by Max Edelman
It was another strong season for the West Islip Lions in 2024, as they fell in the semifinals of the county playoffs. Head Coach Shawn Rush, who is entering his 16th season in charge of the Lions, took plenty of positives away from last season’s campaign.
“We were one game away from the County Final.” Rush said. “We lost in the losers bracket final. We lost 1-0 to East Islip, before beating them 1-0 four days later. We lost Comsewogue in the semifinals. Definitely an exciting run back and forth, but we ultimately fell short.”
Unfortunately for the Lions, 12 members of last year’s team graduated at the conclusion of the season, with numerous players continuing their baseball careers at the college level. Among them are Derek Rivera, who is playing at Arcadia, Calvin Adams who is playing at Baruch, Austin Bakalo who is playing at Marovian and Sean Cantwell who is playing at Saint Joseph’s of Long Island.
West Islip sophomore Evan Byrnes
34.1 IP, 6-0 record, 18 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 13 BB 42K 0.00 ERA .699 WHIP pic.twitter.com/N1fINn1VG5
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 10, 2023
Despite the losses, West Islip still has a plethora of talent heading into this season. The longest tenured member of the 2025 Lions team is Union-commit Evan Byrnes. Byrnes, an All-League player last year, finished his 2023 season undefeated, and carried that success into 2024. Byrnes finished the year 5-2 with a 1.71 ERA, and shined in a big playoff victory over East Islip.
“He’s just a super hard worker.” Rush said. “He’s very cerebral, a top-tier student in school. He realized that choosing a school like Union is going to open up a lot of doors for him, he wants to be an engineer. But he was also lucky enough to continue to play baseball. So it was a really mature decision for him to pick that school and it’s why he’s had so much success and we’re going to lean on his experience this year in a lot of big spots”
Thomas Bomberger (West Islip 2025) commits to Stockton University pic.twitter.com/hxk2AiAdOJ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 18, 2024
After nearly not even having a role on the team last season Thomas Bomberger, a Stockton-commit, was All-League last year after making the most of an unforeseen opportunity to be the team’s starting catcher in 2024. Bomberger finished the season with a .323 average, and will look to add another successful chapter to his high school career.
“Thomas was kind of thrown in there and we didn’t know what to expect.” Rush said. “But by the end of the year he was hitting fourth for us and teams weren’t running on him because he has a really good arm.”
Joining Byrnes at the top of the West Islip rotation is Bridgeport-commit Alex Abi-Zied. Despite missing a large portion of the season, Rush is looking forward to having Abi-Zied back for a full season on the mound. The super utility man for the Lions is Gannon Klimuszko. Klimuszko featured at every position for West-Islip apart from catcher, and will continue to fill in where needed for the Lions in 2025.
Alex Abi-Zeid (West Islip 2025) strikes out four batters across a dominant final three innings as the Empire win their second game of the day pic.twitter.com/2cMmrpcxHp
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 8, 2024
“He’s a great athlete.” Rush said. “Depending on our needs, he can start at one of the eight positions depending on what other guys are giving us and by who’s hot and who’s not. We’re comfortable with him pretty much anywhere. He’s going to play volleyball at Roanoke next year, but he’s a pretty good baseball player as well.”
Although only a junior, Connor Kenefick started the third game of last season at shortstop for the Lions and never looked back, starting every game from that point forward. Kenefick finished the season hitting .375. Additionally, Kenefick will feature on the mound for the Lions this year.
“He did nothing but hit once he got the job.” Rush said. “He also played a phenomenal shortstop and he’s a really gifted three sport athlete. He’s in the shadow of a lot of really good players in our league, but he’s a solid, solid player.”
Rush also mentioned junior Ryan Gaffney as someone that will contribute both on the mound as well as at the plate.
With plenty of experienced arms, Rush believes that the strength of his team lies with the pitching and pitching depth, especially with Byrnes leading the rotation every series.
“We’ve been lucky to have Byrnes for the last three years.” Rush said. “We’re confident every time he goes out. Every good team is going to have an ace, but not many teams have one as experienced as Evan. We’re seven or eight guys deep that I’m comfortable using at any point.”
The West Islip Lions will open their league season against West Babylon.
