by Mike Merolle
(Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.)
In his first year as head coach for Wheatley, David Burke led the team to the Nassau County Class B Finals. It came down to a one-run game where Seaford only allowed one hit and prevailed. Although Seaford came out on top, it was still a season full of positives for Burke and the Wheatley Wildcats.
The site of Game 1 of the Nassau County Class B Finals between Seaford (20-1) and Wheatley (19-6). First pitch coming up at 4:30 pic.twitter.com/mTBGROwkZv
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 25, 2023
“The season went how I expected. I expected to be competitive and to be in the hunt for a county championship, but we just came up one run short,” said Burke.
Burke is returning seven starters to this year’s team. P/INF Connor Quinn (2024) and INF Danny Gillette (2024) will lead the way this season as senior captains for Wheatley. Quinn has been an ace of the pitching staff over the past two years. Also, he is a SUNY Brockport commit. Gillette supplied the Wildcats with his offensive skillset as a first baseman last season. Both players went All-Conference in 2023.
Burke mentioned the team’s loss of two key offensive weapons that graduated. SS Dylan Rosenberg (2023) is playing college baseball at SUNY Oswego and C Bryan McCleary (2023) is playing for Adelphi University. The two “accounted for 75% of the offense last year,” according to Burke. “Those two guys were not only our offense, but our power numbers as well.”
Wheatley 7, Cold Spring Harbor 1
WP: Louie Baldasano (6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 5 Ks)Bryan McCleary: 3-R triple
Connor Quinn and Danny Gillette had 2 hits each pic.twitter.com/YSH5OqrMuP— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 28, 2023
Burke hopes for the team’s offense to step up and collectively fill the holes that Rosenberg and McCleary left. He expects a big leap from some juniors and sophomores. P/INF Andrew Asaro (2025) will be in the rotation and, like Rosenberg, he will be doing a lot of work at shortstop. C/INF Noah Fiorillo (2025) played as a sophomore in 2023 and will replace McCleary as this year’s starting catcher. INF Alex Golub (2026) impressed in the playoffs as a freshman last season. He will be looked to more in the middle infield this year.
Pitching and defense are the muscle of this year’s Wheatley squad. Burke, a former pitcher at George Washington University from 1993-1997, holds a defensive philosophy of taking it pitch-by-pitch on the mound and keeping the ball in front of them.
“My philosophy is honing in on pitching strikes, getting ahead in the count, getting guys to put the ball in play, and then to defend it. I’ll stay true to that kind of mindset and last year it certainly worked out,” said Burke.
Wheatley 7, Oyster Bay 6
WP: James TercynskiBryan McCleary hit game-tying HR in 7th and walk-off in bottom of 8th
Dylan Rosenberg: 2-5, Hr, 3 RBI
Wheatley advances to Nassau Class B Finals pic.twitter.com/oEQc3SZWDB
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 23, 2023
In terms of the team’s league schedule this year, he feels that it will come down to one of their rival schools, Oyster Bay. “Oyster Bay played us very competitively last year. It took a game-tying three-run homer and a walk-off [home run] to beat them. They definitely have some talent on the mound that’s all returning and [they play us] towards the end of the season so it should be a competitive series.”
The Wheatley Wildcats open up their league schedule against East Rockaway on April 8.
