GAME RECAP: Holy Trinity Ends Chaminade’s Run, Captures NSCHSAA Title

For the first time since 2012, Holy Trinity captures the Catholic League Championship! They shut out the 3-time reigning Champs, Chaminade, by the score of 6-0 pic.twitter.com/I13SK0h8oI

— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 30, 2023

Climbing Mount Chaminade in late May is no small task.

The monsters of the Catholic League have won 20 titles including the last three seasons. They’ve made a habit of winning championships and until proven otherwise, it was not smart to pick anyone else to win it all.

With that being said, Holy Trinity has spent the past couple seasons building to this point where they could field a team with not only the talent but the experience to compete with the Flyers. In 2021, they won 2 games. Last season, they made a significant jump but fell short of the finals. This year’s team put it all together and have captured their first title in 11 years.

Head Coach Dan Luisi, who was a part of the 2003 Championship team under Bob Malandro, now has a championship under his belt as a head coach. For those that know Luisi, this comes as no surprise as he has won at every level – even in the Hamptons College Baseball League in 2017.

After splitting the first two games of the series on Monday, the two teams squared off this afternoon for a do-or-die Game 3 at Hofstra University on an absolutely gorgeous day. Junior RHP Tyler Cook went to the mound against the high-powered Chaminade offense that features four Division-I commits and all he did was take a no-hitter into the sixth inning and finish with 5.2 shutout innings before reaching the pitch limit of 105. Cook walked three batters, struck out 8 and yielded just the one hit to Evan Baschnagel in the sixth inning.

The Holy Trinity offense went scoreless in the first inning against Chaminade LHP Matt Brandt, but they broke through in a big way in the second inning. They scored three times, with separate RBI hits by Sean Maddi, Nick DelVecchio and Tyler Cook to open up a 3-0 lead.

End of 3: Holy Trinity adds two runs on a bases loaded walk and a perfectly executed bunt by Atkinson

Holy Trinity 5, Chaminade 0 pic.twitter.com/baxsKrKHyE

— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 30, 2023

They added two more runs in the third inning on a bases loaded walk issued to Nico Quiroz and a perfect bunt with the bases loaded by Sean Atkinson to make it 5-0. They added another in the fourth on a bases loaded walk to Andrew Sinclair.

End of 4: Tensions are high after a close called third strike to the previous batter. Tyler Cook strands 2 runners to end the inning

Holy Trinity 6, Chaminade 0 pic.twitter.com/9q969nzLGU

— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 30, 2023

Each time Cook faced any sort of threat, he made a big pitch when he had to. In the fourth inning, Chaminade drew two walks and the crowed was back in the game, before a close called third strike killed the rally. Again in the fifth inning, they had runners on 2nd & 3rd, and he escaped with a fly out to center field. Both times it took the wind out of Chaminade’s sail as they desperately needed a big hit to get back in the game.

In previous years, it was always the opposition that was unable to get the big hit. This year, Holy Trinity was able to get all the big hits, make the big pitches when needed and, of course, got a little bit of luck yesterday in their 7th inning rally.

Incredibly, they did all of this as the No. 5 seed and they were able to defeat Kellenberg, No. 1 St. Anthony’s (twice) and also Chaminade (twice).

Of course, there’s no question they got a huge boost from their ace Sebastian Velasquez. In order to beat pitchers like Andrew Koshy, Jason Decaro and Liam Daly, they had to get a great outing from their ace. Velasquez also no-hit St. Anthony’s earlier in the year and was the giant slayer all year. He deserves to be in consideration for Pitcher of the Year.

Dan Luisi helped Holy Trinity win a title as a player in 2003 and now as a coach 20 years later pic.twitter.com/icx3H70hBO

— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 30, 2023

With how good that Cook looked, it is hard to believe he only started two previous games on the mound this year. His last outing was last week at Mitchel Field against St. Anthony’s, which was a 13-5 win for the Titans. Cook, typically plays catcher and comes on in relief to close games, also is one of the top hitters in the league. According to coach, he led the league in AVG, hits, RBIs and stolen bases.

He has been up on varsity since 9th grade. It’s a big reason they have the experience that they do, as most of their impact players such as Velasquez, DelVecchio, Cook, Kyle Kozlowski, Andrew Heppner, Nico Quiroz and Sean Maddi all received ample playing time over the past couple of years.

Holy Trinity is a great example of what great coaching and a strong vision can do. Two years ago they were an afterthought in the league, and also had Joe Yovino and James Sill transfer back to Division Ave HS. Imagine what the team would look like with those on the team? Yovino won the Diamond Award last year and Sill is likely to win it this year.

More importantly, they now advance to the NY State Tournament where they will face St. Peter’s next weekend at St. John’s University.

For Chaminade, there’s no shame in losing in Game 3 of the Championship Series. They have had a strangle hold on the league since Logan O’Hoppe was manning the dish for St. John the Baptist in 2018. They had an other-worldly team in 2022 and it was always going to be tough to duplicate that team. They’ll be back next year, I’m sure.