Baseball Notebook: Yorktown, Lakeland Impressive in Season Openers, Huskers Drub Put Valley, 6-1; Hornets Shut Down Carmel, 6-0

The bulls-eye will be on the backs of reigning NYS champions: Class AA Mamaroneck and Class A Byram Hills, as well as Section 1 titlists Class B Albertus Magnus and Class C Tuckahoe. And after a down year in this neck of the woods in 2015, we might have some contenders to the throne in 2016.

So there’s a chance that YORKTOWN High could be a player on the Class AA diamond this spring, if the Huskers’ top pitchers stay healthy and Coach Sean Kennedy can find a viable backstop to catch them. The pitching duo of Jimmy Sharkey and Jack Kelly looked lethal in last Thursday’s 6-1 win over Class B host Putnam Valley when they combined to send 16 Tigers in search of bench via K-Way, an unpleasant yet oft-traveled route for PV.

“They will be as good a 1-2 pitching duo as anyone has and we have some depth behind them,” Kennedy said.

While the Tigers were picking splinters, the Huskers (13-8 last year) were doing damage behind Joe Veca, who went 2-for-5 with four RBI. It was the kind of outing Coach Kennedy had hoped to see more of while Yorktown was doing sub-par work in Florida. Yorktown saw its top of the order do its job, setting a mean table for the heart of the order. Leadoff hitter Jake Bichler scored two runs off a hit and a walk, and two-hitter Matt Boccia singled, walked twice and scored twice. Tanner Dyslin had a hit and a ribbie for the Huskers (1-0), who will rely on those guys as Yorktown seeks its first sectional title since 1995.

“I’ll be honest; the coaching staff didn’t love what we saw in Florida,” Kennedy said. “Before we left we thought we had a team that could compete in AA, but we didn’t put our best foot forward down south. We’re hoping our pitchers can carry us to a big year because we think we have some talent here.”

PUTNAM VALLEY (0-1) thought it had some talent, too, but contact is essential and Coach Joe Natalie’s youthful Tigers struggled to put the ball in play. Mike Dellabate generated a 1-0 lead in the second with a walk, two steals and a run, but both Sharkey and Kelly were practically unhittable after that; even shutting down PV’s 3-4 hitters OF Zach Girvalo and Dellabate, who were held hitless, as the Tigers struck for just two hits, including an RBI single from losing P John Rainieri. Sharkey worked four innings, allowing two hits, three walks and a run while fanning nine. Kelly worked the final three frames, allowing just two walks. He whiffed seven and walked two.

One bright spot for the Class B semifinalists Tigers was the two-1/3^rd impressive innings chucked by freshmen P John Millicker, who did not allow a run. Girvalo, Dellabate, Jake Reyes and Charlie Pagani provide solid senior leadership for the Tigers (15-7-1), but they may lack the arms to make a legit run at the elusive Class B flag.

LAKELAND opened its 2016 campaign with an impressive 6-0 rout of Carmel last Saturday. The Hornets (14-8 last season) look like they mean business this season as they are rich in pitching with senior hurlers Rick Burroni, Kyle Peterson (upon his return to the lineup) and Richie Vetrano chucking pure gas at opposing hitters this season. That is a downright dirty trio.

Vetrano was all over Carmel, posting a one-hit shutout and essentially telling everyone the Hornets are in it to win it this year. Vetrano had some early issues but was filthy throughout.

“I was struggling a little in the beginning,” the Manhattanville-bound chucker admitted, “but after the second I settled down and was able to throw my fastball for strikes consistently and mixed in the curve every once in a while. We’re feeling really good after this first W. Hopefully, there’s more to come.”

He got all the support he would need from Northeastern-bound OF Burroni (3-3, sac fly, 2 RBI), 2B James Houlahan (3-4) and versatile IF/P Matt O’Dair (2-4, 2 RBI), who are all expected to be major contributors this season, as is Patrick Morelli (P/1B).

Second-year, no-nonsense Coach Bill Casey could be looking at a serious contender with seniors, speedy OF Dom Dellicurti (aka, the famous Dom Delirious) and SS Trevor McCarthy (a three-sport standout), anchoring the defense for the current League I-B champions, who earned the No. 5 seed in the Section 1 Class A tournament last year before falling in the quarterfinals.

After being eliminated by John Jay last year, we get the feeling this Lakeland unit could make a legit run at a Class A flag, what would be the fourth in program history and the first since Richmond-bound P John de Marte and Co. did so back in 2010.

“Lakeland can swing it, they’ve got some very nice bats,” Carmel boss Ryan Dall admitted.

MAHOPAC (13-7) was set to open against Put Valley on Saturday but Mother Nature failed to cooperate, and she’s expected to have an impact on the rest of the opening week as temps were expected to drop significantly. Coach Chris Miller’s Class AA Indians have senior leaders but very little experience, as most of the seniors did not see a lot of time as juniors. Eight key players graduate, including two All-Section players, ace Cal Lawrence and Joe Fichera.

Senior All-League C Greg Cavaliere will lead the team and senior pitchers Brendan White and Anthony Mirditaj will backbone the staff. Rangy junior SS Pat McGee is not your prototypical middle IF but he can pick it and stroke it just the same.

“Brendan will be one of our top two pitchers,” Mahopac skipper Chris Miller said. “He has made great strides over the past two years and I really excited to see him go this year. Anthony will be the other top pitcher we have. He has put in a ton of work over the past year and he is seeing the benefits this spring. He should have a really good senior year. Cavaliere is our all-around best player. He does a great job behind the player making sure our defenses are in the right position and handling the pitchers. He will hit third in our order and he gives us a legitimate bat in the middle of the lineup.”

CARMEL (9-13) did not impress in its season opener for second-year Coach Ryan Dall, but it’s a long season and the Rams have time to turn it around and make their annual proressions through Class AA. After losing in the opening round of sectionals to Mamaroneck last season, the Rams return some key players this season, including seniors 1B Sammy Ferranto, P/3B Chris Palmiero, P/RF Tyler McMath and C/P Chris Dietz.

“Palmiero and McMath will give us a solid 1-2 combination to start our rotation and we have some younger pitchers looking to contribute and hopefully fill in as a third starter for us,” Dall said. “Our lineup will need to do a better job with two strikes this year to be successful. Defensively, we should have a strong middle and we look to improve on our late inning defense that really struggled last year. We are looking forward to the start of the season and seeing how this team has progressed from last year. We have some good senior leadership and look forward to getting some solid contributions from some newcomers.”

SOMERS ran in to Byram Hills, the reigning Class A champs, in the playoffs last year and saw just what it takes to play at this level in a 10-0 playoff loss, so, behind seniors C Nick Trujillo, P/3B Paul Franzese, 2B Chris Swee and 1B Frank Bele, the Tuskers got busy in the off-season and bought in to Coach Joe Wootten’s program. Two juniors to watch closely are SS Matt Pires and CF Marc Maestri, who anchor the middle of the defense. It all boils down to pitching and defense and, after a season with some defensive issues, that remains a question mark at Somers. Maestri is the ace of the staff and senior Rich Frommelt is the current No.2. Somers gets a strong test right out of the gate against Class B heavyweight North Salem on April 5^th.

“Pitching, pitching and more pitching will be the key,” Wootten said. “We have lefty Marc Maestri coming back on the bump. We are projecting him to get the ball once a week and give us a shot to win. He controls the zone with a variety of pitches and works very well in rhythm. We need to create runs with the combination of SS Matt Pires and 2B Kris Swee. These two need to be on-base monsters. We hope to have 3B Paul Franzese, C Nick Trujillo, and 1B Frank Bele driving them in.”

PANAS (12-10 last year) lost a lot to graduation but 16^th-year Coach Anthony Fata has a couple of youngsters worth mention, including three beefy sophomores in young John Young (C/OF), Peter Andersen (1B/P) and Frank Bukovsky (3B), plus another soph Jake Jempty. They wouldn’t be up on the varsity if they didn’t have talent. Senior Greg Karales hit .357 last year in 12 games and should see a boost this year. Dirty junior P Brian Dinnen hit nearly .300 as a sophomore, and pitched to the tune of a 0.32 ERA over 21 IP, He should anchor the staff this season with Tim Feliz and Nick Cona.

BREWSTER opened its season with an impressive 13-5 season-opening win over Lourdes. Bear Matt Catalano completed the tricky part of a cycle but failed to single as he homered, tripled and doubled to lead a 13-hit attack to support winning P Nathan Beal, who worked 5-2/3 innings and gave up just one earned run for the win.

HEN HUD posted a 6-3 win over Arlington B behind ace Matthew “Boomer” Vigliotti, who chucked a six-hitter with three K’s. Joe Grullon (3 RBI, run), Jack Attinelly (2 hits, 2 RBI, run) and Jack Kelly (2 hits, RBI, run) led the Sailor attack.

HALDANE has a real nice battery in place when ace Brian Haines chucks to backstop Aidan Siegel. Pitchers Ryan Duffy, Nick Chiera, Siegel, Kyle Kenny and Anthony Sinchi give Coach Tom Virgadamo substantial depth on the hill as the Blue Devils look to get back to the mountaintop after a sub-par 2015 season, which put an end to the Blue Devils’ reign as three-time defending champions (2012-14).

CROTON returns a good chunk of its lineup after a 16-6 season under fifth-year Coach Eric Rosen. All-Section HM P Scott Giordano anchors the staff while All-Leaguers Mike Matalavage (P/1B/OF) and Chris Colombo (P/INF) back him up. That staff alone should be enough to contend in a tough league against Valhalla, Briarcliff, Westlake and Pleasantville.