Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series
by Max Edelman
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In a team that was anchored by its pitching in 2024, the combination of one of the toughest leagues on Long Island, as well as struggles at the plate spelled trouble for the Lindenhurst Bulldogs. However, head coach Robert Moore, who is entering his 11th season in charge of the Bulldogs, complimented his team for their fight despite the challenges.
“The lack of hitting put us in a situation basically every game where we had to pitch to perfection.” Moore said. “We had some good pitching performances, especially by Matt Curto, who’s at Adelphi now. In the big picture, when you’re in a league as tough as ours, you have to put up a few more than a couple of runs. We went 7-11, but four games could have gone the other way had we had more bats.”
Including Curto, Lindenhurst graduated 11 members of the 2024 team. Three of the 11 continued playing baseball at the college level, including Curto at Adelphi, as well as Mike DiGiuseppe and Joe Quigg who are playing at Suffolk Community College.
This year’s Lindenhurst team will embrace the youth movement after the majority of the team graduated last year, Moore believes that it will be a group of three juniors that will lead the Bulldogs this season. The first of the three is Billy Steinmann.
“He’ll probably be the ace of our staff.” Moore said. “He pitched for me as a sophomore, so I’m counting on him to be the leader of the pitching staff with the younger guys. He also plays first base and will be at the top of the order as well. He’ll be batting three or four. He’s one of the guys we’re counting on to take a big step.”
The second of the three juniors is Vinny Aaron. Like Steinmann, Aaron is a junior. He will serve primarily as the team’s centerfielder, but could also see time behind the plate.
“He’s going to be doing a little bit of everything.” Moore said. “But mostly he’ll be my center fielder. He’ll probably be at the top of the order as our lead off guy. He’s a good baserunner, good quality ballplayer, he’s a team player and a real high character kid. I’m counting on him big time to take the next step and become that guy.”
The third and final of the Bulldogs big three is starting shortstop Ricky Nunez. Moore had extremely high praise, comparing his value to the team to the likes of Aaron Judge.
“He’s a tremendously talented ballplayer.” Moore said. “He will be either our two or three hitter. What Aaron Judge is to the Yankees is what Ricky is to us. A lefty hitter, just a natural, smooth shortstop. He’ll be pushing to be an all-county player if he doesn’t put too much pressure on himself to carry the team. If he just has fun, and just does his thing, he’ll be one of the best players in the league.”
This will be a year of growth for Lindenhurst, but despite the youth movement for the Bulldogs, Moore believes that his pitching staff will be able to go toe-to-toe with some of the very best teams on Long Island.
“Pitching wise, I’m confident we’ll be able to compete.” Moore said. “I probably have the best league in the county. You’re talking Connetquot, Commack, Sachem East, Sachem North, Ward Melville as well as Bay Shore. That’s a league where with pitching, you have to be able to compete. And I think with the guys that I have, they might not be the mid 80s throwers, but they’re pitchers. I think we’ll be alright there. What we need to do is hit, and we’ve been working hard in the offseason with our hitting. That’s where the next step has to be. If we can have a few surprises on offense, I think we’re going to be trite there in every game.”
The Bulldogs will open their season on April 1 against Connetquot.
