One of the most critical aspects of a team is defense up the middle. Solidifying those portions of the field will often go a long way in run prevention and, ultimately, turning close games into wins.
St. Anthony’s Head Coach Paul Parsolano, entering his second full season, sees this as his team’s strength citing his two senior catchers, Eddie Lippert & Anthony Capogna, as well as the double play duo of Jack Vallario & Alex Celeiro and CF Mike DeSantis.
He stated that DeSantis may be their most talented defensive player on the team and will cover the most important position in the outfield. Vallario has already proven his mettle at the varsity level. Parsolano noted before he was called up, the team was treading water.
“Once he got called up against Holy Trinity, he got a couple hits and we left him in there and the team took off,” he added. That team made an improbable postseason run – rattling off four consecutive victories against St. Dominic, Holy Trinity, Kellenberg and St. John the Baptist while facing elimination. Ultimately, they lost a 3-1 extra inning game in the CHSAA Finals against future MLB Draft pick Logan Koester of Chaminade.
Grand slam by Jack Vallario (St. Anthony’s 2022) in the Northeast Elite pic.twitter.com/qA4FNQXMg0
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 4, 2020
While virtually all of the 2019 Friars team graduated, Vallario will be back and he’ll be shifting over to shortstop – a spot that Parsolano really feels comfortable with him at. “He just makes all the plays – he reminds me a little bit of Richie Ciufo,” he said referring to the former Pat-Med star and current Richmond SS.
You can’t mention their infield without also mentioning 6’4 1B Taj Farmer, the hard-hitting junior that we named to our Preseason All-Long Island team. He hasn’t appeared in a varsity game yet, but feel pretty certain in saying he will have a major impact this year.
Rapsodo numbers on Taj Farmer (St. Anthony’s 2022) pic.twitter.com/v5kUGBQpgB
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) December 2, 2020
“Taj gained about 15 lbs since last year, he works out at Belding Performance. He just squares the ball up and the ball jumps off his bat. It just sounds different,” he said. Farmer will man first base and will likely hit third in the order.
The hot corner will be manned by senior Ryan Wood who is committed to SUNY Maritime. They have additional infield depth with Dom Gentile, who can absolutely fly.
Parsolano noted that the team is very inexperienced at the varsity level, which is a by-product of how senior-laden the team was in 2019 and was slated to be in 2020. To compensate, they were able to host their winter workouts at Prospect Sports 8 weeks. That included players at all levels of the program so that Parsolano and assistant coaches Greg Naccari, Frank Trimarco and Preston Falascino could have a handle on all the players in the system – which Parsolano acknowledged was made harder by not doing cuts last year and having to monitor 40 players over the summer as opposed to 22.
They also have used Google Classroom with the players since September to stay in contact. Parsolano added that he has a grasp of about 95% of the players in the program now.
Objectively speaking, they were firmly in the mix to compete for a championship last year in large part to their talented rotation which was headlined by 6’9 RHP Louis Stallone (University of Arkansas), Joseph Okpych (Bowdoin College) and Liam Adipietro along with several others that have since graduated. Overall they have several former players across college rosters such as Cam Leary (Boston College), Cam Dunn (NYU), Jake Barrett (Oneonta), Marco Ali (Marist), Lucas Villanti (West Point) and Christian Urbina (Manhattanville)
They will be using tryouts and the week leading up to Opening Day to find the right mix.
“We have all the pieces – but we’ll have to see how the pitching shakes out. We have nine days to figure out who is pitching in three games over four days,” he said referencing their season-opening series against Chaminade which will take play on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Additionally, there is no bye week just a five week sprint of three-game series into the playoffs.
Their staff features several promising pitchers such as 6’6 RHP Connor McCreery who tops out at 87 MPH and is also the starting QB on the varsity football team. There’s also senior Joe Merendino and senior Andrew Kontos and a “few others in the mix”, according to Parsolano as well as a sophomore that may be a big part of the rotation.
As far as the lineup, Parsolano noted aside from DeSantis leading off and Farmer hitting third, “that will shake out – although we don’t have a lot of time.”
Now one thing that cannot be overlooked is that St. Anthony’s is building something pretty special for the future. Parsolano noted that his eighth and ninth graders are very impressive and will be the foundation for the team in the next few years. They also have a state-of-the-art indoor facility which is multi-level, 145,000 square feet, 320 feet long, 220 feet wide with 30 foot high ceiling with an olympic track, mounds and turf.
Parsolano said it’s something that most high schools simply don’t have access to. And beginning next year, they will have a fully turfed field as part of the Richard Reichart Complex, which will be attached to the student center – so getting students to enroll in the school is never an issue.
“That’s why this has been my dream job – to have all of this,” said Parsolano. “We will be able to reload every year as opposed to rebuild.”
