Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series
by Joe Bello
After finishing with a 2-18 record in the 2024 season, Coach John Romano’s Huntington Blue Devils will look to improve in 2025. Romano is heading into his second year as head coach for the Blue Devils. He spoke to Axcess Baseball about his expectations for the 2025 season and the changes he is making to the organization since taking over.
After facing tough competition in League 4 last year, Huntington will play their 2025 campaign in League 3. Romano anticipates that his team will perform much better this season.
“This season, unlike last year, we have a foundation built and new expectations going into this year.” Romano said. “We changed leagues and expect to be much improved off of last year.”
The Blue Devils graduated two of their impact players from 2024, catcher Harry Baliber, who is now playing at SUNY New Paltz, and shortstop Kaedon Halbeisen.
Senior Harry Uvena, along with Halbeisen won All-League honors last season.
The starting left fielder, Uvena, batted .444 last season, he led the Blue Devils in batting average, hits and extra base hits.
“Very good hitter who has great contact and can hit for power, also very good defensively with a good arm.” Romano said. Uvena is committed to play next year at SUNY Oswego.
Senior Griffin Kanzer, third baseman and pitcher for Huntington, developed into a true threat in the Blue Devils bullpen last season, while also showing off his contact skills at the plate. Romano looks upon Kanzer as one of the leaders of his team. “Kanzer is a true leader who leads by example on and off the field.” He said.
Fellow seniors George Meuger and Jibreel Murtaza will all look to impact the game on both sides of the ball, both on the mound and at the plate.
Meuger plays first base and is a lefty pitcher. In the batters box, he shows great plate discipline and has good power. While on the mound he mixes in a good variety of pitches to keep hitters off balance.
Murtaza plays infield for Huntington, showing good contact skills at the plate while also having some pop in his bat. On the mound, he has a live arm with a good mix of pitches.
Junior Presley Moss led the team in RBIs in 2024, while also being the ace for the team.
“He took the ball every Game 1 vs the best pitchers in League 4.” Romano said. “He is battle tested and is looking to take the next step this season on the mound.”
Another important arm for the Blue Devils this season will be junior Henry Gerberg, Romano expects him to impact the starting rotation for a second straight season. Gerberg plays both in the infield and outfield, and is very athletic in the field with good speed.
Sophomore’s Will Donaghy and Joey Perotti both look to make some noise as some of the younger players on the team. Both of them impressed at the plate as freshmen last season, while also pitching. Both Donaghy and Perotti are great on the defensive side of the game, Donaghy plays outfield, while Perotti will be at shortstop this season.
“Donaghy impressed us during our summer workouts going into his freshman year, we knew we had a rising player.” Romano said. “On the mound, he was not scared to challenge anyone he faced. Also to face some of the top pitchers on LI he held his own while batting over .400.”
“Perotti we knew had a good glove and started the first week of the season on JV and was called up after that due to an injury of our second basemen. Once he got that starting job he never looked back.” Romano said. “He didn’t make a single error the entire year. He really secured our infield defense and just like Donaghy was not shy about hitting some of the best pitching. Perotti on the mound is a competitor, he had a couple of split starts last season and most notably went 6 strong innings at Comsewogue and held that offense down to 3 runs. Comsewogue was a County Finalist.”
While Romano has held workouts for his players during summer break and even in the fall. The Blue Devils have been at it for a while this winter too, they started their winter workouts back in November. Each player was given lifting, hitting and pitching programs to help improve in the offseason.
Coming into a new organization is not an easy feat for a head coach, but in his second year Romano is working hard toward building Huntington baseball into a threat for Suffolk County teams.
“Changing the culture of Huntington Baseball has been our top priority since taking over the program.” Romano said. “It starts with developing our youth teams by running clinics and camps along with having our varsity team putting in extra time and work to improve and get better. Huntington has always been a program that has been a nothing team, we’re working very hard to change that mindset. We have high expectations for our guys this season, our players know what is expected from them for us to have a successful season. We have great leadership and guys who are buying into what we’re teaching and doing. I know we’ll compete every game and have the chance to win games. I’m optimistic that once we step on the field all of the hard work we put in this off season will pay off.”
Huntington kicks their season off against Smithtown East on April Fools Day.
