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What is the Best School to Recruit from on Long Island?

This idea originally came to me about five years ago when I was covering a Shoreham-Wading River practice before the season. Looking around, it appeared they had more talent some many college teams and I remember thinking that a college coach could’ve done most of their recruiting just from that team. They wound up winning 20 consecutive games and capturing the Class A Suffolk County Championship that season.

That was in 2017 and since then a lot has changed. But at the same time, the cream always rises to the top and many of the best programs on Long Island have been the best programs for several decades. Some have their peaks and valleys, but this list will focus on the best of the best – the ones you can always count on will be there come playoff time, the ones that produce the best college players.

This is based on my observations of watching high school baseball on Long Island regularly for the past several years and also some conversations I’ve had with college recruiting coordinators.

Here is goes, I’m sure nobody will disagree with anything here…

10. Commack

The Cougars have always had a strong program as long as I can reminder. Even before that time they sent Pete Harnisch and Mike Belfiore to the Major Leagues so they certainly belong on this list. More recently, they have been a truly dominant program winning the Class AA County Championship in 2017 and the Conference I Long Island Championship this past year. I think their run will continue when you consider how much underclass talent they had this past year – specifically their 2023 class which I think can be special. Chris McHugh batted over .500 and will be one of the more dangerous hitters on LI entering the year. They also have a strong 2022 class with two Division-I catchers in Nick Gnardellis and Anthony Chiapetta as well as two-way player Joey Patane. In addition to their high-profile Division-I players, many people spoke glowingly of their complementary players last year such as Connor Pedersen and Matt Edwards who both chose to play in the SUNYAC. Good teams have complete rosters – you can’t have all D-I stars, it takes an army. With their performance over the past several years, they have put themselves into the upper echelon and you can see several of their recent graduates performing well at the college level and I expect that list to grow this year with the 2021 grads.

9. Wantagh

It’ll be a long time before we see another run from an Nassau A school like Wantagh’s between 2016-2018. They won three Long Island Championships and one state title in 2016. They had droves of talent but were led by five All-State players (Jimmy Joyce, Anthony Fontana, Anthony D’Onofrio, Trevor Fagan and Bobby Hegarty). Of that group, Joyce is currently in the minors as he was drafted out of Hofstra University last year. Since that time, they haven’t been able to recreate that magic – but to be fair, is that even reasonable? Yes they are a powerhouse that also won the LIC in 1998 and 2010. Yes they are the kings of fundamental small ball, but Nassau A is considered the toughest route to the states in all of New York and they just had a special, special group. I think that Keith Sachs is an incredible coach that is able to maximize what he has on the roster every year, and they are so well-versed in fundamentals that it’s engrained in them when they get to college which is great. They had another good year in 2021 but lost a 2-1 game to Bethpage who won their first County Championship since 1981. Wantagh has a couple high-end players on their roster – specifically Binghamton-commit Tim Hennig and sophomore stud AJ Bardi who was the only freshman to be named All-County last year.

8. St. John the Baptist

SJB can’t be left off this list with how well they are coached – you just know their players will be fundamentally sound at the next level. Also, with the rapid ascension of Logan O’Hoppe, they have a chance to become the first school to develop a position player to the big leagues in over a decade. They won the NSCHSAA title in 2018 over St. Dominic and they lost in the finals the year before against Kellenberg, 1-0. They had arguably the most talented team in the league in 2021 but couldn’t get past Chaminade. They have a ton of talent again this year. Their 2022 commits are Kyle Chase (St. John’s), Jason Campo (Stony Brook), Aedan Forde (New Haven), Jay Asencio (Saint Peter’s) and Nick Petrelli (Lynn). They also had Randy Ramnarace committed to New Haven but he transferred back to Brentwood. Prior to Casey McKay, the program was built well by former Major Leaguer John Habyan who captured championships in 2008 and 2013 – lost in the finals in 2009 – and before that, Buddy Corr was the face of the program.

7. Ward Melville

One of the best championship series I’ve ever watched was in 2015 when Ward Melville stood toe-to-toe with Connetquot in the Class AA Finals led by sophomore Ben Brown and senior Joe Flynn. They won Game 2 on a walk-off blast by Dominic Lamonica before dropping the deciding game at Connetquot. Since then, they have knocked on the door every single year- coming especially close in 2019 against Connetquot again. Their last County Championship was in 2013 with their vaunted pitching rotation led by Anthony Kay. Which brings us to the next point – no school on Long Island can boast the high-profile players that the Patriots can. Anthony Kay and Steven Matz are in the Major Leagues. Ben Brown was drafted in 2017 and is in the minor leagues with the Phillies. That’s three pitchers in a decade. I wouldn’t bet against that continuing with the culture that Lou Petrucci has instilled and the sense of pride in the program that began with Matz. They were able to turn a lacrosse community into a baseball one. That is no small task. Each year they have several of players that play at the next level from each class and if you are a recruiter, there’s a good chance you’ll be spending some time at Ward Melville HS.

6. Connetquot

Their two most recent County Championship winning teams 2019 and 2015 – both teams I followed for the entire year were loaded with talent. Sometimes it’s clear who’s the top team in the county entering the year and I think both of those years the T-Birds were the presumptive favorites. In 2019 especially, they had college players up and down that roster highlighted by an incredible five Division-I players (Savino, Ungar, Brown-Eiring and Yalon twins). In 2021, they once again had a loaded roster, this time led by James Goff and Sean Mileti, but they ran into a Bay Shore team that was equal to the task with Coltrane Calloway on the mound. The early signs are that they’re reloaded once again. We saw freshman Ryan Kiendle bat cleanup much of the year on varsity last year so he will anchor their lineup. They also have Anthony Scarabino who seems to be an exciting player and talented pitcher/infielder. They also have a junior SS Erick Duignan that is committed to Adelphi and they are thrilled about it. The late Bob Ambrosini built Connetquot into a powerhouse – winning state titles in 1989 and 1995 as well as county titles in 1986, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2015. Although none of the current players were fortunate enough to play for him, his legacy will live on forever. Current coach Rob Burger wasted no time leaving his impression on the program – winning it all in his first year at the helm and they will look to return to the top this year.

5. Shoreham-Wading River

You could make the case that Shoreham is to Suffolk County Class A what Clarke and Division is to Nassau County Class A. Their mantra is ‘hard ball with class’ and they’ve back it up on the field. They have made it to the playoffs 35 consecutive seasons and I don’t know if that will end anytime soon. Additionally, they have produced three Carl Yastrzemski Award winners (Keith Osik, Brian Morrell, Mike O’Reilly) and dozens of other significant prospects. In some years, when they face their conference opponents you can see the large gap in talent – even against the upper-echelon teams. During the covid season of 2020, they stood a very good chance to win the County Championship based on that pitching staff. They will enter 2022 looking to knock off Mount Sinai from the top of the mountain.

4. Tie: Division/MacArthur

Division has made the playoffs for over 30 consecutive seasons, MacArthur reached the county finals every year from 2006-2008 and again between 2010-2013. For whatever reason, Levittown has enough talent to sustain three high school programs and they are all good – Island Trees being the others. Coach Tom Tuttle and Coach Steve Costello are both exceptional motivators and in-game tacticians. Their match ups with other high-end teams are always exceptional. Many coaches have told me these are the schools to recruit from simply because of how battle-tested their players are. Every year they seem to find an All-County pitcher or Diamond Award winner somewhere on their roster. Six times during the 1990s Division had the Diamond Award winner, they also did in 2009 (Kevin Chenicek), 2014 (Mark Martinez) and 2015 (Anthony Papa). Nick Roselli had a strong case to win it this year as well. MacArthur has had eight Diamond Award winner – most recently Brandon Buchan in 2018. They had the undefeated season of 1994 and Division had theirs in 1996. It’s simply remarkable.

3. Clarke

Clarke is impossible to leave off this list just off the consistency of their program. Try this on for size – they are 35x Conference Champs, 7x County Champions, 3x Long Island Champs and 2x State Champs. They won the County Championship in 2019 in a thrilling series against Division before running into Brock Murtha and Sayville in the LIC. They were the most dominant team for the first 15 or so games of the season before getting upset by Island Trees in the County Championship. They graduated their most impactful player in Tyler Cox (West Virginia) who won the Diamond Award, but it’s next man up for them and they will be counting on the duo of Sean Welsh, Nick Giardino. They also have 2013 graduate Matt Seelinger in the minor leagues and 2017 graduate EJ Cumbo at Tampa knocking on the door.

2. Chaminade

The Flyers have, by far, the most NSCHSAA Championships including the past two. Being all-boys, private school in Mineola they certainly have some inherent advantages that the other schools do not. Coach Mike Pienkos is one of the best to ever do it – he’s been coaching for over 30 years and won his 600th career game in 2019. Their 2022 graduating class has 15 seniors and they are all committed to colleges. The Division-I commits from 2022 class are Brian Heckelman (Towson), Joe Ariola (Wake Forest), John Downing (Seton Hall), JJ Gatti (Dayton), Brady Steinert (Marist), Nolan Nawrocki (Michigan) and Nick Ungania (Binghamton). They also have Matt Dieguez (Fordham) and Mike Sweeney (Hofstra) as D-I commits in the 2023 class. Their 2016 catcher, Straton Podaras, is currently in the minor leagues and their recent grads are littered through out college baseball in the northeast. John Lannon, a 2005 graduate, pitched 8 years in the big leagues.

1.Massapequa

This should speak for itself. The Chiefs have won four consecutive Nassau County titles, they won three straight Long Island Championships from ’17-’19, and they’ve done it for a long time. The combination of a legendary head coach like Tom Sheedy combined with an immense talent pool and one of the better little leagues in the region and you get a baseball powerhouse. From their 2020 class alone they had three high-end Division-I prospects. And they weren’t just D-1 commits, Johnny Castagnozzi played everyday as a freshman in the ACC and Travis Honeyman set the NECBL batting average record (.430) this summer. But when you look beyond that, the team also had the 2021 LI-home run leader in Vin Mallon, pro prospect Bobby Stang and an ace in Liam Carroll. They are one of the few teams that could probably say they have future college players on the bench. Their level of talent and overall consistency is simply unmatched. Their 2012 team had 14 seniors – they all went onto play collegiately and two of them were drafted (Jonathon Mulford and Ryan McCormick). And that wasn’t even one of their county championship teams.

 

 

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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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3 Comments

  1. Baptist lost 09 championship to Saint Dominic’s

    • Connetquot also won county championships in: 2002, 2007 and 2012.

  2. I’d be interested in helping proof read these pieces before publication.

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