This is the first installment of our Fall Ball Series Presented by The Greene Turtle in which we visit the local colleges and provide an in-depth, inside look at how their 2019 teams will look featuring photos, videos and interviews with players and coaches. First up is NYIT with their first-year Head Coach and 14-year MLB veteran Frank Catalanotto.
It is impossible to ignore the change in culture at NYIT under 14-year Major League veteran Frank Catalanotto.
Coming off a disappointing 13-win season during their first year competing at Division-II level, the Bears decided to start fresh with an entirely new-look coaching staff beginning with one of the best Major League baseball players to come from Long Island.
Catalanotto, 44, batted .291 over 4,292 at bats and certainly brings an incredible wealth of knowledge, experience and credibility to a program that has been yearning to regain their glory years of the 1980s under legendary Head Coach Bob Hirschfield.
The Smithtown grad brought in Jimmy Goelz, Chris Rojas and Ray Giannelli to round out his coaching staff. The early impressions are that the decision to bring in Catalanotto was a terrific one, with one player citing the structure of practices and intensity of the players as a significant difference from previous years.
The obvious impact of Catalanotto’s pedigree has already helped in their recruiting as they have received verbal commitments from some of the top talent in the 2019 class notably Justin Bestler (Mineola), Nick Burke (North Babylon), Frankie DiMartino (St. Dominic) and Mike LaDonna (West Islip).
“When I can boast that we have almost 50 years of professional baseball experience on this staff, that helps quite a bit,” said Catalanotto in regards to their newfound recruiting leverage. “This whole staff wants to change the landscape here,” he added.
From a roster standpoint, they brought in a couple of high-profile additions starting with Division-I transfer John LaRocca (St. Dominic 2016, Monmouth University) and a SS that played four years of professional baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays, Andrew Florides.
They are returning a few position players that will be counted on to provide offense. Infielder Joey Fusco led the team in hitting at .339 and will be looking to duplicate that success. Catcher Ryan Kuskowski, OFs Brendan Dowd, Zach Kleinwaks and E.J. Cumbo, 1B Jake Lebel and SS/2B Ben McNeill (led team in hits with 50).They did lose Dominic Paolo (.308 AVG), who transferred to nearby Adelphi University.
The strength of the team will be in the defense up the middle with the aforementioned McNeill (whom Catalanotto compared to a young version of Michael Young), Florides (highly-regarded for his defensive prowess) and CF Cumbo. The latter of which received a medical redshirt for a hamstring injury he suffered early in the season. When healthy, Cumbo is arguably their best all-around player considering his .537 career AVG at Clarke HS over a four-year stretch.
The pitching staff will see a virtual face lift, having lost their ace, Alex Passarella, who was in a two-year program at NYIT and their closer, Brandon Alberto, who had Tommy John surgery in July and will be out for the entire season but aiming to rejoin the team for his 5th year in 2020. They also graduated Mike Sinnott and Chris Miller, which means opportunities for everyone on the staff.
The biggest additions to the staff, in my opinion, is between freshman LHP Joe Keller (MacArthur) and freshman RHP Matt Carey(Oceanside). Both have the ability to have an immediate impact and potentially land rotation spots, or high-leverage spots in the bullpen. Carey touches 92 MPH with his heater, while Keller relies on his command. Another addition is redshirt freshman Matt Boyko. After a standout career at Clarke HS, the southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery and missed 2018. The 6’3″ LHP could also see plenty of action out of the bullpen. They will be looking for Shoreham-Wading River product Zach White to build on last year’s season in which he provided 31.0 IP of a 4.06 ERA. Chris Mott threw only 11 IP, but has the ceiling of a top-of-the-rotation starter after pitching very well in the Hamptons League this summer.
Needless to say, they will be utilizing the fall games to establish the roles for the 2019 season.
Despite the massive upgrades across the roster, Catalanotto remains modest in his expectations for the upcoming season.
“I think if we can get to .500, think that would be a good goal and good way to use that as stepping stone for the next season. We are working hard to get better every single day, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. We need to get some more talent, some better talent on this team and we will do that in the coming years.”
If one thing is for certain; expect the offense to see a significant boost from the coaching of the third best position player to come from Long Island behind Carl Yastrzemski and Craig Biggio.
