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William Floyd Looks to Take the Next Step

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

by George Caratzas

Coming off a year that saw the William Floyd Colonials win 15 regular season games and a pair of postseason contests, head coach Keith Kobasiuk’s crew is looking to break through and start one of the program’s most successful periods in history.

The Colonials will be without two key cogs to last year’s team, as shortstop Angelo Velez and pitcher Jake Sambriski both graduated.

Velez spent much of the season as the Colonials two-hole hitter and was a major part of one of their winningest seasons in recent memory. With Velez gone, Kobasiuk will need to find somebody to replace his clubhouse presence, as well as his on the field production.

“Angelo is a quiet kid,” Kobasiuk said in an interview with Axcess Baseball. “He’s the type of guy that led by example, and I think the guys really got a lot from watching him.”

As for Sambriski, he was an integral part of the team’s 2024 pitching staff.

“It is going to be difficult to replace Jake,” Kobasiuk said. “Jake showed up every day, worked his tail off and was very successful for us. Those are definitely two big losses, but we’re going to have guys step in and replace them.”

The biggest returner that will fill voids left on both offense and on the mound, is Jack Molini, who figures to get reps at first base when he isn’t pitching. Molini was named as the League’s Most Valuable Player last season, hitting .452 while holding a 6-1 record on the mound. Additionally, he pitched to a 1.51 ERA over the course of his junior season.

“He is as quality of a person and competitor as you’ll have,” Kobasiuk said. “As a football player as well, Jack brings that competitiveness to the table every day and had a phenomenal season for us last year. If he can come anywhere close to what he did for us last year, that would be huge.”

Molini profiles as a middle of the order threat for Kobasiuk, who has a plethora of speedsters at the top of his order. The most notable of which, Jonathan Bowden who will lead off and play right field for the Colonials. 

Bowden was selected as an All-League player last year as he hit .385 with 23 stolen bases. He also provides William Floyd with excellent defense in the outfield. 

“At our field, right field is the toughest spot to play so once we put him there, he solved all of our outfield problems,” Kobasiuk said. “On top of that, he is going to lead off for us and he just comes to work every day. He has been the guy at the top of our order for two years and since we put him there, he has done nothing but good things.”

Shortstop Caden Hetman is another all-league returner for the Colonials, as he hit .357 as a junior in 2024. After playing second with Velez directing the infield last season, Kobasiuk thinks Hetman is more than prepared to shoulder the extra responsibility.

“We joke around that we were spoiled with Hetman at second base last year,” Kobasiuk said. “He was so incredibly good for us over there and we’re sure that will translate over. At the plate, we put him in our three hole and he took it and ran with it. He isn’t your traditional third batter as he isn’t a big power guy, but he’s still one of our better hitters.”

While last year saw William Floyd field a much younger team than Kobasiuk is accustomed to, many of those young faces are now seniors. Two of the youngsters that the Colonials will trot out this year are outfielder Aidan Dobrie and catcher Andrew Marino. 

Dobrie burst onto the scene last year, filling various holes for Kobasiuk. This year, he will likely get penciled into the everyday left field role, as he hit .356 in his freshman campaign. 

“We found out very early on last year that this kid belongs,” Kobasiuk said. “He needs to continue to get better, bigger and stronger and we expect very good things out of him. Aidan has aspirations of being an All-league and All-county kid so he wants to continue to move up the ladder.”

Marino will anchor the roster from behind the dish, as he enters his junior year as the starting backstop. 

“Andrew won that job last year and he has done nothing but improve ever since,” Kobasiuk said. “He had some big hits for us in playoff games against Northport. He just continues to get better and work on his craft so we definitely expect a lot out of him.”

Rounding out the defense up the middle is A.J. Cannet, who will be William Floyd’s starting center fielder. 

Two final wild card options for William Floyd on the offensive side are junior utilityman Gabe Beta and freshman swiss-army knife Kiernyn Mehmel. Beta is another potential arm that Kobasiuk will try out while Mehmel has experience behind the plate. Both guys have experience at a host of other positions as well. 

On the pitching side, Molini will head a group that will try and replace what Sambriski gave them. Aside from the aforementioned ace, Kobasiuk will audition a slew of weapons on the bump. One of the leading candidates to land a starting role is junior Jacob Cook. 

“He pitched two regular season games for us last year and a playoff game so he has some varsity experience,” Kobasiuk said. “He is definitely going to be in the mix of guys we run out there.”

After Molini and Cook, the Colonials will look to players like Andrew Winter, C.J. Burkhardt and Jackson Seifert to give them quality innings. Cook and Burkhardt also pose a threat on the offensive side of the ball, as they will compete for the first base job when Molini is pitching.

On the heels of last year’s success, William Floyd views growth as the only option heading into 2025.

“The biggest difference with this team is that the expectations are so much higher,” Kobasiuk said. “As a program, we’ve had years where we go into the season just happy to make the playoffs. This year, we’re hoping to turn the page and become a consistent playoff team and even win some playoff games. One day, we want to be in a county final.”

Kobasiuk’s seventh season at the helm will begin on April 5 on the road against Rocky Point.

 

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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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