There hasn’t been many coaches as successful as Bill Batewell and the list of people that are as respected as him is even shorter. The legendary coached passed away in January. He won over 500 game during his storied career and led Sachem to County Titles in 1979 and 1987. Over 20 of his former players went on to become head coaches.
His longtime assistant, Joe Murphy, is now the head coach of Bellport, the position Batewell held since 2008. Murphy noted that when Sachem chose to go in another direction in 2005, Batewell wasn’t ready to give up coaching and decided to take over the Bellport program since he lived in the area and wanted to take on the challenge of turning around a program that had one six games in four years.
“Out of all the great coaches, there’s very few that would have the temperament to go to a team that wins one or two games per year and bring them to playoff contention,” said Murphy.
By 2009 they had turned the one win into 4 wins and in 2010 they reached the Suffolk County semifinals. Each year since, they’ve been a playoff contender and captured the League Title in 2017 for the first time in 51 years. That team was very talented and has some players still on college roster – Anthony Jacabacci (Stony Brook), Andrew Veit (Plattsburgh), Michael Veit (Farleigh-Dickinson), Ryan Baumann (Southern New Hampshire) and Adam Colon (Citadel).
With Murphy taking over, they are not losing any continuity within the program since he’s shared the dugout with Batewell since day 1.
This year’s team he stated will be young. He mentioned that a few players that were slated to contribute did not decide to stick with the team following the cancelation last year. Fortunately, they still have a solid core of returning players from 2019.
“We’ve got several kids that got some time two years ago, even if it was minimal playing time,” he said. Leading off will be second baseman and pitcher Will Caroli, who we named to the Preseason All-Long Island team. “He’s well-thought of in the baseball community. He’s a tough, bulldog kid on the mound. He’s a nice hitter with good speed. He’ll probably bat first for us,” Murphy said.
2022 1B Evan Virno (Uncommitted) crushing some balls in BP!!! @virno__ #ECL #JACKS #STUD pic.twitter.com/q3ahC39QoI
— East Coast Lumberjacks (@ec_lumberjacks) December 6, 2020
Evan Virno a first baseman and pitcher was called up as a freshman and will play a major role. “He’s a solid baseball kid and he works very hard and has good size. He’s been around a couple years and has a shot to hit in the middle of the order.”
Two seniors that will start are Michael Anderson, a shortstop and pitcher as well as Patrick Iadereste, a catcher and outfielder.
“Anderson has a solid glove, he’s a scrappy kid and he’s one of those battlers on the mound – he’s tough,” he said. In regards to Iadereste, Murphy said, “He’s got a good arm behind the plate and a nice bat. He got some playing time as a sophomore and we’re expecting big things out of him.”
Murphy stated that they will be “calling up several sophomores to play.” One of those is LHP Danny Rubin, who he is excited about. “He’s a big left-handed pitcher. He’s got a good body type. You’ll be hearing good things down the road from him.”
Bellport will open up on May 8 against Comsewogue at 5pm.
