to go sink our teeth into it, see what we got, see how their development is,” Joyner said.” It’s just another little piece of the puzzle of daily workouts going into the season.”
As for the added drive for his guys: “Every time that we meet, we compete,” coach said. “Always some competition format in the weight room. We end every workout with separate teams, so they can get points by the workouts.”
“We finish every training session with the competition. It’s cool. It’s really created an atmosphere that’s just conducive to winning.” Coach is excited to see his club try and bounce back, and once preseason is over, it’s time to see whose work pays off.
“We’ve got some young talent, so we’ll see how we’re able to put it together. We’re doing the things now to get better.”
“Once the lights come on, we’ll see who’s ready to perform.”
