Suffolk CC-Brentwood back in World Series
Before the season, coach Bobby Molinaro expected his Suffolk CC-Brentwood baseball team to make its third consecutive trip to Texas for the Junior College World Series, which it will play in this weekend.
But a rash of injuries - notably a season-ending hand injury to Sean Connochie, last year's team MVP - and a late-season slump left another Region XV title and a trip to the national tournament in serious jeopardy.
"We were pretty hot during the year, but it almost seemed like guys felt we were invincible, got too relaxed, and we started to lose a little bit toward the end of the season," Molinaro said Wednesday.
So what changed?
"Our second-year players had a closed-door meeting, and basically questioned everyone's determination," Molinaro said.
The message sent during that gathering evidently provided the motivation the Longhorns (32-13) needed. They won their third straight Region XV championship Monday with a 12-9 win over Suffolk CC-Selden to qualify for the NJCAA World Series in Tyler, Texas.
Suffolk CC-Brentwood will play defending national champion Joliet (Ill.), which is 39-14, in the first round of the eight-team, double-elimination tournament at noon Saturday. The Longhorns will face Richland (Texas) or Riverland (Minn.) in their next game Sunday.
Sophomore John Mincone leads Suffolk's pitching staff. The lefthander from Half Hollow Hills East, whose previous stop was James Madison, is 6-1 with a 0.91 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 59 innings.
Mincone pitched a complete game Friday against Nassau CC and came back on two days' rest to earn a two-inning save in the regional title-clincher against Suffolk CC-Selden. Molinaro said Mincone is likely to be selected in the upcoming major-league draft.
Suffolk also features sophomore centerfielder Giovanni Jimenez (Brentwood), who is hitting .460 and was an All-American last year, and sophomore catcher Joe Tebaldi (Seaford), who hit three home runs in the four-game regional tournament. Tebaldi hit only four homers during the regular season, when he was hampered by a back injury at the end of the year.
Another problem was the shoulder tendinitis that kept No. 2 pitcher Eric Stampfl (St. John the Baptist) out 3-4 weeks.
"When I first saw [the players] I had coming in, I was pretty confident," we would make it back to the World Series, Molinaro said, "but of course, things happened during the year, injuries and what not, then you start to question."
Not anymore.
