Longwood head coach Ryan McSherry following the playoff victory pic.twitter.com/ApxJZKSYaB
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 24, 2022
It was another strong season for Longwood, who finished with an overall record of 19-7 and lost in the Suffolk semifinals to rival Commack in a hard-fought three-game series. The Lions forced a do-or-die Game 3 with a 4-3 win on the road but ultimately lost 9-4 in the deciding game.
From that team, Longwood sent an impressive 7 players onto play in college. That list includes Devin Montalvo (Colby-Sawyer), Ryan McCann (Manhattanville), Brendan Mair (Cazenovia), Liam Ryan (New Paltz), Jake Hall (Manhattanville), Rocco Hall (Manhattanville) and Mason Mehling (Muhlenberg). They had five All-League players; Devin Montalvo (All-County), Mikey Arbuiso, Louis Kaleb, Ryan McCann and Mason Mehling.
Final: Longwood 4, Commack 3
WP: Brendan Mair
S: Luciano LoreficeWinner-take-all tomorrow at Commack for the Conference I Championship pic.twitter.com/TIjUif8h9G
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 24, 2022
This year’s team will be led by Kaleb, the Albany-commit middle infielder who is a two-time All-League player and certainly one of the top players in the league. He batted .286 last season with 2 HRs, 15 RBIs, 19 runs scored and 14 stolen bases. They will rely on him this season for production at the plate, great defense up the middle and leadership.
In terms of the leadership on the team, coach McSherry said, “they have done a solid job. “The coaches believe they can continue to do an even better job and put the result of the team before their own individual success. We have this conversation every season in regards to how much of a factor team chemistry truly is. The best teams understand that concept of We before Me.”
They also return several talented players including OF Mikey Arbuiso who batted .354 las season with 12 RBIs, 12 runs scored and 14 stolen bases. 1B Brody Herbst batted .345 with 10 RBIs and 12 runs scored. Senior Ben Moscatiello is an outfielder and pitcher that is committed to St. Thomas Aquinas. Coach also mentioned Bobby Cilluffo and CJ Forman as potential impact players. Forman went 2-0 with a 2.62 ERA over 13 innings with 14 strikeouts last season as a sophomore. Junior Luciano Lorefice is a talented infielder and pitcher that recorded the final out in that playoff win over Commack.
They have two newcomers to varsity that could be impact guys and that’s OF Daniel Gagliano and catcher Steven Mahoney.
Longwood’s JV program was very strong last season (19-1), generally a great indicator for future success.
“We feel the depth of our program is at a really great point now. This is the reason why we continue to have great success program wide (Varsity, JV, JHS),” said McSherry.
Coach noted that the pitching depth in the program is very strong. That has been the case for several years now as they have a number of alum currently pitching in college and one – Tommy Ventimiglia – in the minors with Cleveland.
They have been knocking on the door to winning a County Championship for years, and they will be hoping that they can take the next step this year.
“I think in order to win a County Championship, we need to be open to the lessons of past years. We faced a good Commack team last year and we had the lead early, but they got the timely hits when they needed it in latter half of the game. This season we want to really focus on one game at a time, but also recognizing the big picture of earning a higher seed, so all games have to come through us in the playoffs. Every game matters so much in a 20 game season. We can never take a day off and we have to work on consistency. This is going to be a very exciting league this season. It’s good from top to bottom.”
They will open up on March 27 at William Floyd on Opening Day, they will host Patchogue-Medford the next day.
