Long Beach baseball has clawed its way through a brutal field in Nassau Conference AA-1 to lock up a playoff berth with three games remaining. With at least six starting sophomores in any given game, coach Jason Zizza said the Marines have had to develop a \u201cwin now\u201d mindset ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re young this year, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t win baseball games,\u201d Zizza said. \u201cThat doesn’t mean we can’t make a run in the playoffs. That just means that we’re getting our experience, not only for this year, but the next two years. It\u2019s going to be a whole lot of fun. We feel like we can really compete and do something special.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Elmont bowing out of conference play, Long Beach had a bye week in late April and will earn three victories toward its record. The wins will help to negate a decisive sweep the Mariners suffered at the hands of Calhoun, leaving them with a 6-6 conference record and playoff berth ahead of a series against Bellmore JFK.<\/p>\n
Much of Long Beach\u2019s success has come down to pitching, with senior Nathan Hall leading a starting rotation that also includes sophomores Logan Wien and Tyler Donohue. On April 8, Hall threw five innings and allowed two earned runs in a 10-6 victory over South Side, Long Beach\u2019s first league win of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe goes out there and competes,\u201d Zizza said. \u201cHe also leads the younger guys as a senior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wien and Donohue have had their moments to shine as well, stepping up in an all-important series against New Hyde Park. After dropping the first game 4-1, Donohue started the second on April 15 and allowed three hits and one earned run in a 10-3 victory. The following day, Wien struck out 11 batters in a similarly decisive 13-3 rout.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe works fast, great tempo, throws a ton of strikes,\u201d Zizza said of Wien. \u201cHe keeps hitters off balance. He\u2019s well-conditioned and he gives us a chance to win whenever he steps on the mound.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zizza said his players knew the series against New Hyde Park would likely have massive playoff implications. Coming through with two sophomore pitchers and plenty of runs was a momentous result that could reverberate through the program for years.<\/p>\n
Left-handed sophomore Kellen DeSantis has also had opportunities to pitch, notably earning a win over East Rockaway early in the year. He battled in a 12-8 loss to Calhoun, the closest game of that series.<\/p>\n
Long Beach\u2019s offense runs through a tight core of hitters, as junior Ryden Nafte and senior Joe Lordi often set the table for Jesse Stadtman, a junior who has led the Marines at the plate all year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll three of them are top-of-the-order guys that usually hit one, two and three,\u201d Zizza said. \u201cThey are very tough outs. They battle through at-bats, they put the ball in play. They’re all hitting near or over .400.\u201d<\/p>\n
Communication has been a massive factor for Zizza, who constantly stresses to his younger players that this is not the end, nor does it have to be a quiet beginning. Despite their relative youth, the Marines are strong enough to contend now. A deep playoff run can only mean more preparation for one of the county\u2019s most dangerous contenders moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach baseball has clawed its way through a brutal field in Nassau Conference AA-1 to lock up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-304236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}