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Connetquot Ready To Protect Their Crown

Entering the 2019 season, Connetquot was my pick to capture the Suffolk Class AA Title. Having watched them in the previous two years, it was just very clear that they had the high-end talent and the necessary experience to win the title. It took three games against a perennial playoff team in Ward Melville, but ultimately the T-Birds proved me right with a convincing win in Game 3.

They had their season ended in a thrilling Long Island Championship game against Massapequa in which they lost 7-6 with the winning run coming on a sixth inning HR by Nick Schwartz. They made it interesting in the seventh as the T-Birds loaded up the bases with two outs and the count ran to 3-2, but Massapequa’s RHP Kenny Galvin induced a fly out to right to end the game. Nevertheless it was a tremendous season for Connetquot who had previously captured the Long Island Championship in 2015.

They did graduate some great players like Paul Gibson Award winner Joey Savino (8-1, 0.70 ERA), All-County LHP Matt Goodis, the Yalon twins and All-County catcher Josh McGee.

Regardless, last year’s team was in prime position to defend their crown. They retained enough talent from 2019 that it was going to be realistic to expect them to contend for another title. Head Coach Rob Burger.

I had a chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say:

Did you feel that you had a chance to repeat in 2020?

“We were very excited for the 2020 season as we believed that we had a great chance to repeat as Suffolk County Champions. We had Brown-Eiring, Ungar and Goff coming back and we were really excited about our seniors Anthony Amato, Matt Tringali, Mike Barbara and James and Anthony Trink. We never thought that March 14th would have been our last day together.

Of your recent graduates, who are currently playing at the collegiate level?

Joe Savino, Jared and Derek Yalon, Josh McGee, Trevor Adamo, Lucas Quinlan, Anthony Amato, Alex Ungar and Matt Brown-Eiring are all still playing in college.

Did winning the Suffolk Class AA Championship help the program in terms of increasing the number of players trying out?

Winning the Suffolk County Class AA Championship was amazing and something that every player and coach will remember forever. Winning the championship created a buzz throughout the community. When we left the school heading to that game we were greeted by a line of fire trucks and other emergency personnel from both ends of town. There must have been over a 100 people in the streets waving and wishing us good luck. That bus ride was emotional. The number of kids we’ve had at our clinics and camps have been amazing. Our middle school coaches Tommy Strazza and Ross Castaldo have been doing camps for the middle school kids in preparation for their upcoming season. These kids love baseball. They were at those playoff games. They want their shot. We will have close to 100 kids in all levels of our baseball program.

Despite the large graduating class last year, who are some players you’re looking to have a big impact?

This season we are young. We only have two players who have seen a varsity pitch. We may be young but we are excited. We have six seniors and 14 underclassmen including one freshman. Our inexperience will not be used as an excuse. We are ready to compete with anyone. We have position battles all over the field including three sophomore catchers fighting for the job. The guys are starting to buy into our team first mentality. There will not be another team who will outwork us. We are going a little old school with the guys. Lots of home to homes. We have eleven arms that will be getting an opportunity to eat up some innings. We have a loaded JV team that can easily allow a few arms to come on up to help out if needed.

We are looking for big years from several guys.
James Goff, senior, who started every game as a sophomore and batted .323 in our championship year. The kid is a stud and is one of the best players on Long Island. He is a five-tool player who can do it all. He wants to win. He’s been a great role model for our younger guys. He will lock down SS and pitch as well.
Sean Mileti, senior, who is a Molloy commit will be the anchor of our staff. His velocity has been increasing every week and he pounds the zone. He has a little swag to him. He has command of all three of his pitches.
Ryan Appell, senior, who is a St. Thomas Aquinas commit will be playing first base and hit in the middle of our order. He has great power to all fields and been spraying the ball all over the field.
Mike DiFilippo, senior, committed to St. Joseph’s College and pitched very well in the Town of Brookhaven Tournament last summer. Throws strikes and works quick.
Anthony Scarabino, who is a sophomore will be at the top of our rotation and play OF. It’s very rare to have such a young kid in the rotation but this lefty has what it takes. He will hit in the top of our order as his bat is just as impressive.
Chris Hendrickson, junior, has the potential to be a middle of the order hitter who is a lock down defender. We expect big things from him.
What did the district allow in terms of your team being able to get together and practice before the Spring season?
We have been very fortunate that our AD, Pete Melore allowed us the opportunity to conduct a fall clinic. We started in September and went to late November. We had over 50 kids in the clinic. Having two brand new turf fields allowed us the opportunity to be outside as long as we were. It was huge for us. Coach Page, varsity assistant, Mike Rizzitello and Matt Warshaw, JV assistants, met and we decided that a fall clinic would be a great opportunity to implement our program goals. Each of them have been great and I am lucky to have them on my staff.
What are your thoughts on the new format this season with the combined leagues and no series?
 I am a traditionalist. I love three game series. Playing 18 games in 32 days with no scrimmages is a challenge. Trust me, anything is better than not playing. It will be different for everyone.

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Vinny is the President of Axcess Baseball. He is a 2013 graduate of Adelphi University and he is currently the Long Island area scout for the San Diego Padres

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