The United States Merchant Marine Academy has opened up its brand new field, Ray Bartoszek Field or simply nicknamed “The Ray”, for the 2021 season which kicks off today.
The state-of-the-art facility is fully turfed, features stadium-style seating behind home plate as well as turfed bullpen and batting cage areas behind the 3rd base side dugout. The facility will also add a new scoreboard in the future.
They will finally open up their 2021 season today against SJC-Brooklyn after a lengthy pause due to COVID concerns within the school. They have practiced three times in six weeks.
Assistant coach Lou Bernardi said, “I really like the team chemistry. The boys have really handled adversity well. They stayed close throughout the shutdown. The senior leadership has been great,” he added.
The captains of the team are Ben Kane, Alex Mesaros, Jack McCann and Joe Raab. They brought in 10 new players for the 2021 season and had 44 players on the roster but that number has dwindled down to 32 as some guys opted to go to sea – which is part of their obligation to the school.
Head Coach Mike Notebaert, entering his 15th year with the program, has really built the program into sustained contention. They were on the verge of capturing the Skyline Conference title in 2018 when they lost in extra innings to St. Joseph’s, and they were 28-11 in 2011 but lost to Old Westbury in the Skyline Conference playoffs.
Unfortunately, they don’t have the luxury of some other programs where the 2020 graduates all decide to come back for another season as they have 100 percent job placement so once the season was cancelled last season, that meant the end of those playing careers with the exception of Ben Kane, who will be anchoring the rotation.
Players like him are reason to believe they will compete once again for a Skyline Conference title and why they were able to keep things together during their 17 days on pause.
He will be joined in the rotation by LHP Joe Raab, freshman RHP Tyler Reistetter and they will have Andrew Hunt as the fireman in the pen. He was the 2019 Reliever of the Year for the Skyline Conference and won three games in the abbreviated 2020 season.
Offensively, they will be hurt by the absence of injured slugger Vincenzo Altieri, who sustained an injury prior to the season. They do have catcher Jack McCann who will provide a steady presence behind the dish. He had a .914 OPS last season prior to the shutdown.
Bernardi noted that due to the shutdown, they haven’t had a chance to see much from the guys offensively.
“We will live and die with our pitching & defense,” he said.
They will jump right into the fire today at noon. They will host the game, but SJC-Brooklyn will be officially listed as the home team.
