Among the most common questions I hear on ballfields is, “how is Massapequa always so good?”
It’s a great question. Longtime head coach Tom Sheedy gave a brief window into how they operate when he said, “I learned from the old Ward Melville lacrosse coach who told me about the ‘cycle’. The cycle is when you have grade school kids that come down to your camps, they wind up being the leaders of your varsity team, then they go on to play in college, then they come back to help out at the camps and the cycle goes on. It’s a very positive thing,” he said.
It may sound oversimplified, but one thing is certain – Massapequa is at the top of the hierarchy of Long Island baseball programs. They are the five-time reigning Class AA Nassau County Champs and they just defeated Commack in the Class AA Long Island Championship. Overall, they went 22-3 on the season. They are the standard that other programs hope to achieve. The last time another team won the Class AA Nassau title, we were called “Baseball on the Island” and Erik Paulsen Jr was in fifth grade.
Here’s Massapequa Chief’s LHP Erik Paulsen on his big day on the hill and what it felt like facing Commack in a rematch of last years LIC pic.twitter.com/sR7KbBz7kp
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 4, 2022
Paulsen Jr is their leader and de-facto captain – even though they don’t have one.
“We haven’t had a captain since 2005 – but if we did it would be Erik. I’ve seen maturity and leadership from him. The way we operate, I put a lot on the seniors. I told him before the season, the way we were once Matt Prokopowicz’ team and Andy Primm’s team, this year will be remembered as Erik Paulsen’s team. He has that kind of grip over what we do here.”
Paulsen is the rare two-way player at Massapequa. Sheedy is adamant that he doesn’t like his position players having to pitch, but Paulsen is that good and he is committed to Stony Brook as a two-way player. Last season, he batted .500 during the regular season (25-for-50) with 10 doubles, 2 HRs and 24 RBIs. He turned it up another notch in the playoffs where he went 11-for-19 with 8 RBIs, 3 BBs, 3 doubles and 1 triple. On the mound he went 3-0 during the regular season with 31 strikeouts over 18 innings. In the playoffs, he pitched 17.2 innings, allowing just 4 hits, while striking out 30 and issuing just 3 free passes and one run.
Stony Brook Commit Paul Dulanto (Massapequa 2024) pic.twitter.com/SUAD4ltoOx
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 11, 2023
They have another Stony Brook-commit and that’s catcher Paul Dulanto. Coach Sheedy said, “he’s the whole package.” He joked that he’s hitting the bat harder now that he’s switched to a 34 inch bat. “He was up on varsity with us every day as a freshman and he followed around Bobby Stang and told him to listen. He did listen. That’s how we do things here, we have the underclassmen learn from the senior.”
Stang is now a freshman at Georgia Southern. In addition to their treasure trove of championships, Massapequa has a small army of alumni that are current college players.
“Around mid February I was just going through my contacts in my phone texting all my former players and just wishing them good luck for the season – I think it was in the mid 20s. We had some nice conversations, just catching up with the guys. We always allow our former players to come back to the team and talk to the players and we don’t tell them what to say. It’s a good learning experience for them.”
One of their best players to ever don the uniform will be back in a larger capacity this season.
Bobby Honeyman, who was drafted out of Stony Brook and played in the Seattle Mariners system and reached Double-A will be “helping out a little bit this season – he’s been getting the itch,” said Sheedy.
Last year’s team sent a couple more players onto college – Matt Castrogiovanni (SUNY Purchase) and Matt Hannon (Hofstra). Sheedy stated that Castrogiovanni (Castro) was not “a typical kind of leadoff hitter but he did a great job of setting the tempo.”
Hannon was the winning pitcher in Game 1 of the County Finals against Farmingdale in which he pitched into the sixth inning with the lead. Coach stated that he was able to gut it out even though he wasn’t at his best.
“I told him before the season you’re going to take the ball against Banner’s team in the County Championship. They didn’t end up getting there but he got us into the sixth inning. The week before there was a Saturday practice and he was mentally done. I told him, this team needs you. We can’t just rely on George and Eric, you need to get your mind ready and he did. He got the ball to our closer Damian DiGiuseppe and he closed it out.”
Final: Massapequa 2, Farmingdale 1
WP: Matt Hannon
S: Damian DiGiuseppePaul Dulanto: Go-ahead 2-R double in 2nd inning
Game 2 tomorrow at 11am pic.twitter.com/LGcdy5mYeB
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 29, 2022
Game 2 was all Massapequa as they won, 11-1, with sophomore southpaw George Adams taking the ball and thoroughly dominating. From the outside, it may have appeared Adams came from nowhere, but he has the full confidence of the team and coaching staff. Sheedy had the following to say about the junior lefty.
“He didn’t lose a game last year. He gave up a triple and a single to the first two batters last season and he didn’t give up a run after that. He gave up 3 earned runs in 38 innings for the season (0.55 ERA). He’s going to be our ace this season. He’s about 6’2 170 lbs right now and he’s got the pickoff move so you can’t steal on him. He’s got a change up, a breaking ball and his fastball is up about 5 MPH from last year. We brought him up in practice late April in his freshman year and we were impressed with him composure. The building could be on fire and he will throw strikes. We brought him in during the state semifinals and he went 3.1 innings, didn’t give up a hit when we were down 7-4 and gave us a chance to come back in the game. His composure is off-the-charts. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.”
Coach also mentioned senior Michael Vilardi. He is committed to Queens College as a pitcher, but he may also get time in RF for the Chiefs. He may also DH one day per week. He’s another hard-throwing pitcher for the Chiefs and he can really swing it.
They have Tampa-commit Tyler Young. Tyler primarily was the DH last year as he was coming back from an arm injury, but Sheedy said he will likely be their third baseman this year. He added that he hit in the high .300s and hit about 5 HRs.
They return their starting shortstop, junior Joe Swinarski. Coach said Joe “has a really strong arm.” He sees his future as a shortstop at the collegiate level.
The Chiefs will open up their title defense on April 3rd against Oceanside. They will then head to Charleston, South Carolina for the HIT Tournament to compete against 30+ teams from North and South Carolina. They will be there from April 10-14. Their bye week is during that week.
They will play 20 games during the regular season including 15 league games.
Can Massapequa continue to win Nassau County Champs forever? As long as Coach Sheedy is at the helm, they will continue to be the favorites.
