High School Baseball

UPDATE:
Daring to Throw Really, Really Hard: The Marcus Stroman Story. (Our Newsday Player of the Year)

And: The Nassau Player of the Year story on Mike Mandarino.

Ok, folks. That's all for this season (or at least until something else strikes). It's been a fantastic couple of months and keep an eye out: Adam and I will continue to update this space if we hear about anything new/awesome/interesting on the baseball scene. As usual, feel free to email me if you hear anything good. Congrats to the All-Long Islanders. Y'all certainly made for some tough decision-making.

Cheers!

The All-Long Island Team, for your reading pleasure.

You can also catch it in Sunday's Newsday. I'll update this space with the Newsday and Nassau player of the year stories as soon as they get posted.

- LA

Ok, it's that time of year again. The All-Long Island team. I can't say much about Suffolk, but I helped put together the Nassau guys and, let me tell you, there were more than a few tough calls in there. Simply put, there have been some incredible performances this year.

It's certainly difficult to pick who goes in, especially with all that ability-based stuff, and, while a lot of it is a straight numbers game, it usually comes down to more than that. We tried to focus on contribution to the team, level of competition involved, skill and a few of the intangibles (now there's a tricky grey area if I've ever seen one).

It's an excellent group of guys and it's a shame we couldn't acknowledge so many of the other great players this year. Want to know who made the cut? Check out the special section in Sunday's Newsday.

Cheers!

- Laura Albanese

BY LAURA ALBANESE

Well people, to borrow a bad cliche, it's been one roller-coaster of a season. Many apologies for not checking in more often from Binghamton, but after running all over (in the rain!) I couldn't find a wi-fi connection to transmit from near the field.

Since Adam's covered Suffolk all year, he was shipped off to go watch Islip (and got fancy internet access). I, meanwhile, got Massapequa. Some notes:

- Yes, Massapequa was just as devastated as you would expect after the loss. They were down by three runs but, as I told someone earlier today, just about everyone in my makeshift pressbox (a table, chairs and a tarp that I learned to love), thought they were coming back. Even the guy from the local paper who had never seen them play before thought they were coming back. Some pretty nail-biting stuff.

- Interesting note, though: Try as they might, Massapequa could seriously not hit the ball to the opposite field against the Mamaroneck pitcher, Andrew Benkwitt. Save for Chris Theoharides' chopper up the middle in the seventh, all of the Chief's hits were to the left side. In short: Benkwitt was throwing gas.

- Talking to Vin Caesar, the 'pequa shortstop, after the game: He said that he felt that the Chiefs were overconfident going into the second game. "I knew we had to settle down and play like we did in the first 10 games," he said. He was frustrated, no doubt about it, but added that "we're not in mourning right now. No one thought we'd even come close to a state championship. This is a great team and I'm happy."

- Also cool: They shipped off pitching coach Chris Cafiero to Buffalo to scout the first team they played, Hilton. Apparently they've been doing this for three years, according to coach Tom Sheedy. See details in the write-up below.

Quick write-up for Game 1, which I had to chop out for space below the cut.

Continue reading "Binghamton Notes" »

BY ADAM RONIS

Back here at NYSEG Stadium, home of the Double-A Binghamton Mets. I guess no matter where I go I can't get away from the Mets. On to more jovial things, Islip is going for its second consecutive Class A state championship. The opponent is Maine-Endwell (Section IV), which was 6-13 last season. It is 22-2 and its only losses came against Class AA teams.

Islip is on a 21-game winning streak and is 25-4. After rolling through opponents, the games have been more arduous the last three games. Islip won Game 2 of the county championship, 3-1; beat Division in the LI championship game, 3-2; and won the state semifinal, 5-4. Rob Rogers will take the mound for Islip. We're still a good time away from the start. Neither team has taken infield practice yet. It's not 5:21 p.m. I'll be back after I do my pregame rituals. Writers are supersitious, too.

7:44 p.m.: Massapequa loses, 6-3.

7:14 p.m.: Massapequa is rallying. It's the top of the seventh and the Chiefs trail 6-3 with runners at first and second with one out.

7:05 p.m.: Massapequa is on the board and trails, 6-1.

6:37 p.m.: Massapequa trails Mamaroneck, 6-0, going to the top of the fifth inning.

6:31 p.m.: Massapequa trails, 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth.

6:11 p.m.: Mamaroneck takes a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on an RBI double by Gabe Klein. Massapequa is hitting in the top of the fourth.

6:05 p.m.: Massapequa game is scoreless in the bottom of the third. Massapequa is the visiting team.

5:40 p.m.: Massapequa and Mamaroneck are scoreless in the top of the second inning. Bryan Edwards is on the mound for the Chiefs.

Bottom 7: Matt Kriss leads off with a walk on five pitches. Rogers strikes out swinging. Burke walks on five pitches. Schlittenhardt grounds out to first. Papszycki grounds out to third to end the game. Islip loses, 7-4.

Top 7: Pat Barrett leads off with a triple, Nate Reynolds walks, steals second and both score on a single by Justin Capp. Maine-Endwell leads 7-4. Rogers gets a strikeout for the first out and picks Capp off first for the second out. Barbarino walks and after stealing second, the runners was called out for batter's interferance. Maine-Endwell 7, Islip 4

Bottom 6: Brian Ruby, who pitched three innings in relief to get the win in the semifinal earlier today, is now in the game. He allows a two-out walk, but retires the final hitter.

Top 6: Rogers gets a strikeout to start the inning. Rogers slips trying to field a slow roller by the first base side and Barbarino reaches on an infield single and steals second. Rogers induces a fly out to shallow right. Ruby gets an intentional walk. Tallon gets hit by a pitch to load the bases. HUGE strikeout to end the inning. Rogers throws three strikes and gets Jones looking. Maine-Endwell 5, Islip 4

Bottom 5: Matt Kriss leads off with a fly out to right. Rogers ropes a double to the rightfield corner and Burke reaches on an infield single. On the errant throw by the second baseman, Rogers scores to bring Islip within 5-4. Burke steals second and goes to third on qa grounder to third by Schlittenhardt. Papszycki hits a hard grounder but the third baseman makes a nice play for the out. Maine-Endwell 5, Islip 4

Top 5: Tyler Yesensky gets hit by a pitch to lead off. Brian Ruby hits a line drive to leftfield putting runners at first and second with none out. On a bunt attempt, Rogers gets the force at third for the first out. Ryan Jones follows with an RBI single to left and runners advance to second and third on a wild pitch. Second baseman Tim McCormack makes an error allowing another run to score and runners are at first and third. Maine-Endwell leads 5-3. Rogers gets a strikeout for the second out. A grounder to third ends the inning. Maine-Endwell 5, Islip 3
Bottom 4: A quick 1-2-3 inning as Islip goes quietly. It's the first inning the Bucs haven't had a base runner. Islip 3, Maine-Endwell 3

Top 4: Nate Reynolds strikes out and reaches first on an error by catcher Stephen Provenzano, who dropped the strike three and made an errant throw to first. Justin Capp fails to sacrifice and with two strikes, gets caught looking for the first out. It is now raining. With the runner in motion a slow bouncer to third, Matt Kriss gets the out at first, but Reynolds advances all the way to third. A grounder to second base ends the inning. Islip 3, Maine-Endwell 3

Bottom 3:Burke leads off with a single, but Schlittenhardt grounds into a 1-6-3 double play. Papszycki follows with a walk. R.J. Going hit a shot to leftfield, but Andrew Barbarino makes a nice catch on the run. Islip 3, Maine-Endwell 0

Top 3: Rogers got two quick outs before a walk, a solid line drive up the middle and ME's best hitter Brian Ruby smoked a liner that one-hopped the leftfield wall for an RBI double. Runners are at second and third. Mitch Tallon hits a two-run single and advances to second on an errant throw. A grounder to third ends the inning. Rogers threw just three pitches to get two outs and it looked like it would be an easy inning. Islip 3, Maine-Endwell 3

Bottom 2: Matt Espinal leads off with a walk. He is erased as Tom Kriss hits into a double play. Matt Kriss walks and has reached base twice in the first two innings. Rogers, who will play at Binghamton next season, hits a hard grounder to second for the final out. Islip 3, Maine-Endwell 0

Top 2: Rogers allows a leadoff single and then induces a 4-6-3 double play. A grounder to Burke ends the inning. Great inning by Rogers to keep the pitch count low. Islip 3, Maine-Endwell 0

Bottom 1: Matt Kriss leads off with an infield single and Rogers drive him in with a double down the rightfield line. Islip leads 1-0. Chris Burke grounds out to third for the first out. Jason Schlittenhardt reaches on an error by the first baseman and runners advance to second and third. Brian Papszycki hit a sac fly to center to score Rogers. Islip leads 2-0. R.J. Going with a single to rightfield scoring Schlittenhardt to make it 3-0. Maine-Endwell has already used its two best pitchers today and might be available for limited action, but the dropoff to the No. 3 is apparent early. Islip 3, Maine-Endwell 0

Top 1: Andrew Barbarino gets caught looking for the first out and Tyler Yesensky walks on a full count. Brian Ruby flies out to rightfield. Mitch Tallon hits a grounder to Chris Burke at shortstop, who made a nice play on a high hop and gunned downed the runner at first. Islip 0, Maine-Endwell 0

BY ADAM RONIS

Maine-Endwell defeats Franklin Academy, 5-4, in the other Class A state semifinal. Islip will meet Maine-Endwell (22-2) in the championship game in about 45 minutes at about 5:40 p.m.

BY ADAM RONIS

Courtesy of Laura Albanese, who is at a high school field with no Internet connection, Massapequa will play Mamaroneck (Section I) in the Class AA state championship game. The game will begin at 5:15 p.m. Islip will start later than that. Maine-Endwell leads Franklin Academy, 5-3, in the bottom of the sixth inning in a Class A state semifinal. Islip is sitting in the stands waiting to play.

BY ADAM RONIS

Islip will play the winner of Maine-Endwell (Section IV) and Franklin Academy (Section X). The game was delayed by rain to start. It's currently 3:57 p.m. and Maine-Endwell leads 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Great, more rain is falling. Looks like the Islip game is at least an hour away. Be back in a bit.

BY LAURA ALBANESE

Laura here from Binghamton. Alas, I wasn't able to live-blog the game because I had no wifi, but I come bearing highlights.

Mike Mandarino was again steller, pitching a complete game and allowing four hits with two walks as the Chiefs defeated Hilton, 4-0. Things were a little rough the first time around the order but Mandarino's fastball was the best I've seen it and he was brandishing a wicked curve that tied up Hilton bats for the entire game. Pitching coach Chris Cafiero went up to Buffalo to check the team out during the playoffs and came back with a highly extensive scouting report. It certainly helped the hitters in the bottom of the lineup.

Matt Hardy worked out a walk in the second inning and advanced to second on a pickoff attempt gone awry. Greg Muller hit a high chopper to score him. Two batters later, Chris Theoharidies smacked a groundball past a diving shortstop to score Muller from second.

'Pequa scored two more in the fifth. Muller hit an RBI single to score Travis Locascio (he reached base on a single to left field). Tony Abruzzino hit a double to make it second and third, but Muller got caught up after a Theoharidies bunted through an attempted suicide squeeze. It looks like the move got to Coleman's head, though, since he balked to drive Abruzzino home.

Mandarino had a dicey inning in the fourth, with runners on second and third with two outs, before he struck out Patrick O'Sullivan to end the threat. After that, he was nearly untouchable - facing one over the minimum to end the game (a walk to Coleman in the fifth.)

Well, that's that. I'll be back for Game 2 (weather and computer permitting). I've got a bunch of good information talking to Tom Sheedy and the guys, so keep checking the space.

BY ADAM RONIS

Islip is going for its second consecutive Class A state title and has a 20-game winning streak. The semifinal opponent is Pittsford Sutherland (Section V). I'm here at NYSEG Stadium. Laura Albanese is covering Massapequa against Hilton in a Class AA semifinal. She's at Union-Endicott HS with no wireless connection, so she'll send me some updates.

FINAL SCORE: MASSAPEQUA 4, HILTON 0
Massapequa will play in the state championship game at 4 p.m.

ISLIP WINS 5-4 and will play in the state championship game scheduled for 4 p.m., but it will likely start later since Islip's game went 2:45 pushing back the other semifinal. Also, some rain is heading here, so there might be a delay. Check back for more coverage.

Bottom 7: Burke faces the top of the order. Brill flies to center for the first out.
Topf gets caught looking for out No. 2. Coleman singles to center on an 0-and-2 pitch. Osterman hits a grounder to shortstop Rogers, who commits an error. Might not have got an out if he fielded it cleanly anyway. Menard with a full count swings and misses.

Top 7: Brian Papszycki grounds out to third for the first out. Going dunks a single into centerfield and Tom Cronau is the pinch runner. Provenzano hits an infield single to put runners at first and second one out. Once again, Islip threatens. Swisher is being taken out of the game. Craig Cymerman, a lefthander, is into pitch. Espinal is up to bat. He walks on four pitches and in a the blink of an eye, coach Jim Capellupo snatches the ball and sends Cymerman to the dugout. Never seen anything like that. I'd love to see that happen to Elijah Dukes. At least his pitch count (4) was low. Ryan Fennell comes in with the bases loaded and based on warmups, he throws very hard. Tom Kriss is up and he is 2-for-2 with a walk. Kriss was behind 0-and-2 and the count is now full. Kriss walks to score the go-ahead run. Very impressive at-bat and I've seen that from Islip all season. They all work deep counts and that was a typical Islip at-bat. Islip leads 5-4. Matt Kriss strikes out on three pitches. Rogers is up. He flys to center on the first pitch to end the inning. Islip 5, PS 4

Bottom 6: Burke gets a strikeout and fly ball to leftfield for the first two outs. Brad Kaczka hits a pinch-hit double to left-center. Githens grounds out to second for the final out. Still tied heading to the seventh. Islip 4, PS 4

Top 6: Tom Kriss leads off with a single to leftfield. Matt Kriss gets hit by a pitch. Rogers and Burke are up. This is the time for Islip. Rogers tries to bunt twice and then hits a line drive to left field on a 1-and-2 pitch. Burke is up. Burke fouls out to first for the second out. Schlittenhardt is now up. He hits a slow roller to the first baseman, who beats Schlittenhardt to the bag for the final out. A huge missed opportunity for Islip. Islip 4, PS 4

Bottom 5: Johnny Brill walks to start the inning. Topf tries to bunt him over and pops it up behind home plate. Provenzano makes a nice diving catch for the out. Patrick Coleman flied out to center for the second out. Brill steals second base with Osterman at the plate, who had an RBI double his last at-bat. Burke walks him, althought the 2-and-2 pitch looked like a strike to everyone in the press box. Burke strikes out Menard to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4

Top 5: With two outs, Stephen Provenzano singled to leftfield. Espinal strikes out to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4

Bottom 4:Excellent leaping grab by third baseman Matt Kriss on a grounder and he makes a strong throw to first to retire the leadoff hitter. Dillon Lowe reached on an infield single and Burke tries to pick him off and the throw goes into rightfield sending Lowe to second. Nick Flemister gets caught looking for the second out. Tom Githerns also strikes out looking for the final out. Burke has five strikeouts. Islip 4, PS 4

Top 4: Rogers led off with a single and got caught stealing. Burke then hit a blast to deep centerfield, but it's 400 feet away and it was caught on the warning track. Schlittenhardt grounded out to second to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4

Bottom 3: Islip commits an error to start the inning. With one out, Sean Osterman hits a drive to deep centerfield for an RBI double to tie the score at 4. He gets picked off second base and Menard grounds out to short to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 4

Top 3:Islip takes advantage of a PS error. Second baseman Brian Topf dropped an easy pop-up about 30 feet behind second base to allow Going to reach second base. With two outs, Matt Espinal singled to score Going and give the Bucs a 4-3 lead. Tom Kriss singled and after a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, PS takes out Menard. Ryan Swisher is the new pitcher. Matt Kriss strikes out to end the inning. Islip 4, PS 3.

An update from Laura Albanese, Massapequa leads Hilton, 4-0, in a Class AA semifinal in the top of the fifth inning. Mike Mandarino has allowed four hits in four innings.

Bottom 2: Great job by Burke after a tough first inning. A quick 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout and two grounders. Just what he needed after exerting a lot of energy in the first inning.

Top 2: Kyle Menard continues to struggle with his control and Islip couldn't take advantage. He walked the first two batters in the inning, but a sac bunt attempt didn't work as Menard got the out at third. Rogers was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out and Burke hit a sac fly to tie the score at 3. Jason Schlittenhardt grounded out to second to end the inning. Menard has thrown a ton of pitches. It has taken 54 minutes to play one and a half innings.

First inning: Islip took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI double by Robert Rogers and RJ Going had an RBI single. Chris Burke had a rough first inning for Islip. He allowed a three-run double and walked two in the inning. Islip trails 3-2 after one inning.

BY ADAM RONIS

Two teams not hurt by the weather postponements the last two days are Massapequa and Islip. Both are set to go upstate to Binghamton and know its opponents. Massapequa, which makes its third consecutive trip to the state semifinals, will play Hilton (Section V) at Union-Endicott High School 10 a.m. Saturday. Hilton beat Hamburg, 7-3, to advance to the state semifinals. The championship game is 4 p.m. Hilton is 25-4.

Islip, the defending Class A state champions with a 20-game winning streak, will play Pittsford Sutherland (Section V) at NYSEG Stadium 10 a.m. Saturday. The championship game is at 4 p.m. Pittsford Sutherland beat Dunkirk, 14-1, to advance to the semifinals. Pittsford Sutherland, which has won four consecutive Section V titles, is 22-5.

BY ADAM RONIS

Oyster Bay will play the JFK Catholic (Section I) and Marlboro (Section IX) winner for the right to advance to the state semifinals on Thursday 4 p.m. at North Shore High School.

BY ADAM RONIS

Billy Clark hit a 3-and-2 fastball over the leftfield fence for a walk-off grand slam capping a seven-run inning to lift Oyster Bay to an 11-7 win over Mattituck at Firemen’s Field in Valley Stream in the LI Class B championship/Southeast Regional semifinal. Oyster Bay (17-9) will play the winner of JFK Catholic (Section I) and Marlboro (Section IX) 5 p.m.Tuesday at Dowling in the regional final with the winner advancing to the state semifinals. Clark went 3-for-3 with a single, double, homer and walk. Oyster Bay entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 7-4 and had no one on with one out.

The situation looked bleak and it appeared Oyster Bay was headed for a loss in this game for the second straight season. Alex Hudak was hit by a pitch, Daniel Roland singled and Marc Douglas hit a three-run homer to centerfield to tie the score at 7.

Roland hit a three-run homer in the fifth to tie the score at 4. Oyster Bay hit three homers, all in key situations.

"We’re not known as long-ball hitting team," OB coach Jay Davis said, "but as we did last year in the big games, we’ve been hitting them. We don’t preach the long ball. I knew pregame when I was hitting to them that if you got the ball up, it was sailing. This is a hitters' field. We’ve played a lot of close games all season and fortunately we’ve come out on top of most. It’s a dream. I was hoping [Clark] would get a walk because we needed just one and he cashed in with four. It’s an unbelieveable way to end this game. The team responded."

Douglas wasn't surprised that Clark hit his first homer of the season.

"He hits bombs," he said. "We just don’t have a fence at our field."

Rallying from deficits to win is something Oyster Bay is used to.

"We’re a team that likes to comeback and we usually win," Roland said. "That was inning was tremendous."

Roland was removed from centerfield in the top of the seventh inning -- he reentered and got a hit in the bottom of the inning -- after hitting his head on the ground following a leap over the fence on a Mattituck homer.

"I couldn’t see straight," he said. "I was ok. I pushed it. The coaches didn’t want me to, but I wanted to."

Oyster Bay starter Jared Frydman issued a walk to leadoff the game and then retired the next 10 batters before allowing a homer to Dimitri Rauseo to tie the score at 1 in the fourth. Frydman had a cramp in his left calf muscle he was stretching before he took the mound in the fifth. He got the first out, but was still plagued by the calf after throwing ball one to the next batter. Time was called and he was being worked on by the coaches and drank some Gatorade. He seemed to bother him as he walked the next two batters. Mattituck would take a 4-1 lead in the inning.

Monmoth-bound Bryan Tardif was in line to get the win when he departed in the sixth. He went 5 2/3 innings and allowed seven hits, struck out eight, allowed one earned run and walked three before being relieved by Rauseo.

For more coverage, check out the story in Monday's paper.