(This is the first part of our popular Fall Ball Series – special thanks to Baseball Lifestyle for sponsoring the series! Make sure to check them out here.)
2022 was an exciting season for the Queens Knights – who finished with their highest win total (26) since 1998 (29) and advanced to the ECC Finals against Molloy. They defeated No. 3 Mercy and No. 4 St. Thomas Aquinas in the playoffs to advance to the championship round.
Coach Chris Reardon‘s team refused to go down quietly in any game. They scored 10+ runs in 13 games. They were led offensively by freshman Marc Cisco, who had one of the finest seasons not only in program history but also in the nation.
The Long Island City product started all 43 games and compiled a ridiculous triple slash line of .435/.526/.747 which is good for a 1.273 OPS. He crushed 10 HRs and drove in 49 runs as a freshman second baseman. He was one of only four freshmen to reach All-American status. He will be a finalist for the Axcess Man of the Year Award. As impressive as that sounds, he only barely edged out Lou Antos for the team lead in OPS. Antos, who is the all-time program hits leader graduated with 177. Additionally, he mashed 10 HRs and drove in 39 runs.
“The loss of Antos will be tough to fill,” said Reardon. “He was a real good player and we are fortunate that our younger core got to watch him play last year,” he added.
While Antos has graduated, they will return another run producer, Matt Filip, who was second on the team with 47 RBIs and had a strong .932 OPS. Not to be overlooked is leadoff batter and CF Jayson Rodopoulos – he was third on the team in OPS (.949), played in 41 out of 43 games and was 16-for-16 in stolen bases, which brings a critical element to the team. Left fielder Colin Diez posted an incredible .474 OBP and scored 23 runs. He is the prototypical top of the order hitter as well and a winning player dating back to his HS days at Division Ave.
Senior Reed Hoskins had a down year in 2022 but he was All-Region in 2021 when he batted .357 with a 1.022 OPS. He showed off that power potential in Friday’s intersquad with a home run to left.
Junior Reed Hoskins crushes a HR to left. He was All-Region in 2021 pic.twitter.com/5Qkws3aPwc
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 30, 2022
Coach Reardon is really excited about the offense, they also brought in a couple newcomers.
Freshman Jorsixt Jimenez (Flushing) put on a show during BP with his easy power to all fields. He is very athletic and can even contribute on the mound. They also brought in transfer SS Francis Segarra from the University of Southern Maryland. He had a huge year in 2022 – batting .445 with 6 HRs. Transfer Anthony Fontana (Wantagh) is coming from Hofstra having just won the CAA Championship. Fontana was a three-time Long Island Champion in HS and brings a power component to the lineup. They brought in Joey Patane (Commack) and Vinny Giambona (Island Trees), who both had outstanding high school careers as two-way players and each led their teams to County Championships. Another freshman infielder is Andrew Ramirez from California who could provide an immediate impact as well.
Reardon noted that while the team had no issues scoring runs, he felt they needed to improve their defense.
“The biggest need was getting better defensively,” he said. “Last year we ranked near bottom in the league and although we play on grass and many of the higher fielding PCT teams play on turf, we have to get better,” he added.
A good start was bringing in a strong recruiting class. In regards to them he said, “the incoming class has a chance to really help elevate the program. We addressed the immediate need for defense – some will make an immediate impact, others will fill-in roles,” Reardon said.
In terms of the pitching staff, they will have some challenges to replace last year’s ace and workhorse, Julien Arcos, who is now on the coaching staff. He led the team in wins (6), innings pitched (76.1), strikeouts (78) and ERA (3.18). They also graduated Rob Backus and Dylan Hughes – two reliable pitchers who accounted for 8 wins and 73 innings.
They will lean on LHP Liam Pulsipher to be the staff ace. He pitched 56 innings and struck out 64 batters last year. He had an outstanding summer in the HCBL and they will hope that he takes that step that Arcos did last season.
Jordan Sanabria is an exciting arm. He sits in the upper 80s and was impressive during the intersquad on Friday. He stepped up in the ECC Championship against Molloy in which he fired 5 innings of relief, allowing three runs with three strikeouts. They will be asking him to step into the weekend starter role.
Danny Gargano (Longwood 2019) struck out 33 over 25.2 innings last season and will compete for a rotation spot pic.twitter.com/cOjnZSnubi
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 30, 2022
After that, there are plenty of options. In Friday’s intersquad game, they threw some of their top arms including freshman Chris Naronis, Hofstra-transfer Bryce Martino, Danny Gargano, Dean Fazah and even Jorsixt Jimenez.
Two pitchers that had low ERA in small samples sizes last year were Johnnie Rodopoulos and Dante Interlandi who are both back.
With what I saw from Giambona during his HS career, he’s the type of competitor that will force his way into pitching high-leverage innings at some point this year and become a workhorse in the future.
The ECC has become a very strong Division-II conference over the years especially with the emergence of Molloy in recent years. Queens will look to flip the script on them in 2023 and come out on top.
They will open their 2023 season at the end of February in Myrtle Beach with a weekend tournament.
