Dominant pitching key to
redemption from playoff elimination
The Garden City varsity baseball team’s season is underway and Coach Rich Smith is looking forward to another run at the playoffs as they come off of last season’s tough second round playoff loss.
Last year’s playoff team that went 12-5 opened eyes around the high school diamonds and will lead to higher expectations out of this year’s quad.
The team is made up of 12 seniors and will be looking toward the pitching staff to keep them in games and the bats to produce the key hits to win those games. The team will be challenged this year by conference foes Wantagh, North Shore and New Hyde Park.
Seniors Kyle Ritchie and Cory Fallon, who along with junior David Butler will anchor the front end of the rotation, will lead the pitching staff. The Trojans also know that you cannot ever have too much pitching and will be relying on juniors Lorusso, Rodgers, and Nick Sampogne, as well as Seniors Ostermann, Famiglietti and Capozzi to deliver quality innings over the course of the season.
And when the team is in the batters box, Smith will be looking for Tom Zwicke, Ritchie, Fallon, Andrew LoBasso and Matteo Lattanzio to lead the team. With the right mix of speed, power and contact, the Trojans should be able to keep the pressure on their opponents. In an early season victory over Hewlett both Fallon and Ritchie went deep to help light up the scoreboard and propel the team to a victory.
As is typical with a team built on pitching, the Trojans will also boast a defense that has the speed and confidence to cover a lot of ground and make the tight plays. The infield defense will be anchored by shortstop Lattanzio, while the speedy LoBasso will be roaming the outfield.
