Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series
by Vin Messana
The streak is over
Port Washington 2, Massapequa 1
WP: Jackson Garcia 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 4 Ks
Save: Jeff Radinsky 3 IP, 0 H, 7 Ks
Derek Fine RBI single
Max Spiryda 2 for 3, RBIPort Washington advances to the Nassau AAA Finals against Farmingdale. This ends Massapequa’s run of 6… pic.twitter.com/LXQSnOIcra
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2024
Much has changed in the world over the past 8 years – but there was always one thing you could count on – the Massapequa Chiefs winning the Nassau County Class AA Championship.
In the first year under the new classification, Massapequa shockingly was defeated by Port Washington in the best-of-three AAA semifinals. Massapequa finished with a record of 19-5-1. Port Washington ultimately lost in the County Finals to Farmingdale, who became Nassau Champs for the first time since 1990.
Coach Tom Sheedy, who started coaching high school baseball at Holy Trinity in 1979 and has been at Massapequa since 1995, noted there was one thing that led to their early postseason exit this past season.
“Our approach at the plate was lacking,” he said. “We’ve addressed it with this year’s team. We tell them every year ‘we have the answers to the regents tests. We know how to win a County Championship, you can either use it or not.’ We got exploited. That’s what happens when you face good teams. When you face bad teams, it doesn’t matter. It’s a shame, because last year’s team had the deepest pitching staff since the undefeated season in 2006.”
Last year’s ace was George Adams, who is currently a freshman with three wins at Stony Brook University. He captured the Doug Robins’ Diamond Award which is given annually to the top pitcher in Nassau County – he was 5-0 with a 1.01 ERA over 41.1 innings. He went 20-0 in his HS career.
“George was brought up as a freshman. Players were raving about his poise on the mound. Freshman usually crap their pants. We have some juniors and seniors that crap their pants. He showed unbelievable poise. He was just absolutely incredible. He was a once-in-a-decade type pitcher. There’s no reason he can’t keep moving up the ladder. I could go on for hours about him – he’s just a wonderful person. I was hoping he would’ve faced Evan Kay in the Long Island Championship but it never happened.”
They also graduated catcher Paul Dulanto, who is teammates with Adams at Stony Brook University. Dulanto won the Conference Player of the Year.
“Every day for 4 years I would watch him bounce across the field. Every day he was on top of his toes. I’m going to miss that. He was the ultimate field general. Just a fabulous young man. Trying to replace Paul is virtually impossible. As a freshman, he practiced with us and learned from Bobby Stang. You just knew Paul would become that guy. I coached him in JV football and coached his dad on varsity football. He checks every single box. He did everything, he was a coach on the field. I’ll probably miss him even more than George because I rarely deal with the pitchers, except when I took George out in the playoffs with a no-hitter.”
This year’s team has no shortage of talent, of course.
St. John’s-commit Thomas Harding (Massapequa 2025) up to 91 pic.twitter.com/eC2wuwSLuA
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 7, 2025
They return St. John’s-commit Thomas Harding. He is a well-built 6’4 215 lb left-handed pitcher that was a bullpen piece for them last year. Sheedy noted he would go multiple innings at a time and could pitch multiple times per week. For the year, coach estimated that he pitched 24 innings with 34 strikeouts and was only scored upon in one of his outings. His fastball has been up to 91 MPH this winter.
Joining him in the rotation is Stony Brook-commit Hunter Gillis. He took a unique path; he quit baseball following his 7th grade season and played lacrosse for three years.
LHP Hunter Gillis (Massapequa 2025) commits to Stony Brook University pic.twitter.com/HUCaTbVOlx
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) November 25, 2024
“He would’ve been a D-I lacrosse player, he was going to be their top middy. We are hoping he makes a full recovery to baseball. He’s a young pitcher because he has a healthy arm as he missed out on three years of innings. He’s a smart kid and a great athlete. Last year he was our designated pinch runner. With his huge strides he doesn’t take long to get down the line. Whenever Paulie was on first with less than two outs, he ran for him.
Coach had high praise for Bridgeport-commit Vincenzo Della Porta.
Vincenzo Dellaporta (Massapequa 2025) commits to the University of Bridgeport @TeamBEASTbsb pic.twitter.com/CjYvh491ZB
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 4, 2024
“He is a beauty to watch at second base. He is our best second baseman in many years. His hands are so light and quick – it seems like the ball never touches his glove when he’s turning a double play. He will be a mainstay on our infield.”
When asked who will replace Dulanto behind the dish, Sheedy paused for a moment and said, “It’s impossible to replace him but we have six candidates that will try.”
Sheedy stated that “Our X-Factor this season is a player named Ben Cohen for us to get to the level we want to be.”
Cohen played varsity football and volleyball this past year, and Sheedy noted that it was important to him that he passed the “Shippos Test”, meaning that if he was able to handle playing football under renowned coach Kevin Shippos, then he would be confident that he could handle playing varsity baseball.
“You have to be sharp all the time to be a catcher for us. You have to be able to call the pitches and understand how we go about attacking hitters. We give them information on the hitters but it’s on them. I think he will be ready, if not we’ll have to go to a Tier-2 catcher and if so, that could present a problem.”
Coach spoke glowingly about two others players on the team. Right fielder Caiden Erker started for the Chiefs as a sophomore and batted leadoff, which is a big deal for them.
Caiden Erker (Massapequa 2026) 81 MPH throw pic.twitter.com/7deNoaGOp6
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 9, 2024
“He was our first sophomore leadoff batter since 2007, we don’t usually do that. He plays tremendous defense and has a hose of an arm. He can pitch but I told him he will never pitch since he is our best right fielder. Because of the wind at our field, right field is much more difficult to play than center field. He has a college mentality, and that’s rare. Paulie (Dulanto) had it as a sophomore. I told him, our goal this year is to make sure everyone on Long Island knows who he is.”
In center field is another underclassmen and that’s Chris Sultana, who was featured as part of our “Up Next” series. Sultana was a starter on varsity volleyball player as a sophomore at Massapequa, which Sheedy noted is no easy task at their school.
Massapequa freshman OF Chris Sultana pic.twitter.com/XZ6iflAVAS
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) January 1, 2024
“We didn’t think of him as a freshman last year. I had a coach tell me he’s the best freshman he’s seen since Chris Smith from Wantagh. When it came playoff time, we said let’s call him up now so he can get the experience of the playoffs. In batting practice, he hit the ball onto the tennis courts. Years ago, Chris Cafiero hit one into someone’s backyard and I told him, ‘Chris I think you can put one into someone’s backyard.’ We DH’d him as a freshman at Port Washington hopefully he would get a barrel on a ball and put one over the short porch – which didn’t happen. He’s definitely ready to step in. He could hit leadoff and then we could hit Caiden second. He’s a special talent. He busted it every single fly ball for an hour during our workouts. He’s definitely on a mission. He could easily be our next superstar like an Erik Paulsen-type of player.”
After tryouts, Massapequa will embark on their annual Spring Training trip to Florida to get their at bats. This year, they’ll open against Mike Scudero’s team. He was a member of the 2006 State Champion team and he won Coach of the Year in his conference last year.
“He’s only 10 miles from Disney. It’ll be good for us to face a Floridian team, especially a playoff-caliber team.”
Once they get back to the island, they will open up league play at Plainview JFK on April 8 and have their home opener the next day against the Hawks. Nassau AAA has only 9 teams, so each team will play a home-and-home against each opponent.
If one thing is clear – last year’s playoff exit didn’t sit well with Tom Sheedy and his coaching staff and they will be hungry to avenge that semifinals loss.
