Tim Belz
Hills East Looks To Reach Playoffs In 2024
by Mike Merolle (Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.) Hills East plans for a better year in 2024 after finishing 6-12 last season and missing out on the playoffs. The Thunderbirds finished 10-10 in the season prior. Head coach Tim Belz intends to turn things around in his 16th year managing Hills East. “Our league is very good. Every week is going to be a tough matchup for us. We’re going to have to come out and play our best baseball,” said Belz in an interview with Axcess Baseball. Belz has been dealt tough cards. Hills East’s varsity squad has the “lightest number” of varsity players this year than he’s ever had. This makes team depth one of Belz’s concerns coming into the season. He plans to rely on his team leaders...
Hills East Poised for Playoff Appearance
by Nick Cipolla Half Hollow Hills East had a .500 season overall in 2022 going 10-10 overall. However, it wasn’t enough to make the playoffs as their 8-10 league record proved to be costly as they missed out on playoff baseball by a single game. Despite the unfortunate ending to the year in 2022, the Thunderbirds had some positives to take away from this season. Coach Tim Belz was pretty open about his team’s performance in 2022. “We finished 8-10 last season and we’re only 1 game away from qualifying for the playoffs”, Belz said, “there were numerous opportunities for us to make it to the playoffs but the ball just didn’t bounce our way when we needed it to. The two non league wins were against playoff teams but a couple of tough losses is what kept us out”. The Thunderbirds gradua...
Hills East Looking to Bounce Back in 2022
by Daniel Lopes After a season defined by COVID and the scheduling changes that it caused, Hills East head coach Tim Belz is hopeful that his team can bounce back from their 3-15 year in 2021. “Rebounding from a bad year last year, we’ve got some significant players coming back, and a lot of growth coming back with age and experience,” Belz said. “We’re definitely looking forward to getting back into the playoffs again, as a two-year drought for us hurts. So we want to get back into the playoffs.” Prior to that, they had reached the playoffs in four consecutive seasons. While the team did graduate some seniors from last year’s team, Belz believes that the core of the team remains intact. Hills East 2, Lindenhurst 0 WP: Ari Gluck (CG shutout) Nick Farnacci (video) and Kyle Cavataio ho...
Tim Belz Confident Team Chemistry Will Pay Off for Hills East
Reis Henderson wins it for Hills East with a walk-off single to score Nick Gavilla ! pic.twitter.com/yyZVfPV9MN — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 29, 2019 by Ben Diamond After losing last season, Hills East had a big senior class graduate. But, Head Baseball Coach at Hills East, Tim Belz, believes that the core of his team is still intact. Led by junior shortstop Nick Farnacci, who has been with the team since freshman year. Senior catcher Aiden Limerick, who he expects big things from this coming season, and senior RHP Kyle Cavataio. Belz said that Cavataio would’ve been a big part of his pitching staff had the season not been cancelled last year. Belz feels as though the hole left by the departing senior class isn’t as big as other schools. Uncommitted Kyle Cavataio (Hills Eas...
Hills East Poised For Bounceback Year
by Tony Genualdo Last season for Hills East was full of ups-and-downs. The team got some early success going, including four walk-off victories. But in the end, they dropped 5 out of their last 6 games and were unable to make a playoff push. Nine seniors left the team following the season, including two-time All-League player Nick Gavilla (now at Adelphi University) and All-County player John Son (now at Utica College). Coach Tim Belz is fortunate to have a deep team this year to cushion the loss of them. “We are deep at every position this year,” Belz said. “So, filling the spots will be easy and there are open positional battles for every spot this year.” He’s not wrong with the amount of talent on the team. Ten seniors return from last year. Among those players are Andrew Ferber and Jas...
