Last year was filled with fantastic postseason finishes, a bevy of Long Islanders drafted and plenty of spectacular individual achievements.
With the calendar flipping to January, however, all eyes are on the 2016 baseball season.
As always, there are important storylines to keep an eye on leading up to the season.
Here are the most intriguing ones in my opinion…
7. Will Division be able to replace their trio of seniors that carried them to the LI Championship?
Division won the Long Island Championship 4-0 over Bayport-Blue Point thanks in large part to the trio of Anthony Papa, James Varela and Joe Piscitelli. All three are at LIU Post. Papa won the Long Island Championship and Varela was lights out in the postseason as well. In fact, they won the Nassau Class A title in 2014 as well but was defeated by Jack Piekos and BBP 3-0.
Head Coach Tom Tuttle will have his work cut out for him but with the baseball factory that they’ve become, I fully expect them to be right at the finish line come June once again.
6. The incredible class of 2017-
Every year there are Div-I players and also players that get drafted from high school and college but the high school class of 2017 is on another level. There are already NINE Div-I players and the signing period isn’t even until July 1.
According to BCP’s Top 100, No. 1 prospect Brian Morrell has committed to Notre Dame. No. 2 ranked Michael Palazzolo has committed to Stony Brook, No. 3 ranked Brad Camarda has committed to Hofstra, No. 9 ranked Anthony Siroka has committed to Pittsburgh, No. 10 Cameron Tomaiko has committed to Michigan, No. 11 Peter Theodorelias has committed to Farleigh-Dickinson, No. 28 Jimmy Joyce has committed to Hofstra, No. 34 Brian Morrissey has committed to Stony Brook.
That is not even counting other players destined to join the Div-I parade such as Patch Dooley, Ben Brown and Brad Malm. What a collectively talented group.
5. Who want to de-throne Connetquot?
After winning the 2012 Suffolk County AA title, the T-Birds returned and won it thanks to a dynamic offense, a 13-game winner in Travis Bruinsma–who simply would nottake a defeat down the stretch–and an absolutely hellbent mission of winning it all for Walter Hengge.
They will be losing the League II MVP in Andrew Gagliano, first baseman Brandon Morse and center fielder Dave Brehm.
Still, they will have Marc Wangenstein heading the offensive attack plus a Head Coach in Bob Ambrosini with an astounding 581 wins to his credit.
They will have the radar on their back, and with Ward Melville looking to avenge last year’s finals loss and Half Hollow Hills East with one of the most prospect-heavy teams ever and the always talented Smithtown teams, it will certainly be no cake walk.
4. How Will Old Westbury Perform as the Reigning Champs?
Last year I correctly predicted that Old Westbury would end the seven-year streak of Skyline Conference championships for Farmingdale State.
Now they will be in the unfamiliar position of being the team that is chased. They will have to replace the dominance of Tim Ingram (8-3, 1.82 ERA) and No. 2 starter Caleb Olsen who won five games. They will look to Nick Dorcean and Tyler Kapela to lead the rotation.
The offense will have to replace All-Long Island DH Nick Yip, outfield stalwarts Jonathan Pagan and Jacob Coners and first baseman Christian Faust.
Fortunately, they will return two All-Long Island infielders in Tommy Zeigen and Dean Sheridan. Cumulatively, the team hit .312 with a .403 OBP, so offense should not be an issue.
I think this could be the year that St. Joseph’s gets over the hump. They improved tremendously in 2015 and will return most of their best players including two All-Long Islanders in Nick Girardi and Brendan Sullivan. There are dangerous bats 1-9 in the lineup including pesky lead off man Anthony Bonilla as well as Joseph Calabrese and Joseph Lynn. They hit .319 as a team with a .404 OBP.
The rotation will be led by Josh Outsen and Ryan Aloise which puts them in position to win any conference double header.
Additionally, they have an outstanding class of ’16 recruits coming in so keep an eye on them to start an extended run of success.
3. Will the strong crop of freshmen change the landscape of the ECC and NE-10?
Last year LIU Post finished with an 18-18 record and qualified for a postseason berth. They upset No. 1 seed Dowling but were eliminated with consecutive losses to STAC and Bridgeport. This year they will have two of the best pitchers in the conference returning (Dan Jagiello and Baseball on the Island’s Cy Young winner Jake DeCarli) along with a terrific crop of incoming freshman–Dave Brehm, Division’s trio, Sal Geraci, Jimmy Mendyk, among others. It could be the type of class that leapfrogs them over Dowling.
Adelphi finished last year with a 20-21, before winning two games in the NE-10 conference tournament but getting eliminated by Stonehill College.
They graduated three real good relievers in Mike Cranston, Nick Batas and Ricky Van Allen, along with a terrific outfielder in Nick Zito and infielders Donato Signore and Vincent Sharkey.
Fortunately they will return their top two starters in Jonathon Mulford and T.J. Santiago along with every pitcher that started at least four games for them (Michael Ceparano, Michael Tarpey, Kyle Garrison, John Thompson).
The biggest difference maker will probably be the incoming freshmen. Between Mike Demarest, Brandon Morse, Danny Taggart, Brett Malm, Thomas Columbo and Jordan Milo, they experienced a huge program makeover. The NE-10 is uber-competitive, but they will certainly make some noise.
2. Has Hofstra closed the gap in the CAA and–possibly even on Stony Brook?
I think so. The most underrated acquisition of the offseason was their hiring of John Habyan as pitching coach. This was a collective unit that compiled a 6.93 ERA and opponent’s average of .306. Granted, much of that was due to three games in which they allowed 23, 21 and 19 runs but numbers do tell a part of the story.
They needed to make some improvements so they brought in a former Major League pitcher with 11-years of experience and 17 years experience as a Head Coach.
I think that with their collection of young arms–Adam Heidenfelder, Patrick Bryant, Alex Cosenza and incoming freshman Andrew Mundy, they will see improvements in leaps and bounds.
Who’s Going to Get Drafted?
I don’t think anyone could have guessed that 15 players with connections to Long Island could have been selected in 2015. Many of those players currently played out-of-state but grew up on Long Island.
That’s a whole lot. I would venture to say if there can be double-digits again it would be a great year.
From high school, there’s maybe two players that could be selected but a slew of prospects in college from Dan Jagiello, Cameron Stone and Jonathon Mulford on the mound to Jack Parenty, Johnny Caputo and Louis Mele at the plate.
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