Looking back on 2021, there were so many exciting memories crammed into a condensed season that it’s almost hard to fathom. Remember, the high school season was pushed back from it’s customary last week in March. The CHSAA opened up first in the final week of April, while Nassau and Suffolk started a week later. Teams played four games per week which made more some difficult situations in terms of pitching.
The playoffs were bedlam with day-after-day of great baseball. The highlight of it all – in my opinion, was June 17 and 18 for the County Championships and June 20 for the Long Island Championships. Without the state championship, it concentrated all the focus on the Long Island Championships which is exactly the way it should be.
As far as 2022 is concerned, we are hoping for another full high school and college baseball season. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we may see some games cancelled during the season, but I’m hopeful that it doesn’t impact much.
Without further ado, here’s some storylines that I’m most looking forward to…
Can anyone stop Chaminade?
The CHSAA will once again be absolutely loaded with talent in 2022. Chaminade returns as the champions after sweeping Kellenberg in the best-of-three championship series at Mitchel Field. Chaminade was young last year, returning zero players with varsity experience. Coach Pienkos himself said during the preseason roundtable discussion that he didn’t know most of the players. And guess what? They still found a way to win. That was also with losing ace LHP Joe Ariola to Tommy John right before the season. If healthy, the Wake Forest-commit is the pitcher with the highest ceiling on Long Island in the 2022 class. It’s unclear if he will be back due to the timing of his surgery. In his absence, they relied on another lefty John Downing, who was outstanding and committed to Seton Hall after the season. They also got a huge season from RHP JJ Gatti who committed to the University of Dayton. Of course, they got contributions all over the roster but those were the pitchers that did most of the heavy lifting along with reliever Andrew Heiderstadt, who was on the mound when they clinched the title. They didn’t lose many players either and ever one of their 15 seniors are signing to play in college. What’s most scary is that their 2023 class might be even better, with leadoff hitter Michael Sweeney committed to Hofstra, SS Matt Dieguez committed to Fordham, LHP Matt Brandt, Jack Puvogel along with several others. But St. John the Baptist may present the biggest challenge to them with Kyle Chase having the ability to shutdown any lineup and a bevy of talented players. We will delve deeper as the season gets closer with season previews of all the teams. I wouldn’t sleep on Kellenberg, who will have a staff anchored by Wake Forest-commit Andrew Koshy to go along with a trio of southpaws – Brendan McCann, Steven Hardiman and John Kwiatowski. Additionally, St. Mary’s is back in the conference after a four-year hiatus, which will add another variable.
Who might get drafted?
Last year we had the draft cut down to 20 rounds. Even so, Tommy Ventimiglia (Cleveland) and Jacob Steinmatz (Arizona) both had their names called. Wantagh-native Jimmy Joyce (Seattle) was drafted out of Hofstra. This year we don’t appear to have the same crop of pitchers. That was a unique group that also had Tyler Cox, Dylan Johnson, Rafe Schlesinger and JT Raab. The X-Factor is Joe Ariola of Chaminade. If he is healthy from TJ and he is back 88-92 MPH, there will be one team that will be banking on getting him in their system and unleashing his potential. Pretty crazy, but he has yet to appear in a varsity game since the 2020 season was cancelled and then 2021 was the injury. Aside from him, the other recognizable names are Kyle Chase (SJB), Dylan Banner (Plainview JFK), Jake Moss (Manhasset) and an under-the-radar name is Billy Steele (Shoreham-Wading River) who came out of nowhere last year to flash 88-90 MPH heaters.
What can Frank Catalanotto do for an encore?
Although they haven’t released their 2022 schedule, it is believed Hofstra will kick off the Frank Catalanotto era against another former Major Leaguer, Lance Berkman, at Houston Baptist. Hofstra was previously led by John Russo who announced that he would be stepping down after the season. Catalanotto had been sitting out the 2021 season after New York Tech eliminated the baseball program from the NCAA. He had led them to the 2019 College World Series and they were returning a stronger team in 2020 that probably would’ve made another run. At Hofstra, he had an immediate impact with the transfers of Brian Morrell and Anthony Fontana, but they lost a ton of innings with Jack Jett and Jimmy Joyce going to pro ball. The CAA is an incredibly deep conference, so they will have their work cut out. But when it comes to Frank and his coaching staff, it’s more a matter of ‘when’ than ‘if’ he will have the Pride contending for championships.
Who’s going to make the big leagues?
Last year was an incredible one for local ballplayers at the big league level. Aside from great seasons by established players Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz, we also saw St. Dominic grad Reiss Knehr get some starts for the San Diego Padres. I wonder who found him? We also had one week in week Kyle McGowin, Nick Tropeano and Anthony Kay all appeared in games. As for 2022, there’s a real chance that we add to that list potentially with Garden City native Ryan Smith, Clarke grad Matt Seelinger and an even bigger story. Long Island hasn’t produced a position player since Reid Gorecki got 25 at bats for the Braves in 2009. Logan O’Hoppe is on the verge of breaking that streak, he’s all the way up to the No. 11 prospect in the Phillies system and is rocketing through the system. It would be an incredible story of perseverance from walk-on at ECU to big leaguer in 4 years.
Who’s the favorite in the Skyline Conference?
I always enjoy covering the Skyline Conference. Besides from the fact that I played in it, you have all local teams competing and the conference playoffs are always thrilling. Last year, USMMA finally broke through after knocking on the door for a few years. They defeated Old Westbury on a walk-off HR by Garrett Aichele. In the regionals, they knocked off No. 1 ranked Eastern Connecticut and beat Keystone but had their season ended by Tufts. They are ranked No. 30 in the preseason poll nationally by Collegiate Newspaper. They open up February 26 against Wells at home. One team to keep an eye on is St. Joseph’s, who got some interesting transfers – Hermes Abreu, John Lynch and Brian Forbes and their lineup was already in good shape with Ryan Decoursey, Phil Krpata, Charles Rainone, Paul Gugliuzzo and Joe Sanguedolce. They also have a strong rotation with Ryan Foran, Anthony Cinquemani, Kevin Czeczotka. So I think it’s fair to say the Golden Eagles have the makings of a championship team.
Following the freshmen studs
Last year was crazy that there was five players in Nassau County that hit over .600 – Patrick Sanchez (Calhoun), Vin Mallon (Massapequa), Luke Orbon (New Hyde Park), Tyler Cox (Clarke) and Nick Roselli (Division). I doubt that’s ever been done and it made it impossible to give out the Diamond Award to only one hitter. I’m interested to see how those kids perform in college. One of the things we try to focus on in February and March is tracking the progress of the local players that move on to Division-I schools. All of those will be worthy of the recognition.
Who’s Up Next?
This offseason we highlighted 10 underclassmen that will be impact players at the varsity level. They were:
Logan Norman, Centereach
Gabe Beschloss, Garden City
Nick Berasti, Clarke
Jace Alvino, West Babylon
Alex Strickland, Miller Place
Tyler Bonsignore, MacArthur
Kyle Kozlowski, Holy Trinity
Mikey Cervoni, Chaminade
Robbie Melo, Pat-Med
Erik Paulsen, Massapequa
And that’s not to mention other players we’ve highlighted last year such as Sebastian Lippman (Plainview JFK), Andrew Koshy (Kellenberg), James Sill (Division), Thomas O’Neill (Farmingdale), Josh Knoth (Pat-Med), Tyler Cook (Holy Trinity), Zach Rosenzweig (Plainedge) and many others. But the point is, everyone wants to know who’s the next best, who’s the next stud that we will hear about. And here’s some players that I’ve heard a lot of good things, and I feel comfortable putting my name on them as impact players.
Nassau Conference A4
Plainedge
Wantagh
Clarke
Mineola
North Shore
Island Trees
Seaford
Those are the teams in the conference and it is potentially the most talent-laden conference I’ve ever seen. Seaford, Island Trees and Clarke all competed for Conference V title last season. Wantagh won three Long Island Championships in a row and are a perennial playoff team. North Shore and Mineola are always good. It’s going to be a bloodbath and I’m not sure how you can even predict who will come out on top when it’s so balanced. Whoever wins it will be a favorite to win the Long Island Championship considering they would have been playing playoff teams for the whole season.
The $60 million stadium
It might not be on Long Island, but come on this will certainly have a huge impact on the best local players. SUNY Binghamton will be debuting their brand new $60 million stadium that was donated by a billionaire graduate of Binghamton. Currently, the best players on Long Island – unless they try to play at a Power 5 school or somewhere down south – typically would choose to attend Stony Brook or St. John’s University. With this new facility to go along with a great academic school, it puts Binghamton in that mix for top players. We’ve seen it already, as Nick Roselli de-committed from Sacred Heart and chose Binghamton after the season. Justin Rosner, Tommy Reifler and Doug Goodwin are all Long Island standout players that chose to go there. Right now, I’m planning on attending that opening weekend series against Maine.
