by Ben Diamond
Mount Sinai head coach Erik Reichenbach, like most other coaches, finds it difficult to have any expectations for this coming season, with his players having been unable to play on a high school field in over a year. Reichenbach knows this year’s group is young, with a lot of juniors and sophomores, who he hasn’t seen play since they were freshman and eighth graders. He does coach a handful of his players over the summer so he knows that they have been putting in work, but other than the handful of players, he doesn’t know the work the rest of the team has put in.
“It’s hard to have expectations when you have a group of kids that haven’t played on a high school baseball field in a year.” Reichenbach said. “Most of my team is returning, but majority are young juniors and sophomores who I haven’t been able to see play since they were Freshman, or eighth graders.”
The departure of catcher Nick Cergol, and former league MVP shortstop TJ Werner left a big hole in Reichenbach’s lineup. This spring, Reichenbach will be keeping an eye on a few players to replace Cergol, including Travis Klug. As for replacing Werner at shortstop, some names Reichenbach had in mind were, All-County third baseman Matt Carrera, and Will Rodgers. Reichenbach praised the skill that Carrera has shown and thinks that he can put up big numbers. But, Reichenbach thinks it will be difficult to replace a player like TJ Werner because of his League MVP type play. Reichenbach believes that his spot in the lineup will be sorely missed.
“The problem with filling in for TJ is that he was a returning League MVP and a finalist for the Yastrzemski Award.” Reichenbach said. “You just can’t fill in for TJ Werner, the kid was too good.”
Danny Kellachan (Mount Sinai 2021) pic.twitter.com/DL57RNgCFl
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 2, 2020
Their strength may be in their pitching staff. They have a number of high-ceiling players. Anchoring the staff is Ithaca-commit Dan Kellachan. Along with him, they have George Washington-commit Max Reichenbach as well as Chris Batuyious and Kyle Salvati – who was on varsity since 8th grade and recovered a save at Shoreham. When the program had their last Suffolk County Championship in 2016, it was led by the lights-out duo of Sam Kessler and Brandon Bonanno. These caliber of pitchers allow them to dream big this season.
Chris Batuyios (Mount Sinai 2023) sitting 86 today. Has Div-I upside pic.twitter.com/bNeAxPdlGa
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) January 23, 2021
Like many other schools across Long Island, Mount Sinai has had difficulty getting their players together during the pandemic. Because of this, as well as the fact that his players play on many different teams, Reichenbach believes that the camaraderie and the chemistry may be lost. In a normal year, Mount Sinai would have had a four month workout period starting over the winter, but with COVID-19, their indoor facilities were shut down leaving them unable to workout together. Also, due to schedules of different sports conflicting, if there are players who play football, they won’t be able to make it to the practices. To add to this, if the football team is using the outfield to practice, the team can’t use the baseball field.
“The camaraderie, and the cohesiveness is lost throughout the summer program when all of the players play on many different teams,” Reichenbach said. “So, this five week period leading up to when we open up on April 26th is really the time we are going to have to get together to work on some things.”
Reichenbach said that his players are definitely excited to get back out onto the field to show everyone what they can do. He stated that it is the competition that is driving them forward, and they can’t wait for the season to get started.
They will open up on May 7 against Bayport-Blue Point at 5pm.
