In 2021, Huntington had the perfect recipe for ending their 61-year County Championship drought with a victory over Bay Shore before losing to Garden City in a extremely hard-fought Class II Long Island Championship at Mitchel Field. Incredibly, it was their first postseason appearance since 2005 and they were rewarded as 8 players garnered All-League recognition and Coach Bill Harris earned Conference II Coach of the Year.
Truth be told, Huntington would’ve had a legitimate shot to win the year before, had there been a season in 2020. They had an exceptionally talented team that had all played together as sophomores in 2019. Coach Bill Harris noted that they lost some one-run games but played very well. When the Town of Brookhaven hosted their tournament in July 2020, they went toe-to-toe with Commack, who wound up winning the Long Island Championship the next season. The Blue Devils had three All-County players; Chris Segreti, Palmer O’Beirne and Kyle Colleluori. That doesn’t even include Dylan Schnitzer, who batted .475 and was not named All-County.
Today was Huntington’s first County Championship in 61 years and first appearance since 1965 – some of the members of that team were in attendance pic.twitter.com/YnvmnWZowS
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 19, 2021
Regardless, it was a season that will live on forever at Huntington HS. In our 2022 season preview, Coach told Axcess Baseball, “Being an alumni of Huntington High School, I couldn’t be more proud of these young men and my assistant coach Rob Cappas for the great achievements we made last season. We put Huntington baseball back on the map.”
Last season was certainly a difficult one as the Blue Devils finished with a record of 3-15. They entered the season with just Schnitzer and O’Beirne as players with significant varsity experience and O’Beirne wound up enduring an injury and wasn’t able to play. Schnitzer batted .391 and was All-County – despite teams routinely pitching around him.
“It was an experiment,” said Harris in regards to the season. “It was a big stage for them,” he said in regards to his young team. They did have one All-League player and that was Joe Toscano who batted .310, led the team in hits with 16 and had 15 RBIs. He will be back this season, as they will look for him to duplicate or exceed those statistics from this past season.
They will return Harry Baliber, who batted .275 last season with 10 RBIs. They also return Matt Gerardi, who were both members of the County Championship team but did not accrue many at bats. They will be among the leaders on this team.
“He is a good athlete; he will pitch and play shortstop. He will probably bat 2 or 3 for us. He gets on base, he got a lot bigger and will be one of our top players,” said Harris.
Huntington will also have John Acompora-Miller and Chris Acompora-Miller, twins that both will pitch. John will play 1B and Chris will play CF. “They are both good kids, good athletes and are going to Alfred State to play football.”
Coach also mentioned SR Nick Zahn, who batted .250 with 2 HRs and 10 RBIs last season.
They will have two eighth graders on the team, Dom Muccia and Andrew Lopez. Muccia was in the Power Showcase this past year and also won the Cooperstown Home Run Derby. He is a left-handed hitter with premium power.
Dom Muccia on 12u Body Armor wins the Cooperstown Dreams Park Home Run Derby!! Great Job Dom!! 💣 💣 💣 @axcessbaseball #TitanNation pic.twitter.com/2uNsuRfWcN
— Titans (@LITitanbaseball) August 22, 2022
“We had a bunch of upperclassmen that had minimal varsity experience last year. I think that last year’s experience will benefit them this year. It’s different than JV. Without a doubt last year was a good learning experience. I’ve got 4 sophomores on the team that are pretty big for their age. I’m looking forward to their future.”
They will open up on Tuesday against West Islip. They will also play Hills East, North Babylon, Northport, Copiague and Smithtown West.
