by Max Edelman
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.
Are you kidding !!
Trailing 5-2 and down to their final out, Joey Goodman crushes a walk-off grand slam to send Calhoun into the Nassau Class A Finals against Division!
Calhoun 6, Mepham 5 pic.twitter.com/zSdoxrlY4S
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2023
Entering his 10th season as head coach of the Calhoun Colts, Art Canestro along with 2023 Nassau assistant coach of the year, Steve DeMarco, has built the program into one of Nassau County’s elites. In 2022, Calhoun reached the mountain top, winning the Class A Long Island Championship over Rocky Point. Although the Colts were unable to defend their title in 2023, his Colts still charged to a 24-4 overall record before ultimately being eliminated in the County Championship by Division.
“Half the team that started on the Long Island Championship team were juniors.” Canestro said. “So we need to have a strong nucleus coming back last year. And those kids did a great job. We had a great season, we just fell a little short in the County Championship. It wasn’t meant to be for us last year. But now since those kids are graduated, we have a new crop of kids that are going to come up and be great for us.”
A number of those graduating seniors are now playing baseball at the college level. Charlie Imhof is playing at Molloy, Matt Kalfas is playing at Fairfield, Jordan Babbo is at St. Thomas Aquinas, and Brian Sanchez is playing at St. Joseph’s-Brooklyn.
Imhof, Kalfas and Ryan Pucella were all named All-County last season. Jordan Babbo and Brian Sanchez were All-Conference and Danny Goodman and PJ Kakalos were All-League.
Calhoun improves to 17-0
They complete sweep of MacArthur with 12-2 win
Ryan Pucella 2-R HR
WP: Aaron Small pic.twitter.com/qRfl34zarF
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 6, 2023
Although the Colts graduated several players from last year’s team, they do have a strong squad of players returning – including twin brothers, Joey and Danny Goodman. Joey, a center fielder who is committed to playing at Maritime, while Danny, who is a left-handed pitcher and first baseman, was an All-League member. Both Joey and Danny are seniors and are entering their fourth year on varsity. Joey batted .370 last season with 30 hits and 1 HR.
Canestro is also excited for senior Matt Sferratore who primarily plays middle infield, drew praise from his coach for his strong defense up the middle, as well as his impact bat in the top of the order. He batted .310 with 20 hits and 25 runs scored.
Evan Schneir, a third baseman, could see an increased role at third base.
On the mound for the Colts, Danny Goodman will be the team’s ace. He went 7-1 last season with a 2.10 ERA. He struck out 61 batters over 53 innings and also batted .320 at the plate.
He will be joined on the mound by a group consisting of Austin Jackson, Joe Santos, Ryan Morash, and Lucas Vesely. Canestro believes that his pitching can be the strength of his team.
“Our strength is always our pitching.” Canestro said. “We have about 13 kids on varsity that pitch. We have a lot of kids that can pitch.”
In the outfield, Joey Goodman will be the team’s center fielder and will be playing next to a pair of new JV callups. Junior Anthony Landolphi, and sophomore Joe Belbol. This young experience all across the team is something that Canestro is very excited about.
“As much as the heart of our team was juniors in 2022, they were virtually unknown players that all put in the work and had a great year. I think this team, we have a chance to have juniors step up and do something similar.”
The biggest challenge that Calhoun could face this year is the pure quality of the league they are in.
“We’re in a very competitive league this year.” Canestro said. “It’s probably the most competitive league we’ve been in since I’ve been coaching. It’s going to get us very prepared for the playoffs.” They. will face New Hyde Park, Garden City, Carey, Roslyn and Division.
The Colts will open their season against Garden City on April 8.
