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Massapequa Seeking Unprecedented 7th Straight County Title

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

You couldn’t have scripted it up any better.

Bases loaded, two outs, County Championship on the line. Erik Paulsen Jr up to the plate.

Paulsen hit a majestic, sky-scraping walk-off grand slam that sent the Massapequa faithful into an absolute state of euphoria. He floated around the bases and the Chiefs had erased an early 6-1 lead after 3 innings in Game 3 of the Nassau Class AA Finals against No. 2 Plainview JFK. They captured their unprecedented sixth straight County Championship.

“That’s definitely in my top 10 – maybe top 5,” said longtime Massapequa head coach Tom Sheedy. “Erik is just a special player. His baseball IQ is off the charts. So few kids left that really know the game, really think the game. He really understands it – the strategy behind it. That puts him in position to be more successful.” Paulsen is now at Stony Brook, where he already helped the Seawolves upset LSU, the reigning National Champions, on the road. Coach Sheedy noted he was unable to watch that game, as he was watching his grandson pitch in Florida, but that “I texted him right after to congratulate him.”

The Chiefs had their season end the next week in the Long Island Championship against Commack at St. Joseph’s University to finish with a record of 23-5. It was the third straight season that the Long Island baseball powerhouses squared off – the Chiefs won in 2022, Commack won in ’21 and ’23.

Paulsen won Axcess Baseball’s Man of the Year. He left his impact at Massapequa, but he was not the only senior that had a great season and is playing in college.

Michael Vilardi and Bobby Gitto, who both played tremendous roles in the Chief’s latest championship are both at Queens College. Vilardi is a two-way player as a RHP/RF and Gitto is an outfielder. Coach made sure to mention that if not for Gitto, that rally wouldn’t have been possible as he reached base safely via HBP with 2 outs to extend the inning and load the bases.

David Garren is also playing at SUNY Old Westbury. Eric Corey and Justin Notargiacomo are playing at Utica University and Tyler Young is on the JV team at Tampa.

Much of the core of the Chiefs’ team from last season is back. None more impactful than catcher Paul Dulanto, who is entering his fourth year on varsity – he played two games as a freshman but has established himself as the best catcher on Long Island since then. He was key piece to their last two County Championship winning teams. Unfortunately, he did tear his ACL in the first game of the football season in the fall of 2023, but he’s cleared and he’s ready to go. He batted .505 with 8 HRs, 35 RBIS and 22 runs scored. Most impressively, he had 0 passed balls on the season. He will be headed to Stony Brook in the fall.

“He’s a special kid, too. To have a kid like Erik last year and follow that up with a player like Paul that’s equal in leadership skills, it’s rare. These are two of the top 5 leaders we’ve ever had.”

Coach Sheedy noted that they put a lot on their seniors to lead the way, and that starts with the catchers.

“Paul came to us as a freshman and he didn’t play – Bobby Stang played. Bobby mentored him that whole year. Paul played two games with us and 17 on the freshman team. He’s a leader – he’s a catcher, so that’s part of the position. He’s in charge of everything. That’s how we’ve done it. Nick Garland passed it on to Andy Primm who passed it onto Nick Schwartz who passed it on to Bobby Stang. We’e been really fortunate with our catchers.”

Anchoring the pitching staff is LHP George Adams. This is his third year on varsity and he’s coming off a season with a 6-0 record and 2.02 ERA. For a pitcher of Adams’ ilk, that actually qualified as a bit of a surprise that he even gave up any runs.

“He was cruising against Farmingdale and next thing you know they scored three runs off him. I don’t want to say he lost focus because he never does – but it just didn’t go his way,” said Sheedy. The previous season, he had thrown a shutout against them in the County Finals. Adams is known for his poise, that’s the first thing that impressed Sheedy when he first met him as a freshman.

He mentioned that he recently told him he needs to get back to being that pitcher, as he felt he was “too pumped up” during a recent intraquad.

“Sometimes people think that as senior, you have to do more. Just back to the real you.”

Behind him in the rotation they have Cameron Zampolin. He started that epic Game 3 of the County Finals against Plainview JFK. He is committed to Saint Joseph’s in Connecticut – he struck out 35 batters over 23 innings. RHP James Reilly is committed to New Haven.

An interesting name is LHP Hunter Gillis. He was slated to be a starter on the lacrosse team, but decided to play varsity baseball for the first time. The lefty was clocked at 88 MPH a few weeks ago during a bullpen with his pitching coach. He’s listed at 6’4 172 lb on Perfect Game. 

Coach Sheedy noted that many people have been asking about him, but he hasn’t seen him pitch and he cautioned against making too much about a bullpen session, but that he is excited to see him.

The Chiefs also return New Haven-commit Joe Swinarski who will anchor the SS position. He had a great season, he batted .378 with 9 XBH, 2 errors and he played 2B, SS and 3B before they moved him permanently to shortstop.

Jack Cohen was their second baseman, but coach noted they will have some competition for that spot this season.

A common theme that comes up with Sheedy is competition. This is a coach that has been at the top of his craft for a long time and learned from some of the best. He preaches that every year is a clean slate and playing time is earned.

Sheedy started his coaching career in 1979 with Holy Trinity where he coached for two seasons. He was Clarke’s JV coach in 1981, and their JV coach in 1982. He went to St. Mary’s in 1983 and then Fordham as an assistant for legendary coach Dan Gallagher from 1984-1987. In 1987, he helped coach with another legendary coach, Matt Senk, at Kellenberg when they opened the school. He coached with Senk, who left to take an opportunity as the head coach of Division-III Stony Brook in 1990. Sheedy stayed at Kellenberg until 1995. He’s been with Massapequa since 1995, where he was the assistant until 2003, and took over as head coach in 2004.

They run their tryouts to maximize the opportunities for the newcomers. Massapequa is a school that gets a huge turnout for the varsity baseball team – they are one of the few schools with 50+ kids perennially.

He went through a rundown of how he runs tryouts.

“Over the years, I try to go in with a clean slate. Obviously, we’ve been hitting and pitching in the offseason but it could mess up how you watch things. We’ve had 50 kids the last four years. Right now we have about 42 kids signed up. Monday and Tuesday are all the kids who were not on the team last year – sophomores need to be invited. They get to throw 2 innings, or 20-25 pitches. None of the returning players hit that day either so we get a good look. Wednesday the returning pitchers pitch and the hitters hit. Thursday is all testing – throwing, weight room, running one and a half miles. Friday we come back with the kids that pitched Monday and on Saturday we come back with the kids that pitch Tuesday. This is a huge tell to see who worked hard in the winter. Because that 82 on Monday can be 76 on Friday. It’s amazing how quickly you can tell. Then after Saturday, we go 11:30-2 and we go inside and I announce who’s coming back for Monday,” he said.

It’s a process that has worked. Massapequa has won an unprecedented six consecutive County Championships. They also had a stretch of winning four consecutive Long Island Championships from 2006-2009. Still, it’s the losing that sticks with Sheedy. He recalls 2012 when they lost to Calhoun in the County Finals despite having a team with 12 seniors that played in college. Three of those players (Jonathon Mulford, Ryan McCormick and Bobby Honeyman) played professionally.

On the flip side, he vividly remembers the 2006 Long Island Championship win against East Islip that he considers to be the greatest game he’s been a part of. That season the Chiefs entered undefeated and were averaging 11 runs per game.

In that game, the Chiefs were losing 5-0 in the bottom of the 6th and getting no-hit. They were able to send up their big bopper, Matt Prokopowicz who hit an opposite field 3-run shot to make it 5-3. East Islip tacked on a run to make it 5-3 in the top of the 7th.

Trailing 5-3, 2 outs and nobody on, Massapequa’s batter hit a grounder down the third base line and the play at first was bang-bang. The umpire called him safe. The East Islip coach went berserk for 5-10 minutes, according to Sheedy. During that time, he noticed that nobody, not a player or a coach went to talk to the pitcher and he didn’t throw. When the game resumed, Massapequa sent up a pinch hitter, Jason Buono, and he made him pay with a game-tying two-run HR to make it 5-5. In the next inning, a walk-off HR by Dan Nagorski clinched the Long Island Championship and an undefeated season for the Chiefs.

That started their historic run of excellence which has now spanned multiple decades.

They will look to extend that streak a little longer in 2024. The last time they weren’t County Champs was 2016, when East Meadow won. The current seniors? They were in fourth grade.

The Chiefs will open up on March 27 against Valley Stream Central. They will be traveling to Florida for their annual Spring Training trip on March 22-26th.

 

 

 

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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

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