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Garden City Eyes Playoff Run in 2023

by Andy Smith

After finishing in second place in Conference A-1 with a 14-4 record, Garden City’s season was abruptly cut short. The Trojans had a surprising and unfortunate “2 and out” postseason run following losses to Seaford and Island Trees. 

Entering his 7th season as head coach and 25th season with Garden City, David Izzo discussed what the highlight of the season was.  “The highlight of the season was a 3 game sweep of previously unbeaten MacArthur in the final series of the year.”

Izzo played college baseball at the College of Saint Rose and his assistant coach Ray Chaputian played Division-I baseball at Towson.

The Trojans will be without many graduates who have played major roles during their playing time.  Leading this group is Pat Heber. Now pitching at Bentley, Heber struck out 62 batters in 36.1 innings in his final season at Garden City.  Heber also made a major impact in the batter’s box by hitting .426 and bringing in 13 runs.  

Izzo continued, “We will also have to replace the contributions from seniors Francesco Ingrassia, Pete Halloran, Joe Wood, Richie Longo, Gabe Elmokian, TJ Krieg, and Ben Cicione.”

These players’ contributions will be missed, but the next generation of Trojans are prepared to carry on the success of the program. Garden City will be welcoming back junior Gabe Beschloss.  The East Carolina University commit returned from an injury to play in the final two weeks of the season last year. He was a huge reason for their incredible 2021 season in which they captured the Class II Long Island Championship when he went undefeated (3-0, 0.91 ERA) as a freshman and came through in several huge moments.

Joining him is a strong core of All-County and League qualifiers, and other college commits. All-County shortstop Jack Fanning is expected to play a major role in 2023. The junior was the starting shortstop as a freshman on the 2021 Long Island Championship team. In that season he batted .396 in league play. Last season he had a strong .417 OBP, drove in 16 runs and scored 13 runs.

Fellow juniors Matt Liberopoulos, Braden Soutar, Brady Karol, and Josh Cohen all made their impacts felt as sophomores, and are poised to do even more. Liberopoulos qualified for All-League, and Soutar qualified for All-Conference.  

Senior catcher and cleanup hitter Matt Guida will serve as a leader on the team. The backstop qualified for All-League honors and will look to build off a very solid junior season. In addition, seniors Matt Tusiani-Eng (Utica commit), Derek Santeramo (Maritime commit), Aidan Walsh, Kyle Ippolito, and Kevin Blum are expected to battle for time.

Another name to watch is sophomore two-way player Evan Cabral.  As a freshman, Cabral made contributions both on the mound and on the hot corner.

Izzo noted, “Returning starters have to earn their spots again. Nothing is guaranteed from year to year.”

Many of the previously mentioned players will be competing for time on the mound as well.

When discussing the possibility of calling up an underclassmen, Izzo explained, “I don’t anticipate calling up any underclassmen, but you never know. Last year we called up Evan Cabral as a freshman in the middle of week 1.”

Garden City’s league opponents in 2023 will be; Bellmore JFK, Sewanhaka, Great Neck North, Roslyn, Glen Cove, and South Side.

According to Izzo, Garden City expects to “compete to be at the top of the conference every year,” and they will begin their journey to do just that on March 27th at Bellmore JFK.