No town has been flying as high as Sayville since November 2019 when they captured the Suffolk County Class III championship with a 28-10 victory over East Islip. The football team followed that up by winning another title last week – this time against Westhampton Beach, 32-7. Sandwiched between those was the first Long Island Championship in school history on the diamond with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Clarke. By now, you’ve surely seen the video that has gone viral.
Brock Murtha’s no-hitter sends Sayville to the N.Y. state championship for the first time in program history! pic.twitter.com/HOYA7iindr
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 9, 2019
Looking back on that historic game, Sayville coach Joe Esposito knew Murtha was on his game.
“I knew one run was all he needed – he had his best best stuff that day,” Esposito said in regards to Murtha, who fired a no-hitter and is now at Notre Dame. “He did something special that day – it shows you the type of player he is.”
The Golden Flashes were able to scratch that one run across when CJ Messina sacrificed Nick Buffardi into scoring position and scored on a two-out RBI single by Jack Davis against Clarke’s ace Brendan Turton.
“I basically told him, no matter where this ball goes, you’re scoring,” Esposito said.
Murtha was able to slam the door with a strikeout to end the game on his 98th pitch and chaos ensued on the mound. Fortunately, there was no injuries but not so fortunately, they did have to face Ballston-Spa who entered the NY State Tournament with a 22-2 record and one of the best hitters in the country in Luke Gold – now at Boston College. The Golden Flashes had their season ended, but the memories will not soon be forgotten.
They did graduate co-ace Eric Foster, who had an outstanding season winning 9 games, was named All-Long Island and is now at Stony Brook. They also graduated CF Thomas Nielsen following that 2019 season.
After the cancellation of the 2020 season, they also graduated a number of players including Connor Smalley, Kevin Gross, Pat Delaney, Thomas Schilling and Mark Radzewsky who was set to be their first baseman last year.
Murtha was 12 home runs away from the NY State record held by East Hampton’s Ross Gload since 1994. Could he have done it?
“He was just in a different zone entering last year – and he hit 10 home runs as a freshman and sophomore, so yes I think he could’ve hit 12 or 13 home runs. A lot of people like to say our left field is short but he hit more home runs on the road than at home. In the county finals against Rocky Point’s ace, in his first at bat he flew out to the fence in center. In his second at bat , he hit it about 30 feet past the fence for a home run.
I swore I would stop talking about him but it’s kind of hard,” said Esposito jokingly.
Now that the team is in the post-Murtha era, they will look to keep their magic going into another year. They are fortunate to be returning one of their biggest impact players from 2019 and at the most important position aside from pitcher and that’s behind the dish. Army West Point-commit Jack Quinlan started every inning of every game as a freshman and is just a junior. We named him first-team All-Long Island and will be “an integral part of everything we do”, said Esposito. He hit the biggest home run of the season against Hauppauge when they were facing elimination in the semifinals.
At SS, they have another Army West Point-commit in Nick Buffardi who will also be pitching and playing CF. He has big-time power and they’ll be counting on production from him
Alex Millwater is “coming off a fantastic football season,” according to coach and he notched the go-ahead hit against Rocky Point in the Class A Finals two years ago in a game that ultimately ended, 8-3.
C.J. Messina, who laid down the crucial bunt in the LIC, is back and is currently up for best WR and best DB in the county. He will be utilizing his electric speed in the outfield and on the base paths.
Uncommitted 6’1 RHP Jack Turner (Sayville 2021) sitting 84-85 pic.twitter.com/MWSsw4c3Ew
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 22, 2020
As for the pitching, they will be leaning on Felician-commit Jack Turner, a hard-thrower that has been up to 90 MPH recently. He played JV two years ago, so was not a part of the championship team but has improved a lot since then.
“He works really hard and nobody really knows him,” said Esposito.
Buffardi will also be pitching as well as a familiar name, Jack Cheshire. The superstar QB broke Jack Coan‘s record for single-season passing TDs with 41 last year and has a rocket for an arm on the gridiron. They will be looking for that sort of magic to materialize on the mound.
“We hope he can go from best QB on Long Island to best pitcher,” said Esposito adding that he “was our best pitcher and MVP on our JV team in 2019. He has good velocity, but he’s a bit rusty we are working on that now.”
Cheshire is one of 14 seniors on this year’s team so they are still well-positioned to make a run. They are just getting their full team together this week for the first time since virtually the whole team plays either football and soccer and both had their seasons completed recently.
They are certainly running low on time as they will open up on May 8th against Westhampton at 2pm at Moriches Complex. They will also face East Islip, Islip, East Hampton, Miller Place, Hills West, Harborfields, Kings Park and Rocky Point before starting that sequence again.
On that opening weekend, there will be a ceremony for the three legendary Suffolk County coaches that passed away over the past year – Bill Batewell, Carmine Argenziano and Bob Ambrosini. Esposito noted that Ambrosini was “my all-time favorite,” and went on to add that “he was as tough as they come. He had this presence about him – he demanded the best from his players and he got it. I was devastated when I heard that he passed.”
