Here’s the final out for Seaford as they captured the first County Championship in program history 🏆 pic.twitter.com/IY6F0pRDCj
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2023
Seaford captured the first County Championship in program history in 2023 as they defeated Wheatley without allowing a run. It was a truly special year for Michael Milano‘s club, who dropped down from Class A, and are right back up there this year.
They finished with a record of 22-2, losing to Wheatley in a regular season game and Babylon in the Class B Long Island Championship at St. Joseph’s University in a game that they led 5-2.
Coach Milano, who has been at the helm since 2004, spoke to Axcess Baseball about their incredible season.
“When you have a group like that, there is a whole new level of pressure and that’s to win because you never know when you will get another group like that. You can have seniors, but maybe not seniors that are mature, that love baseball and love each other the way they did. It was really the perfect storm for us. It was remarkable. We went 22-2 and even losing in the Long Island Championship game to Babylon, I couldn’t have been more proud of them. Just couldn’t close it out but they looked great.”
To truly understand how talented that group was, we will start with the number seven. That’s how many of their seniors went on to play in college. That is a significant number for any school, but especially a Class B school that has a low enrollment.
- 1B Nicholas Apollo – Hofstra (All-County)
- C Stephen Ierides – Delaware (All-County)
- RHP Billy Kind – Adelphi (All-County)
- RHP Sean Costello – Pace (All-County)
- SS TJ Harrington – Oswego (All-Conference)
- LHP Chris Viggiano – USMMA
- RHP Justin Jaskolski – St. Joseph’s LI
Seaford RHP Billy Kind fired a perfect game (7 innings) with 5 strikeouts in an 11-0 win over Locust Valley
Nick Apollo hit a grand slam, had 2 singles and drove in 8 runs
Seaford improves to 11-0 pic.twitter.com/x2FhFyI3jQ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 25, 2023
Having four All-County players is special and they had a couple other players that could’ve had a strong case. Apollo batted .383 with 30 RBIs. He is one of three boys, his older brother played at Farmingdale and his younger brother is now a junior.
Ierides had an outstanding career for Seaford. “He’s listed as the bullpen catcher at Delaware but just give it time and they’ll see what they have.” He batted .561 during the regular season with a .650 OBP, 6 HRs and 31 RBIs. Milano said, “He is as good of a catcher as we ever had here.”
As impressive as these offensive numbers were, their pitching and defense was even better. They fired 11 shutouts in 24 games. In the County Championship and Long Island Championship, they allowed runs in only 2 innings of the 24 innings.
Billy Kind compiled a 1.51 ERA during the regular season and was 6-0. Over 35.2 innings, he struck out 46 batters, allowing a paltry 13 hits with a .116 opponent AVG. His WHIP was a minuscule 0.73. He fired a Perfect Game and he is now at Adelphi University.
Sean Costello was a perfect 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 0.77 WHIP during the regular season. He allowed just 16 hits over 27.1 innings. He is at Pace University.
Coach stated that 7 of their 9 players in the lineup won postseason awards. And they didn’t just feast on weak competition. They also beat Mepham and Garden City in non-league games – both Class A teams with higher enrollment.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys but it’s time to move on. Out of respect for those guys, we have to keep this thing going,” he added.
They enter 2024 with only 2 seniors on the team – AJ Cantore and Anthony Janes.
Cantore was their everyday second baseman and is a pitcher. Unfortunately for Cantore, there simply wasn’t enough innings to go around with the presence of their upperclassmen. Cantore is committed to Anderson University. “He has an opportunity to get the ball on Mondays if we can get him where we want him to be. He has as much of an opportunity as anyone on the staff to take the ball on Mondays.
Anthony Janes is a 6’5 225 physical specimen that is headed to Springfield to play football in the fall. He was their backup 1B and a reliever last season.
“He has a chance to hit in the middle of the lineup and pitch. Everyday he watched and he learned. Few kids – if any, are as in-shape as he is. We will unleash him this year. Hopefully he has a big year.”
Junior Jason Berthel will play SS this year. He was an All-Conference player, as he batted .352 with 20 runs scored, 16 RBIs and struck out just 7 times in 70 plate appearances.
“He is just a wonderful player. He has all the tools, and I would consider that hard to find at this level. He hits for power, he hits for average. He fields cleanly and throws with an accurate arm and will pitch. He played third for us last year and played wonderfully.”
Their final returning player is junior Luke Walsh. He is a LHP/LF. He played LF for them every day from the midpoint of the season on.
“He wasn’t asked to do much offensively – he didn’t have to. Get on base and lay some bunts down. He’s a left-handed pitcher. He’s fantastic, we love him – that’s why we started him as a sophomore. He saved Billy Kind’s perfect game – making a diving catch coming in. His travel coaches are being contacted by college coaches about him.
Coach spoke highly of his assistant coach Charlie Menges.
“Charlie has been my assistant since 2017. This will be our 8th season together. We are both history teachers. We know these kids, but now we get a chance to see which of these younger players, without any varsity experience, can handle the very challenging obstacle of playing Class A teams. We are excited about seeing what these next group of kids can be like. We feel like these four returning kids are the types of players that can do that.”
Being that there are only two seniors, it’s only natural that the team’s age will skew younger.
“I can say for the first time in my years there’s a chance some 9th and 10th graders will push for starting positions. We need 21 innings a week. We are lacking seniors, but one thing that Seaford is not lacking is the amount of players. We have kids from 7th grade and up that want to play on a new field. Unless there’s snow on the ground or rain coming from the sky, we are going to be out there. I think that the new field will give us a chance to expedite this rebuild. I have to thank my school district for that. Middle school and JV can be in one area and varsity in the other area. We never had that.”
Their field was actually ready towards the end of last year but the fencing and dugouts needed to be done, so it will wait until this upcoming season.
They will open up on April 8 at Cold Spring Harbor for a three-game set. Prior to that, they have five non-league games set up. Coach noted that it is unusual to play all their non-leaguers before the season, but with a young team it can be beneficial to see what they can do.
