2020 Season Preview
Mount Sinai Returns A Young Team With Playoff Experience
Coach Eric Reichenbach knew he had an extremely young team in 2019. In fact, it featured six freshmen that received regular playing time – the most in his 16 year tenure. “I didn’t know what to expect going into the season with all those freshmen,” said Reichenbach. “Playing varsity as a freshman is like playing four years up. They certainly exceeded my expectation – we wound up competing for a league championship until the last week of the season,” he added. His team composed of six freshmen wound up finishing with a league record of 9-6 – losing in the postseason to East Islip – but a remarkable feat for such a young team. What they did have was three senior pitchers and the League MVP in SS T.J. Werner. “T.J. is everything you&...
Newfield Looks To Bounce Back in 2020
In 2018, Newfield was spoiled with a bevy of power arms. On their varsity team, they had five pitchers that would commit to Division-I schools and two more that committed to Division-III schools. After graduating three of those pitchers, they were less equipped to handle a significant injury to one of their three horses. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what would happen when Chandler Giovinco went down prior to the season and required Tommy John surgery. The injury was not just a crushing blow to the pitching staff, but he also led the team with 3 HR and 26 RBI the previous season. Additionally, it was a senior that was in a leadership role. “Losing Giovinco killed us,” said Eric Joyner, now entering his fifth year at the helm. “Not just on the mound but at the plate....
St. Anthony’s Determined To Build On CHSAA Finals Trip
Paul Parsolano was named head coach of St. Anthony’s high school in December 2018, which meant there would be a short window of time to familiarize himself with an entire group of players, new surroundings and a new league. He found a way to get the Friars into the CHSAA Finals against Chaminade, where they were tied 1-1 heading into the eighth inning while facing MLB Draft pick Logan Koester. An unearned run on a bunt wound up resulting in the go-ahead runs to score and they were defeated, 3-1. Despite the loss, the feeling was that the Friars had exceed expectations in the first year of a new regime. “From the beginning, we spoke about ‘changing the culture’ of the baseball team,” said Parsolano. “We wanted to make them relevant again – when you ...
Lindenhurst Looks To Replace 15 Seniors From 2019 Playoff Run
by Joseph Langan After consecutive playoff appearances, coach Rob Moore and his Lindenhurst Bulldogs plan to be back for the third straight time in 2020. With a deep playoff run that ultimately ended in quarter finals with a tough 8-7 walk-off loss against West Islip, Coach Moore says his 15 graduated seniors were “able to leave their season with no regrets.” With a much deeper team in 2019, the Bulldogs have a lot of work to do in 2020 to fill the void of their graduated seniors. Lindenhurst hit a hot streak towards the end of the season, winning nine out of their last thirteen games and pushing themselves into the playoffs after a 2-7 start. That push, along with last year’s playoffs appearance was initiated by some of their key graduated players. Outfielder Justin Ventura (SUNY Ul...
Chaminade Prepared To Defend Their Crown
The Chaminade Flyers are the 2019 NSCHSAA Champions with a 3-1 victory over St. Anthony’s pic.twitter.com/czHcPb827e — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2019 During his 38 years as the skipper of Chaminade, Mike Pientkos has won over 600 games and has garnered the respect of the Long Island baseball community. He led the Flyers to another championship in 2019, as they defeated St. Anthony’s in the NSCHSAA Championship in two games. With a team featuring seven seniors in the starting lineup and two in the rotation, he knew it was going to be a special year. “Yeah I knew we had some pitchers – such as [Logan] Koester – who dominated all year and [Aidan] Larkin, who was a third-year SS for us,” said Pientkos. “But we also had some good surp...
West Babylon Ushers In New Era Under Head Coach Victor Manzella
Victor Manzella takes over at the helm of West Babylon after four seasons as head coach of Babylon. He is taking over a team that is hungry, following a 3-12 season in league play. “I’m excited to join a program that has a history of being successful going back to player like Billy Koch and Rob Sandora (two professional players),” he said. “I’m looking forward to competing with the other teams and seeing what my guys have,” he said. He is joined by assistant coach Anthony Sparacio, who was the longtime coach of Babylon before Manzella took over and he led the Panthers to a Long Island Champions in 2012. The Eagles have been working hard since Manzella took over in September. He noted that they have been in the gym twice per week since the New Year and he...
Shoreham-Wading River Enters 2020 With An Army of Flamethrowers
It’s been nearly two generations since Shoreham-Wading River has failed to qualify for a postseason berth. Last season, they had another successful season and finished with a record of 17-6 but lost to Rocky Point twice to get eliminated. Entering 2020, they possess arguably the deepest pitching staff in Suffolk County and it does not bode well for opposing hitters. Leading the charge is Boston College-commit Aidan Crowley – who started the 2019 season with back-to-back-to-back no-hitters. “I was a pitcher and I know to throw one no-hitter requires a lot of luck – everything has to go your way,” said Head Coach Kevin Willi. “To throw three no-hitters, that’s just amazing. And he started the year with those. He carried his success into the season to...
MacArthur Looks To Return to the Top
by Joseph Langan Amassing a 49-19-2 record over the past four seasons, MacArthur High School has been one of the most dominant regular season teams. In fact, they’ve been one of the baseball powerhouses on Long Island over the past 25 years. They moved to the Nassau Class A in 2017 after competing with the large schools prior to that. While the Generals have been one of the best teams on Long Island – always finding themselves in the playoffs, they’ve struggled to find their way back to that championship series since 2015. They made the county finals each year from 2006-2008 and then each year from 2010-2013. Coach Steve Costello and his Generals made a great push last season for the championship, making it all the way to the Class-A semifinals. In a hard fought, back and...
Pierson Has Sights Set On Class C State Title
by Tony Genualdo Last season was nothing short of a roller coaster for Pierson. Despite the ups and downs, they were competitive with their league right until the very end, where they lost three close games to Babylon. The postseason saw them represent Long Island in the Class C state tournament. They defeated a then 21-3 Tuckahoe in the regional finals and made it to the final four where they lost to Cooperstown. Coach Jon Schwartz reflects on the experience. “I couldn’t have been more proud of our team for the way we competed, and the confidence we displayed during the postseason games,” Schwartz said. “It was clear that despite our league record, we deserved to be there amongst the best in New York.” Their offseason started in September with voluntary long toss sessions and winter worko...
Farmingdale Enters 2020 Armed With Deepest Staff in Years
by Joseph Langan After two consecutive seasons with early playoff exits from Oceanside, Farmingdale High School is determined to rewrite their destiny and finally get over the hump. The Dalers are not a young team anymore but a team full of “seasoned vets who are looking to take us to the next step this year,” says Coach Frank Tassielli. WIth his returning core of veterans, Coach Tassielli realizes that changing up his normal routines and getting his players stronger and building more team character will propel them forwards in 2020. “This year we have switched up our strength and conditioning program in the hopes of seeing some gains on the field. Our pitchers did not begin to throw until January. We have always had great camaraderie during our winter workouts and that is where it all b...
Miller Place Ready To Compete For League VI Title
by Zevan Shuster Heading into the 2020 season, Miller Place head baseball coach Ricky Caputo does not expect his team to miss a beat. They finished with a record of 16-4 in League VII, but they will move up to League VI this season due to enrollment. “I think we’re going to continue the success we had last year. We have a bunch of returning players, a lot of key players returning, so I don’t expect us to have a down year, or a rebuilding year, or anything like that,” Caputo said. “I think it’ll be pretty much full steam ahead from the start.” The familiarity of this team, both from player to player, and from Coach Caputo to his players, plays such an instrumental role for Miller Place, and will almost assuredly attribute to however much success Caputo’s club has this coming season. “(Our ...
Harborfields Poised For a Playoff Run
After three straight seasons of first-round postseason losses, Harborfields appears ready to break through. Coach Casey Sturm says they “are ready to change that.” He will go to battle in League 5 with a roster filled with high-end players. He stated that outside of 2018, “this is probably the most talented team we’ve had, but at the end of the day you’ve gotta play.” The strength of the team is certainly the starting rotation. They return four capable pitchers, led by New York Tech-commit Jack Greco. He is entering his fourth year of varsity baseball and is one of the top pitchers on Long Island. “He has grown leaps & bounds each year,” said Sturm. “Last year was probably his best year. He can basically do whatever is necessary ...
