Last summer, the Boys of Summer hosted a Nassau Varsity Division which featured several of the top high schools. Plainedge wound up winning the title, but they were taken to the absolute edge by Calhoun in an extra inning game in the championship.
Plainedge was a senior-laden team playing with many of their 2020 graduates. Calhoun was a younger team that featured only three 2020 graduates on their roster. This bodes well for Calhoun entering 2021, as they will return the vast majority of that team.
Head Coach Art Canestro, who has been at the helm since 2014, will enter the season with a team led by College of Charleston-commit Patrick Sanchez. He was named second-team Preseason All-Long Island, and has really impressed our coach since his sophomore season when he started.
“From his sophomore to junior year – he made tremendous strides. It’s probably the biggest improvements I’ve witnessed. He really worked on his weakness which was his speed and power. It’s noticeable how much better he got. I’ll put it this way; not too many kids I move back for when I’m coaching at third. That doesn’t happen very often. His hitting really has increased and he hardly strikes out and always hits the ball hard. Defensively, he does a really nice job at short,” he added.
College of Charleston-commit Patrick Sanchez (Calhoun 2021) getting his work in pic.twitter.com/WkQpIoWXLg
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) January 11, 2021
Another third-year varsity starter will be CF Ryan Todd. Canestro called him an “excellent defensive player” and a “top of the order hitter”. Second baseman Peter Rogers, who recently committed to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He noted that “he’s a defensive player that’s improved a lot. He’s a really good athlete. He can pitch as well for us. He throws three pitches for strikes, doesn’t walk anyone, he’s not going to blow you away but he’ll make you make contact and he had a really good summer.”
Doing most of the catching will be Timmy Mack. He also has positional versatility as he will play first and third base as well. Canestro said he’s a “really solid catcher and middle of the order hitter with a good stick.”
The pitching staff will be led by seniors Brooks Montalbano and Tom Walsh. The latter of which impressed Canestro with his two-hitter against MacArthur last summer. “We’ll be counting on him.”
Overall, they will be a pretty senior-heavy team with seven or eight, according to Canestro.
They will be in League 2 facing Mepham, MacArthur, Herricks, New Hyde Park, Garden City, Long Beach and Each Meadow. They will open up against Herricks on May 4.
Canestro noted that it’s “been an unusual year. Usually we start with our preseason workouts in early January. With the multi-sport guys on our team that played soccer or football or volleyball, they’ve been working out on their own travel teams. We will start up next week when the kids get back to school,” he added.
