Share This Post

Archive / NEWS

Mineola Looking to Build Off Last Year’s Playoff Season

by Max Edelman

Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.

In Helms Bohringer’s 28th season as head coach of the Mineola Mustangs, his team was loaded with a senior class that had spent the last number of years playing under him. Although the team didn’t accomplish its preseason goal of winning a county championship, Bohringer was still proud of what his team was able to accomplish last year.

“Last season wasn’t bad.” Bohringer said. “We finished 11-7 in the league, third place, made the playoffs, and unfortunately were eliminated after the third game.”

The Mustangs opened the playoffs with a loss to Garden City, before beating Roslyn to keep their playoff hopes alive. Ultimately, the win over Roslyn was Mineola’s final victory of the season before falling to South Side, and seeing their season come to a close. The Mustangs were in a very competitive league last season that tested Bohringer’s team every time Mineola took the field.

“We had a very competitive league last year.” Bohringer said. “We had teams like Wantagh, Island Trees, North Shore, Plainedge and Clarke in my conference. So it was very competitive where every week we played quality caliber teams which made it feel like the playoffs all season long. This helped us play in the playoffs, and if it wasn’t for a couple bad innings, we could’ve gone a little bit further.”

Entering his 29th season in 2024, Bohringer’s team will also be entering a brand new league, as many of the teams across Long Island were reclassified by total enrollment. Mineola, due to enrollment, was reclassified to a Class-A team. Which, while it shrinks the conference, makes for a much more competitive group of teams.

“It gives everybody a chance to maybe be County Champions.” Bohringer said. 

Last season, the Mustangs were a senior-dominant team, with 12 members of the roster last year being seniors. Of those 12 seniors, a number of them are continuing their careers playing college baseball. Michael Duda and Jack Ryan are at Misericordia. Pete Haralambidis and Justin Tighe are at Mount Saint Vincent. Nicholas Kostulias is at New Paltz. And James Strobel, who is now at Mount Saint Michael. Bohringer had strong words for last year’s senior class, and his only regret is that he didn’t get to spend enough time with them due to COVID.

“That was my group I thought would give me a great chance at my first County Championship.” Bohringer said. “They didn’t disappoint, because we made a good run. I just wish that group didn’t get affected by COVID because we lost a whole year together. Where I liked to say they would have learned my way of baseball, not the summer league way of baseball.”

Despite the senior-heavy team last year, Mineola will still have several quality players coming back in 2024. With a team that was jam-packed with seniors, these returners will be forced to fill the gaps left by the seniors who left. The only All-Conference returner, Andrew Basel, is a senior pitcher, is committed to Northeastern, and will be relied upon to lead the staff this year. AJ Derose is also a senior, he is committed to Baruch. 

“Those guys [Basel and Derose] will be in their third year on varsity.” Bohringer said. “They’ve been with me since their sophomore year.”

On the mound, in addition to Basel, Bohringer plans to look to returner Matthew Orena, who is committed to Dominican. For the third spot in the rotation, Bohringer is hoping to rely on junior Jesse Kostulias to fill the number three role for the team.

Bohringer is also very excited to see how his catcher, Jayden Sleeper, plays behind the plate. Sleeper is entering his first year on varsity after spending 2023 on JV. 

“He plays all year-round.” Bohringer said. “He’s got very good instincts behind the plate. He has a very good release time from home to second, and he swings the bat pretty well.”

Additional players Bohringer mentioned as potential impact players are Luke Martinez, and twin brothers Anthony and Luigi Sartori. 

In terms of his team’s biggest strength, Bohringer believes that the fact that many of these players have played together for a long time makes for strong team chemistry.

“I think we’re a close knit group.” Bohringer said. “They get along well, they like playing with each other, they like to play baseball. They’ve been playing together since they were little kids and I think that’s going to help us excel.”

The Mustangs will open their season on March 26 against Carey.

 

Share This Post

Vinny is the President of Axcess Baseball. He is a 2013 graduate of Adelphi University and he is currently the Long Island area scout for the San Diego Padres

Related Articles

Lost Password

Register