Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series
by Vin Messana
March 12, 2020 was five years ago today. It was the day most people remember when looking back on the craziness of the pandemic – citing things like the NCAA cancelling the men’s basketball tournament and professional sports being halted.
There was no high school baseball season that year, but the Town of Brookhaven did host a Wood Bat tournament which featured almost all of the schools in the county. The winner of that was Commack, led by the late Bryan Bonin.
Commack captures the Town of Brookhaven Varsity Wood Bat Championship with a 2-0 victory over Lindenhurst
Drew Vincent fired a complete game shutout with 10 strikeouts. Commack went 6-0 in the tournament pic.twitter.com/2bVsXclAkW
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 13, 2020
As it turns out, Commack won the championship with a 2-0 victory over Lindenhurst in the finals to finish with a perfect 6-0 record. Commack has not stopped winning since then.
- 2021: Won Class AA Long Island Championship over Massapequa
- 2022: Lost Class AA Long Island Championship to Massapequa
- 2023: Won Class AA Long Island Championship over Massapequa
- 2024: Won Class AAA Long Island Championship over Farmingdale
While all the seasons have ended with them as Suffolk County Champs, last season was a bit different in how they got there. Coach Matt Salmon noted that they were far from the dominant team that they had been the previous few seasons.
Commack captures their 4th consecutive Suffolk County Championship behind a complete game gem by Evan Kay against Sachem North
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2024
“There were more conversations with coaches and with captains last year, than any other year that I’ve been here, as head coach or as assistant under Bryan. There were times we would say, ‘we need to change the way we do things.’ In that sense, it was more rewarding than when we were dominant. There were conversations with players, we’d say things like ‘what are we doing?’ We started out 8-0 and then we lost 5 or 6 straight games, counting scrimmages, and it felt like, I don’t know if we’ll win another game. We called up a couple younger guys from JV and we were able to right the ship. It felt rewarding, because we did a bunch of work and they turned their season around.”
Salmon mentioned four players that were at the heart of their turnaround in terms of leadership – Evan Kay, Ryan Krzemienski, Zach Winter and Dean Vincent.
Kay, who is now a freshman at Stony Brook University, had one of the most impactful varsity baseball careers any player on Long Island has had this century. He was three-time All-League, two-time All-County pitcher, the 2024 Paul Gibson Award winner and owns the record for most consecutive scoreless innings in Long Island history at 60. Salmon reminisced on the moment that started it all.
“I just remember his sophomore year, we were facing Ward Melville and they were throwing Charlie West. We went down 1-2-3 in the first inning and they scored 3 runs in the first. So we’re down 3-0 and they have bases loaded. At that point, Evan had never been on the mound yet. I said, ‘Evan, go warm up.’ He went the rest of the game, 6.2 scoreless innings in a game it looked like we would lose. We won, 6-3. He never stopped being that big-game guy for us.”
Kay was on the mound when they won the Suffolk County Championship against Sachem North and the Long Island Championship against Farmingdale. He also won the Long Island Championship the previous season against an unbelievably loaded Massapequa team. In 2024, he went 6-2 with 0.66 ERA and held opposing batters to a .188 AVG. Just a competitive force of nature on the mound and he won’t be easy to replace.
In total, they graduated 14 seniors – an extremely large number. Ryan Krzemienski, who led the team in batting (.393) is playing at St. Thomas Aquinas and Zach Winter is playing at Farleigh Dickinson University along with 2023 grad Joey DiMotta and 2022 grad Anthony Chiapetta.
Their season ultimately ended in the NYS Class AAA Semifinals against Fairport, who were the eventual champs. The circumstances were extremely difficult as Salmon noted they reported to the field at 2:30pm for their 4pm start. With the rain, the previous game was delayed multiple times and they sat on the team bus until 8pm. The game finally ended, and then they had another rain delay which caused the start time around 10:30pm. They lost by the final score of 9-5.
This year’s team features a number of returners.
Senior LHP/DH Chris Messina is committed to Farleigh Dickinson. He did not pitch last season after suffering an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery.
“In a selfless move, he could’ve had the surgery sooner but put it off until after the season so that he could DH for us,” said Salmon.
“He’ll start at DH and we’re hoping that sometime during the season he’ll be back on the mound.”
Behind the dish, they have 9th grader Robbie Mascia, their lone returning All-League player. He batted .290 and led the team in hits. That’s right, even on a team with 14 seniors, it was the 8th grade phenom who led the team in hits. That doesn’t even factor in his defense, which is head-and-shoulders above his peers.
Catcher Robert Mascia (Commack 2028) showing a strong arm to second base pic.twitter.com/E62cXDkGpQ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 9, 2023
“Looking back on it now, I am surprised that he was able to,” said Salmon when asked if he was surprised how quickly Mascia was able to transition to the varsity level. “But when I saw how he practiced and how he prepared, I can’t say I was surprised.”
When speaking on his defense he said, “He was outstanding in handling our pitching staff. It’s not just how he blocks, receives or throws. The guys loved throwing to him. He was really impactful. And he caught every inning of every game. Luckily, we have another catcher on varsity and this year will be more of a mix-and-match with Robbie playing other positions. He plays a really grueling summer schedule and if I had him catch every inning of every game for three more years, I think it would be irresponsible of me.”
Ryan Bush is another player that was up on varsity as an underclassmen, he is a junior now. He will bat “anywhere from second to fifth” in the order, and will play 2nd, 3rd and short. Salmon said, “he played 70% of the games” at those three positions last year.
Ryan Bush (Commack 2026) @mvpnewyork pic.twitter.com/wYst5dXufR
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 2, 2025
They will also be counting on sophomores Luke Krzemienski and Sam Kay, who were both up on varsity as freshmen. To read more about them, click here.
Caden Valinotti was called up as a sophomore and he will be a big piece for them in the lineup and in the infield this season as a junior.
On the mound, they will have to replace the key innings that were pitched by Evan Kay and Ryan Krzemienski. Aside from their younger brothers, the team will also be counting on junior Dean Kirschbaum, who Salmon said pitched a “decent amount of innings last year” and will be relied upon this year. They also return Justin Pagan, who pitched in relief in the County Championship.
“We are hoping for big innings from him,” said Salmon.
The rest of the spots will be open for competition, which is in contrast to previous years when they had large senior classes with returning varsity players.
Given how strong League II was last year and the fact that Commack batted just .220 as a team, it is quite impressive they were able to still find a way to win another Long Island Championship. It shows the value of their winning culture, senior leadership and depth up-and-down the roster that they won 6 playoff games.
League II will be a monster again. Aside from Commack, it also features Sachem North (County runner-ups), Connetquot, Ward Melville, Sachem East, Bay Shore and Lindenhurst.
They’ll open up their season in quest of a fifth straight Suffolk County Championship on April 1 against Bay Shore. They’ll also play non-league games against St. Anthony’s and Longwood.
