There are many inherent obstacles of playing in the northeast–namely the weather.<\/p>\n
Riverhead<\/strong> is one of the only teams that has a legitimate gripe with their travel. While most schools on the east end of Long Island are either Class A, B or C schools, they are the only AA. This is an issue in terms of travel because their shortest bus ride is 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
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That’s the first problem.<\/p>\n
Secondly, the official start time for Suffolk County is 4 pm. The reality is that with school ending at 2pm and the baseball team needing to wait until the regular buses leave at 2:20, the earliest the bus can leave is at 2:30 pm. With most of their rides lasting over 1 hour, this means the team has roughly 20-30 minutes to get off the bus, get dressed, take infield\/outfield or batting practice and have their starting pitcher get ready for a league game.<\/p>\n
“We’ve tried to do some different things like taking batting practice before the bus leaves, but then they wind up sitting on a bus for an hour and they lose what they did in BP on the bus,” said Head Coach Rob Maccone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
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“Most teams don’t like coming out to us but they only have to deal with it either once or twice per year,” he said. “For us, it’s every road game,” he added.<\/p>\n
That’s on the “easy” 45 minute rides to schools like Centereach<\/strong> or Newfield<\/strong>. The longer rides has had a tangible effect on them in the past.<\/p>\n
“If you look at it, our worst innings are always the first inning when our pitcher is still trying to get loose,” he said.<\/p>\n
And one time it actually cost them a postseason appearance.<\/p>\n
Additionally, they have some transfers from McGann-Mercy<\/strong> in Riverhead.<\/p>\n