by Ben Diamond
After having high expectations going into the cancelled 2020 season, Plainedge head coach Colin Fratrik has a new look roster going into this season. Fratrik’s squad lost 14 seniors after the cancellation of last year’s season including Anthony Labita who now plays at Pace, Zach Zarra who now plays at North Greenville University, and Mike Schock who plays for Farmingdale State. These departures among the other departed seniors left a pretty big hole to fill for his players this coming season.
They did get to experience some semblance of a season during the Boys of Summer Varsity Division in which they captured the Nassau County Division Championship.
Zach Zarra with the 2 run homer it’s a 2-0 Plainedge lead over Merrick in the top of the first inning pic.twitter.com/dD7IFv4Z2F
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 12, 2020
“We had six players that were going on to play college baseball this upcoming year.” Fratrik said. “We have two kids we are going to lean on this season, Joe Leone, and Dominick Tuozzo.”
Fratrik said that he thinks both starting shortstop Joe Leone, and pitcher Dominick Tuozzo, will be the captains on this year’s team. Both have been on varsity since their freshman year, and Leone has been a three year starter, a mainstay on Fratrik’s roster for the last few years. Fratrik also stated that Tuozzo will be the team’s ace going into the season, and he expects both of them to have big years this year.
“They are the only two kids that have gone through a full varsity season.” Fratrik said. “Their experience is going to be important for helping the other guys get used to the varsity atmosphere.”
Fortunately for Fratrik and his team, the Plainedge school system has allowed them to safely do their offseason workouts, albeit a little bit more cautious than normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fratrik said that they were able to get into the gym a couple of weeks ago to use their batting cage, as well as have their pitchers throw a little bit. With nice weather they have also been able to hold outdoor practices.
“Thankfully our school district has provided us an opportunity to safely participate in our offseason workouts.” Fratrik said. “Now that the weather has warmed up, we are able to utilize our turf infield a few times during the week as well as on the weekends.”
For many coaches this year, it is hard to gauge how their team is going to do, after a long time without playing in games and being around their teammates. So for some teams the team chemistry may not be there yet. Although, Fratrik does know that some of his players do play travel ball at a high level, and what he has seen in the workouts has been promising. He is excited to get back to playing games, and getting back a sense of normalcy. Fratrik also mentioned that they don’t know what their competition is going to be like because it’s been two years since they have seen them. There are still a lot of unknowns going into this season.
“It’s hard to have high expectations because some of these kids haven’t gone through a full season on varsity.” Fratrik said. “From what I’ve seen so far in the workouts I do expect that we are going to be competitive.”
With the season right around the corner, Fratrik believes his team will be prepared, and excited to play ball again.
