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Commack Enters 2024 Atop the Mountain

Commack was as close as possible to winning their first State Championship in program history. They fired a no-hitter in the Class AA Finals against Ketchum but lost, 2-1. They finished with a record of 25-3.

While that loss certainly stung, it shouldn’t take away from the fact that they continued their reign as the top baseball program in Suffolk County – they have captured back-to-back-to-back Suffolk Class AA Championships and they defeated Massapequa, 7-0, in a rare anticlimactic Long Island Championship at St. Joseph’s University.

Their ace, Evan Kay, was lights-out against the 6-time reigning Nassau County Champs which featured some of the top hitters in the region in Erik Paulsen Jr and Paul Dulanto. Kay was ultimately named Class AA Playoff MVP after he put up a performance for the ages. He fired 4 complete game shutouts in his four starts, and he was just as good at the plate where he batted .652 (15-for-23) with a ridiculous 17 RBIs over their 8 playoff games. In addition to his gem in the LIC against Massapequa, he fired a 2-hit, CG shutout against Shenendehowa to get to the finals against Ketchum. Kay is a Stony Brook-commit and will enter the season as the heavy favorite to win the Paul Gibson Award. Overall, the team went 7-0 in the games he started and he compiled a 0.61 ERA over 45 innings with 47 Ks and a .168 opponent AVG. At the plate, he batted .529 with 1 HR and 43 RBIs. He will play 1B when he’s not pitching.

They did graduate a large senior class, which featured 3 All-County players and several players that have continued their playing careers at the collegiate level.

The most impactful player was Chris McHugh. He batted .518 with 4 triples, 3 HRs, 29 RBIs and 49 runs scored. McHugh had an exceptional career for the Cougars and he is now at VCU – where he’s already starting at 1B and batting cleanup as a freshman. In fact, he had 2 hits in today’s game as they ran their win streak to 4 games.

Outfielder Joey DiMotta was also named All-County, after compiling a .474 AVG. He added three triples, three HRs, scored 40 runs and drove in 37 runs. He is attending Farleigh Dickinson University. All-County infielder Aidan Murphy batted .379 with 6 triples, 6 HRs, scored 45 runs and drove in 23 runs. He is attending Binghamton but opted to focus on academics. Connor Schramm was a pitcher and infielder and he was named All-League and is now at Niagara University. Matt Mayer was their starting catcher and he is at SUNY Brockport. Adam Gonzalez was their starting 2B and he also was the DH some games, he is at Queens College.

On the flip side, they do return a handful of players that will certainly be impact players. Aside from Evan Kay, they also have two other seniors that are three-year varsity players and that’s Ryan Krzemienski (St. Thomas Aquinas-commit) and Zach Winter (Farleigh Dickinson-commit). Krzemienski is the third of four brothers that are all baseball players. He and Kay both pitched in the Long Island Championship game against Massapequa in 2022 as sophomores.

Krzemienski went 5-0 with a 1.50 ERA. He notched 34 Ks over 28 innings and opposing batters hit .150 against him.

Zach Winter pitched 17 innings and struck out 30 batters. “He’s an uncomfortable at bat,” said Coach Matt Salmon. Opposing batters hit .180 against him.

“The moment doesn’t get to them. It’s awesome to have 3 senior leaders atop the staff,” said Coach Matt Salmon.

That doesn’t even factor in another Division-I commit, Chris Messina, who is committed to Farleigh Dickinson as well. He pitched in that NYS Finals game, allowing two unearned runs, but was lights-out aside that. He’s a southpaw that can run it up to the high 80s and will definitely have a significant role for them.

Messina can handle the bat as well. Their lineup was so stacked last year, that he only had 2 at bats. What did he do in those two at bats? Two doubles. So even their bench pieces were capable of compiling a 2.000 SLG. Simply ridiculous. They will count on him more offensively this season as an upperclassmen.

Coach also mentioned senior Dean Vincent as an important piece for them. He was on varsity last year but didn’t play too much. His older brother, Drew, plays at SUNY Oneonta.

“He will play a big role this year. He plays almost every position. He could probably catch if we needed him too,” said Salmon, jokingly.

At SS, they have an exciting young sophomore named Ryan Bush. Coach Salmon said he envisions him as a three-year starter for them.

“We expect him to be a top of the lineup guy. He’ll be right in the mix in the field.” he added. Bush was featured in our “Up Next” series. His father, Chris, was a big-time player for Commack and finished with his name near the top of the record books in some stats. Salmon mentioned that he likes to joke with him that he finished his Commack career with two hits more than he did.

So where does Commack go from here?

They are already atop the mountain top of Long Island baseball. Convention wisdom would suggest they take a step back, especially in a more competitive league that features Connetquot, Ward Melville, Sachem East, Sachem North, Bay Shore and Lindenhurst.

I wouldn’t be so quick to bet against them. This is a team that averaged 11.2 runs per game over 28 games, they compiled a stingy 1.60 team ERA.

They return arguably the best rotation in Suffolk County with battle-tested players. Looking beyond that, they have a community that rallies behind their team, which Coach Salmon spoke about.

“The town has two Little Leagues – North & South and they do a great job with it. I go down to Opening Day and you can see the passion. It’s exciting. The kids come and watch the varsity games. The summer camps are full with kids. People play baseball in this town; like they do in Ward Melville and Massapequa. It’s a good baseball town.”

They will open up against Bay Shore. He spoke highly of the program and the job Chris Schiro has done, he expects them to be very competitive.

Coach also spoke highly of Walt Whitman, a team that is not in their league this year but they were last year and actually was one of Commack’s three losses on the season.

“They have some really good young players. The kid {Jaden} Grose is outstanding. Keith Barrett does a great job. They have some very good players. The way they look and they prepare, you can see they are right there. Sometimes programs like that can get looked over,” he added.

They will be scrimmaging them this season to prepare for the season.

Commack will once again enter as the favorite to win it all. Until they get knocked off their throne, how can you pick anyone else?