Here we are at the official beginning of the 2021 high school baseball season. But it’s a good time to look back at how far we’ve come over the past couple years. It’s easy to forget with all the negativity and uncertainty in 2020 that we were actually coming off one of the most remarkable seasons you can imagine.
Forget about the incredible about of no-hitters, walk-offs, upsets and great performances of the high school season – let’s just look at the local college programs.
Division-I:
Stony Brook captured their sixth America East title with a come-from-behind 7-5 victory over Binghamton. Chris Hamilton had the go-ahead hit in the sixth inning. Reliever Brandon Bonanno fired the final 3.2 innings of relief with four strikeouts to slam the door on the victory. Stony Brook’s power in the lineup was a huge different too as Michael Wilson and Brandon Alamo each hit solo home runs to tie the game. All three games of the conference tournament were thrillers as the Seawolves won 7-6, 5-4 and 7-5. Game 1 really set the tone as they trailed 6-2 in the 8th inning, but inched closer with a solo shot from Michael Wilson, Dylan Resk hit a two-run shot to make it 6-5 and Chris Hamilton hit a walk-off two-run shot in the 9th to turn a loss into a triumph. After the Conference Championship, they had an extremely difficult draw having to face No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Arizona State, which ended their season. They hit .280 as a team with Brandon Alamo (.335), Nick Grande (.332), Michael Wilson (.331) and Chris Hamilton (.325) carrying much of the load. Wilson led the way with 10 of the Seawolves’ 40 home runs. The pitching staff was up-and-down, with only reliever Ben Fero notching an ERA under 4.00.
The Seawolves secured their sixth America East title and first since 2015 today. Stony Brook will find out its fate Monday at Noon.#SeawolvesUnited | #AEBASE | #AEChamps pic.twitter.com/810lySVeS8
— Stony Brook Baseball (@StonyBrookBASE) May 25, 2019
Fordham captured the A-10 Championship for the first time since 1998 with an intense 4-3 victory Dayton. The championship game went 12 innings with the winning run scoring on a bases loaded walk drawn by Justin Bardwell. They won all four games of the A-10 Tournament – 7-6 extra inning win over Richmond, 2-1 over VCU and 4-2 over Dayton before the clincher. Along with the conference title, their 38-wins also set a program record that was previously set in 1988 and 1990. A big reason for the team’s success was the pitching staff. They compiled a team ERA of 3.26 – led by ace John Stankiewicz who went 8-4, with a 1.47 ERA over 92 IP while striking out 102 batters. They also had Anthony Zimmerman stifle opponents to a 0.99 ERA over 36.1 IP out of the bullpen. The duo of him and Kyle Martin was deadly. The Oceanside grad had a 2.44 ERA over 44 IP. Overall, the staff struck out 605 batters over 549.0 IP. In the NCAA Regional, they got a tough draw having to face No. 15 West Virginia and Texas A&M – they lost both and had their season end but it was a great success for the Rams.
Call them @atlantic10 Champs! @FordhamBaseball wins 2019 Atlantic 10 title at Houlihan Park. pic.twitter.com/FsdHsTOOPk
— Fordham Athletics (@FordhamRams) May 25, 2019
St. John’s actually did not capture the BIG EAST Championship – they lost to Xavier on May 25 – but they did win 31 games and went 21-4 at home. It ended up being the final season of the Ed Blankmeyer tenure for the Johnnies. They finished with a winning record in 23 of his 24 seasons. Offensively, Mike Antico was phenomenal. He had 71 hits and led the team in virtually all offensive categories. He batted .386 with 1.098 OPS, 45 runs scored, 38 walks which gave him a .500 OBP, 20 stolen bases in 24 tries and 29 RBI. Just a crazy productive season. The pitching staff was its usual dominant self they were led by Joe LaSorsa (1.66 ERA), Sean Mooney (2.17 ERA), Ian Murphy (2.53 ERA) and Gavin Hollowell (9 saves). They had a lot of turnover following the year with Mike Antico transferring to Texas, and several players graduating or moving on to pro ball.
Division-II:
Adelphi enjoyed their best season in program history from a winning percentage perspective. They went 34-9-1, with a national ranking as high as 5 during their insane 18-game unbeaten streak which immediately followed an 8-game winning streak. They were able to do so despite suffering a rash of injuries to key players and the flu wiping out half their lineup in March. Ed Baram was untouchable at the top of their rotation and was named All-American and drafted by Oakland. It was a fun ride, but it came to an abrupt end. The NE-10 does not give first-round byes and Adelphi was upset by SoCo, 9-6, at home in the first round of the tournament. They were given a second chance the following week when they hosted the East Regional, but lost 4-3 to Franklin Pierce and 14-5 to Wilmington University. Overall, they hit .297 as a team, averaged 7.3 runs per game and compiled an ERA of 3.44. More than half of their innings were thrown by pitchers with an ERA under 3.00 which explains their dominance. It was a shocking end to the season, but they should be back in contention sooner rather than later.
LIU
What a bizarre sequence of events. LIU announced that they would be combining the athletics programs between the Brookville and Brooklyn campuses, effectively ending the playing careers of many Division-II players that had another year of eligibility. Making matters worse, they gave the players or coaches no heads up. The administration never responded to any emails and were coy about who would take over as the head coach after the season. With all that said, the players absolutely responded to the adversity.
The Pioneers (it’s been a while since anyone said that name), got off to a rough start to the season. They were swept by Tampa and lost to Southern New Hampshire to fall to 0-4 on February 21. At that point, they decided enough was enough. They went on a ridiculous run, going 33-9 over their next 42 games. They lost to Queens the Monday leading up to the ECC Tournament at NYIT. They plowed through their 3 games winning 9-0, 11-5 and 15-0 to easily capture the title. The next weekend in the East Regional, they defeated Felician 4-2, defeated Southern New Hampshire 4-3 and needed just one more win to advance to face NYIT in the Super Regional (that would’ve been incredible). But they lost back-to-back games to them 8-2 and 4-1. Co-ace Josh Loeschorn sustained an injury during warm ups which messed up their mojo. The freshman was unhittable all season and entered play with a 10-0 record with an ERA at 1.34. With him going down, the rest of the staff didn’t get it done. But still, the 38 wins was a program record and it was a very impressive way for them to go out.
And that segues us into the team of the year….
New York Tech
I mean what can you say? Frank Catalanotto took over a dormant program that had already fell from Division-I to Division-II and missed the playoffs in 2018 with 13 wins. They were searching for impact players. When he took over, something immediately changed – and look no further than the finished product which was a visit to the College World Series and 37 wins. The team attracted some high-end transfers such as John LaRocca and Chris Campbell that wound up paying immediate dividends. They also just got the most of their current players like E.J. Cumbo, Jake Lebel, Ryan Kuskowski, Ben McNeil and they got amazing seasons from some unheralded stars like DJ Masuck, Chris Mott and Joe Murphy in the rotation and Ariel Taveras, Ryan Mueller in the pen. They appeared to have their season end in the ECC Tournament when they came out flat and were eliminated by Bridgeport in a 4-0 loss. They wound up getting an at-large bid into the Regional at Adelphi University and absolutely caught fire. It was a complete surprise considering they not only played their best but they had to defeat some perennial powerhouses to do so like Wilmington and Franklin Pierce. They advanced to the Super Regionals – which was the first year of that format if I remember correctly – and they went on to upset another 40-win team in Southern New Hampshire by the scores of 9-8 and 6-3. In the 9-8 win, they led 9-4 entering the bottom of the 9th and hung on by the skin of their teeth. Once they won that game, it was proof that luck was on their side. They lost their two games in the College World Series, but it didn’t matter at that point – they had already solidified their spot in program history and various media platforms caught wind and they did their rounds. As it turns out, it was their final full season together. After the cancellation of the 2020 season, NYIT abruptly announced the school would leave the NCAA for two years – which resulted in a mass exodus of all their top players and the coaching staff. Who knows what will happen after that time frame is done if the school is even still around but I can’t imagine they would go back into the NCAA as a Division-II program (maybe D-III?) and who would even be on the team at that point?
Division-III
Farmingdale
Vinny Rice was named Most Outstanding Player of the Skyline Conference Tournament pic.twitter.com/IWOlmeoLyL
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 7, 2019
I went to Farmingdale so I know how Keith Osik gets his players ready for postseason play. Still it’s always interesting to see the path they take to the championship. This year wasn’t so unusual as they waltzed through the regular season with a record of 17-1 so they hosted the Skyline Conference tournament. They defeated Maritime 12-1 in their first game, USMMA 5-4 in the second game and Old Westbury 8-5 in the championship game. Remarkably, ace Matthew Constantine pitched 8.1 IP on Monday and came back to close the game on Tuesday with 1.1 innings. It was a classic win-at-all-costs move that worked out. The Rams led 5-0 early, watched Old Westbury storm back to make it 5-4 before they put it away late. Vinny Rice was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament and he really was a fantastic player for them during his career. If you have a really good memory, you may recall Rice came to Farmingdale as a pitcher but wound up being a cleanup hitter and holds their single-season record for home runs with five.
It looked like they may have had a chance to make a run to the College World Series as they did in 2009, but they lost to Johns Hopkins, 6-2, and TCNJ, 8-7, in 13 innings to end their season. They actually trailed 6-1 but clawed their way back. It was a great season for the Rams who finished with a record of 32-9 which is usually good enough for a top 25 ranking.
