Jack Schnidler drives in a run and now the tying run is 90 feet away. Men on 1st & 3rd with one out. pic.twitter.com/ZaYOTgItQl
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2019
2019 was a banner year for Port Washington as they reached the Class AA County Finals for the first time since 1969 and they also had their own player, Alex Chang, capture the coveted Diamond Award for the first time program history.
That team was the No. 1 overall seed (21-4) entering the playoffs and knocked off a tremendously talented Oceanside team to advance to face Massapequa, but they had their dream season cut short at SUNY Old Westbury. Going into last year, they were still confident that they would make a deep run.
“Going into 2020, we thought we had maybe the second best rotation in the county aside from Farmingdale,” said assistant coach Phil Spotteck. That group was going to be led by hard-throwing RHP Derek Livingston and LHP Jackson Sattinger anchoring the rotation with converted-reliever Christian Schwirzbin. Spotteck noted that Schwirzbin beat Oceanside in the clinching game of the semifinals in his first start of the year. He stated that, “he had started to show promise and we were starting to have trust in him.”
Not only did they lose out on the senior seasons of Livingston and Sattinger, but also their top hitter in Sean Meth from 2019. Meth, an underrated star hitter is off to a great start at Trinity College and is 5-for-14 to start and hit cleanup as a freshman. He batted .392 with 4 HR and 22 RBI in 2019 so his bat will be missed.
Along with graduating Chang in 2019, they also graduated catcher Jackson Trenaman and Aaron Klug, who had huge seasons and provided invaluable leadership.
“That 2019 team was really built through the experience of starting sophomores during 2017,” said Spotteck in regards to that group of players. That process is starting over again. It’s a tough conference, but we feel we can be in the middle-to-upper part of it. We were going to take some younger players up last season. We had one freshman – now a sophomore – that was maybe going to be a regular,” he added.
They will be returning Schwirzbin, who they are hoping will anchor the rotation. He proved his mettle by coming in relief of Chang during the County Finals and pitching well against Massapequa. He also plays basketball, so he is not primarily just a baseball player.
Aside from him, they have three other players that accrued varsity experience in 2019. Those players are Chris Caprariello, a utility player in 2019 that was slated to be a starter in 2020 and will play outfield and possibly serve as the closer. They also have SS Jake Spiryda, who “was primarily a backup SS in 2019 but did some positive things for us,” said Spotteck. Lastly, they have Dylan Trenaman, younger brother of Jackson, who will catcher and possibly play outfield.
Aside from that, they are all new players. Additionally, they have not been able to have any practices or workouts as a team in-person. Spotteck noted that they have been able to conduct team meetings and team building through Zoom. The first time that they meet in-person could potentially be on tryout day, April 26.
In that event, they would have just 9 days to prepare for a showdown with the three-time Long Island Champs from Massapequa. Following that two-game set, they will face Oceanside and Farmingdale – the other two monsters of the conference.
Obviously, it is not an ideal situation but the problem is not unique to Port Washington as many teams will be fielding inexperienced team. Spotteck stated that they will be having a natural competition at every position, with two players competing for each spot entering the season.
“We may have a different lineup from day-to-day just because of experimenting,” he stated. Their offense has the advantage of playing in a uniquely crafted field which they have played in since 2017.
“It’s definitely quirky,” he said. “We’ve played really well here since it’s opened. It’s an offensive park, we’ve been able to utilize it. Pitchers are definitely more cautious against lefties. I’ve usually called the pitches besides when we had Trenaman but we’ll have a fresh catcher this year so I’ll be going back to training the catchers. We try to take away that gap in left center – that’s really where Meth made a living. But yeah, it’s quirky,” he added.
They will test out their ability to take advantage of that gap in just a few short weeks and they’ll open up against Massapequa. It won’t be a walk in the park, but they expect to be a competitive team in 2021.
