by Mike Anderson
THEY HAVE DONE IT AGAIN.
Wantagh completes the three-peat as Class A Long Island Champions!FINAL: Wantagh 4 Rocky Point 2
WP – Anthony Fontana (Complete Game) pic.twitter.com/9HcJj90Tin
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 2, 2018
One of the premier baseball programs on Long Island will look to have another great year, as Wantagh High School is ready to compete again. Last year’s team was 11-7 overall and 10-6 in league play, according to MaxPreps. Last season, their team started off 7-0, but was hurt at times by Covid-19 and finished the season losing to Bethpage. However, they were led by several solid players to help continue the program’s winning traditions in 2021. The players they have returning will give them a chance to keep it up this year as well.
Luckily for them, they were not hurt much by graduation, as their best performers are young. They also have two of the better pitchers in their league on their pitching staff, as they return senior Andrew Bonanno and junior Tim Hennig. Hennig was All-County last year, while Bonanno was All-Conference. Hennig is an early commit, as he is slated to play Div-I baseball at Binghamton University. He was also their shortstop, as he is a very valuable two-way player for the team. They also have a young phenom named AJ Bardi, who is a sophomore and was an All-County player as a freshman playing catcher. Sachs mentioned that he was the first All-County freshman in his time as head coach at Wantagh, and was the only freshman given the honor in Nassau last year. He batted .414 with .486 OBP, scored 17 runs and stole 10 bases.
Aidan Bardi (Wantagh 2024) put himself on the map with 18 home runs in a single week in Cooperstown. Last year he was the only freshman to be named All-County. Div-I prospect pic.twitter.com/tmPVk4YPyl
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) January 17, 2022
One of the notable players that they did lose was pitcher Shaun Joyce, who pitched to a 4-2 record and a 2.65 ERA. They also graduated their team co-leaders in RBIs in Frank Peretti and Joe Fontana.
One guy with higher expectations is Bardi’s older brother Alex Bardi, who is a senior first baseman for them. Last year, he hit .409 with some clutch hits. Sachs says that he is in much better shape, and looks good so far during their workouts.
“He put on 25 pounds of muscle… He looks like a football player now. The ball’s flying off his bat. Even in gym class, he’s bouncing around and looks athletic. He’s a kid who started last year, but I think we’re going to get a monster year out of him,” Sachs said.
They have several other guys who played well in 2021 as well. Outfielder Chris Petrillo hit .319 last year while playing in all 19 games for Wantagh, and is now going into his senior year. They also have third baseman Joe Legovich, who was a sophomore on varsity last year. In those 10 games, he hit .412, and four out of his seven hits were doubles. He will presumably play a bigger role as a junior.
They are still waiting to see some more competition between the players, as they do not have a set lineup yet. Sachs said the top of the order will likely consist of Bardi, Bonanno, and Hennig, in no particular order. They also are looking for their third starter in the starting rotation.
This team has a lot of youth, and they will be getting a lot of guys legitimate varsity experience this year, let alone returning several underclassmen who already have valuable varsity experience. Of course, mixing that young talent with the culture of their program is a recipe for excellence, whether now or further down the line. However, in order to get better for this upcoming season, they just have to do the basic stuff, according to Sachs.
“We’ve got to play baseball. We’ve got to try to score a run every inning. We’ve got to execute. Lay down bunts, never strikeout, throw strikes. We’ve got to play baseball the old-fashioned way,” Sachs said.
They definitely have the bullets to play that way, as they are an offense that only struck out 92 times in 19 games played last year. They’ve also got two excellent strike-throwers headlining their rotation. Though they are not as star-studded coming into this season as they have been in years past, there are still several players that we do not know about yet who may break out unexpectedly. When you play in a program with a culture and history as storied as Wantagh’s, it’s always possible. Because of that, it would be silly to just overlook them.
They are set to open their 2022 campaign on March 28, as they look to re-capture the magic of the 2016-2018 Long Island Championship runs.
