The Mineola Pony Baseball Team, sponsored by the Sperry Federal Credit Union, opened their season last month at Macarthur High School in Levittown. The team opened against a team from Levittown, Seaford and Wantagh (LSW).
Bryan Carlucci got the opening day start and was brilliant. He struck out six and allowed one run on no hits. Mike Bavaro came in for middle relief and had a strong two innings, striking out three and allowing three runs on three hits. Kenny Solosky earned the save with a scoreless seventh inning to seal the Mineola victory.
The offense was led by Miguel Freitas who blasted the first Mineola home run of the season with a blast down the third base line. Freitas’ solo shot was the first run of the Mineola season. The following Mineola hitters netted a hit: Mike Bavaro, Kenny Solosky, Yusuf Mehghji, Andrew Khafif and Aidan McGuire.
The 2016 Mineola Pony Baseball Team, sponsored by Sperry Federal Credit Union is made up of the following players: Brandon Aguiar, Mike Bavaro, Alex Breitenstein, James Capodanno, Bryan Carlucci, Alexander Castiglia, Jason Franklin, Miguel Freitas, Andrew Khafif, Phil Lapierre, Brian Lendino-Nieves, Andrew Lewis, Aidan McGuire, Yusuf Meghji, Kevin Perlow, Andrew Sarnel, Christopher Scott, Kenneth Solosky and Zachary Wasnofski.
On Saturday, April 23, the Mineola team faced off against the East Meadow Yankees in a game that ended in a 14-14 tie. In what can only be described as an all-out slug fest, Mineola pounded out 14 hits by Mike Bavaro, Aidan McGuire, Kenny Solosky, Miguel Freitas, Brian Carlucci, Brian Lendino-Nieves and Alex Breitenstein. Bavaro led the attack with 5 hits and Carlucci and Solosky had extra base hits in the Mineola attack.
On Sunday, April 24, the team met the Bellerose Orioles at East Meadow in the first of a home and home series against each other. The Mineola pitching was led by Christian Duarte, RJ Hazelton and Patrick Solosky. Due to a couple of timely Bellerose hits, the Orioles plated eight runs against Mineola’s five runs for the victory.
Stellar defense by RJ Hazelton with a diving catch in center, Kenny Solosky with a backhand stop at third deep down the line, Andrew Sarnel with a spectacular diving stop at third and the subsequent throw from his knees, ended with a nice pick-up by Bryan Carlucci.
Mineola hitting was led by RJ Hazelton, Kenny Solosky, Bryan Carlucci, Yusuf Meghji, Miguel Freitas, Patrick Solosky and Andrew Sarnel.
The Mineola Pony Baseball Team avenged their Bellerose loss with a 16-7 victory on Thursday, April 28, taking the second game of the home and home series 16-7. Mineola, eager to avenge the loss to Bellerose earlier in the week, came out swinging the bats hard. In the bottom of the first, Mineola hitters led by Mike Bavaro, Kenny Solosky, Bryan Carlucci, Kevin Perlow, Bryan Landino and Aidan Mcguire scored eight runs on seven hits and set the tone for the game. Bryan Carlucci earned the complete game win, striking out 6 and allowing only 2 hits to Bellerose batters. Chris Scott smashed a double to left for one of his two RBI and both Alex Breitenstein and Zach Wasnofski scored two runs a piece in the Mineola offensive attack.
The Mineola defense supported Carlucci’s pitching with nice plays by Kenny Solosky, Mike Bavaro and Andrew Sarnel at first base. Sarnel made a few “pick-ups” from Mineola infielders and really shined making a stop of a hard grounder at first, straying well to his right and then flipping to Bryan Carlucci covering first for a major league caliber defensive play.
The Mineola Pony Baseball team plays in the East Meadow Junior League consisting of nine teams from Mineola, Levittown, East Meadow, Bethpage, Bellerose, Wantagh and Seaford. The team is managed by coaches Ken Solosky, John Strein and Butch Bavaro.
—Submitted by Mineola Pony Baseball
