The Chaminade Flyers are the 2019 NSCHSAA Champions with a 3-1 victory over St. Anthony’s pic.twitter.com/czHcPb827e
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2019
Mike Pienkos is entering his 39th season as Chaminade‘s head coach. He has won over 600 games and guided the Flyers to yet another NSCHSAA title in 2019 – the 16th in program history.
This year will probably be his biggest challenge, though, as he will tell you. The program has been built up to the point where he knew there would be a tremendous pool of talent to select from on the first day of tryouts. In a normal year, that wouldn’t be the slightest issue as he would take the next three weeks to narrow down the roster and then use the scrimmages to find the right lineup and pitching staff. In a COVID year, he is forced to cut down the roster from the 48 players trying out and then find a winning lineup without the luxury of any scrimmages. They’ll be opening up in less than one week at St. Anthony‘s.
He also decided many years ago that he didn’t want to get involved in coaching summer ball, not wanting to create any conflicts of interest with his roster so he hasn’t coached any of the seniors on his roster yet. Lastly, his presumptive Opening Day starter, LHP Joe Ariola, will be sidelined after undergoing Tommy John surgery last month. It’s a very tough break for the Wake Forest-commit, who will hopefully return in time for his senior season.
Now that we got the bad news out of the way, here’s the good news.
Pienkos has more talent in his school than just about any other coach in New York. He noted that even making cuts can be difficult, as many players that try out for his team are good enough to be starting at their public school.
“That’s always the case,” said Pienkos. “And I certainly understand the parents’ point of view, but the competition here is just so good,” he added.
From their championship team in 2019, they sent Logan Koester to George Washington, Paul Orbon to St. John’s and Aidan Larkin to Hofstra – all Division-I programs. Koester, of course, was the MVP of the NSCHSAA Playoffs and captured Axcess Baseball‘s Pitcher of the Year. The 6’3 RHP went 7-0 with a 0.44 ERA and 53 strikeouts. He was also selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the MLB Draft but opted to attend college. Unfortunately, Pienkos noted that he had Tommy John surgery recently. Larkin was the League MVP during the regular season in ’19.
Of their seniors in 2020, they graduated Sawyer Duarte, Ryan Walsh, Billy Sullivan, James Muscat, Matt Merolla, Matt Peluso and Charlie O’Brien. Those players did not get to play their senior seasons unfortunately, but that is not just a Chaminade issue as every team had their 2020 graduates miss their senior seasons. What makes it difficult for Chaminade seniors is that very rarely does the program call up sophomores, so even in the best case scenario the players get two seasons on varsity. Yes there are exceptions, including Larkin and Koester in 2017, but Pienkos has only called up six sophomores in 38 years. Ariola was set to become the 7th last year.
As for the 2021 team, they are not asking for anyone’s pity. The program is still in very good shape, thanks in large part to an immensely talented 2022 class that already features 3 Division-I players and that number will likely creep to six.
Uncommitted John Downing (Chaminade 2022) with 14 strikeouts over six innings at PG pic.twitter.com/Za4mrBzmgR
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 10, 2020
Anchoring the rotation is two outstanding juniors in LHP John Downing and RHP JJ Gatti. Both have been playing high-level travel for years, so their lack of varsity experience is not reason for concern – plus they’ll have next year as well. With those two, Pienkos should feel very confident and I would be shocked if they are not Division-I pitchers.
JJ Gatti (Chaminade 2022) struck out 13 in a two-hit shutout in the @BCprospects Northeast Elite playoffs pic.twitter.com/e8RtBqAYSW
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 4, 2020
The outfield already features two Division-I players in Hofstra-commit Thomas Lebrecht and Binghamton-commit Nick Ungania. Pienkos had the following to say about Ungania.
“He is an impact player, he can do a lot of things – he’s really fast and can really hit,” he said. With him atop the order, the Flyers’ middle of the order should have plenty of opportunities to drive in runs.
Columbia-commit Nolan Nawrocki and uncommitted junior Brady Steinert form a formidable double-play combination. Although it is still up in the air, the expectation is that Nawrocki will handle SS with Steinert playing second, but that remains to be seen and Pienkos said “they’re interchangeable .
Uncommitted SS Brady Steinert (Chaminade 2022) pic.twitter.com/zD5ANdwf5D
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) November 29, 2020
Senior first/third baseman Tyler Burke will handle a corner position. He can really hit and his father won the Diamond Award back in 1993. Junior catcher Anthony Lods has ridiculous power (101 exit velo) and Pienkos said he can do a lot. Ryan Johnston is a junior that just committed to NYU, Pienkos said he’s an infielder and he’s another strong kid.
Two other seniors he mentioned was OF Mike Suozzi (younger brother of Joe), and Susquehanna-commit Thomas Andersen, who is a 1B and RHP.
As is always the case with the Flyers, there will be other players that emerge that aren’t even mentioned in the article. For example, Bobby Dahl was a pitcher that flew under the radar in 2019 and wound up being co-aces with Koester all season – it’s just how it goes with a talent pool as deep as theirs.
Also, their underclassmen are pretty loaded as well with players like Jack Puvogel, Tyler Jones Matt Brandt, Michael Cervoni and others coming in the near future. Chaminade is not going anywhere, so if some team will knock them off the throne they will have to earn it.
