Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK's Dylan Banner wins Diamond Award after dominant season on mound
Dylan Banner of Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK poses for a portrait after winning the Nassau County Diamond Award for pitchers at the Long Island Marriott in Uniondale on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Credit: James Escher
He stands 6-4 and that is imposing. He throws his four-seam fastball in the 88-90 mph range and that can be intimidating. His tight slider has a wicked break and that can be deceiving.
However that thing that concerns opponents when they see Dylan Banner on the pitcher’s mound is the silence. The Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK ace has a way of quieting the most powerful of lineups when he is on the bump. In five Nassau AA-II starts during 2022, the righthander allowed four infield hits, no runs and only one opposing baserunner reached third base. In those five games, Banner was 5-0 and registered 68 strikeouts in 31 innings.
He didn’t miss a beat when the competition grew tougher in the postseason. There, he made two starts and went 1-0 with a no-decision, posted a 1.98 ERA and fanned 26 in 13 2/3 innings of work.
His aggregate totals for the season — including a non-league win over Long Island Lutheran — put him at 7-0 in nine starts with a 0.73 ERA across 47 2/3 innings with 101 strikeouts. Banner had a pair of no-hitters and a pair of one-hitters.
“Every time he stepped on the mound, you had to think ‘what’s he going to do to amaze us today?’ ” Hawks coach John Givargidze said. “He throws with great velocity, but his accuracy all around the strike zone might be even more impressive . . . He not only misses bats, but he can paint it.”
The Nassau Baseball Coaches Association Awards Dinner was held Wednesday night at the Marriott in Uniondale and Banner received the 2022 Diamond Award Pitcher of the Year, given annually to the county’s most outstanding hurler.
“He was dominating all season,” Givargidze said. “He had 10 or more strikeouts in every game but one.”
Banner is the second player from Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK to win a Diamond Award, joining 2017 pitcher Mark Faello.
Banner played both corner infield spots when he did not pitch and also was a feared hitter for the Hawks (18-3). He had a .475 batting average with seven home runs, 34 RBI and 28 runs in 21 games. His OPS was a whopping 1.519.
“Watching his bat was as cool as it gets,” Givargidze said. “When ever he came up there was this anticipation in the air that you could feel in our dugout and through the stands and maybe a kind of anxiety for the other team. He didn’t strike out much and when he connected it was almost always hit hard.”
Banner’s next stop is the SUNY-Albany where the expectation is that he will begin his freshman season as both a pitcher and a position player.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
