Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series
by Vin Messana
A balk-off 😳
Kings Park wins on a walk-off balk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th to capture the Class A Long Island Championship, 3-2, against Clarke pic.twitter.com/QaNltVVMxy
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2024
It was as bizarre of an ending to a Long Island Championship game as there’s ever been. In the bottom of the 9th, Clarke’s pitcher, Jaret Sarrantonio, was called for a balk which allowed Kings Park to score the winning run and send their fans into a state of euphoria.
On the other side of that was Clarke, one of the best programs on Long Island, having one of their best seasons in their history. They battled Hunter Colagrande, the eventual Carl Yastrzemski Award winner, and made it a battle of the bullpens before losing the heartbreaker, 3-2.
Longtime coach Tom Abruscato, who was unsurprisingly upset with the call, has now had an offseason to think about it and he had the following to say:
“I’ll be honest, aside from Jim Joyce’s call (Armando Galarraga’s near perfect game in 2010), it was probably the worst call in baseball history. At least he apologized. I’ve never seen a worse call to end a game. But an apology goes a long way. The Section XI coordinator reached out after the game and gave a nice apology. I told my guys, everyone makes mistakes – just own up to it. But yeah, it leaves a bad taste in our mouths to lose a game like that. Everyone that was there said it was probably one of the best, most back-and-forth, competitive games and we faced one of the best pitchers in the state. But there’s no 2 of 3. Once you get past the County Finals, and that’s the hardest part in my opinion, anything can happen. The loss won’t be something we harp on, but I’d rather lose on a walk-off hit than having it come down to that.”
Tom Abruscato has led the Clarke Rams to 513 wins over his head coaching tenure which dates back to 1999. They’ve won 23 conference titles during that time. Clarke has had remarkable continuity as well – they’ve had only 3 coaches since 1959!
Last year’s team compiled an overall record of 22-5 and defeated Wantagh in a thrilling best-of-three series at Farmingdale State College.
They graduated only 3 seniors, but they were all impact players and are all playing in college.
Top 9: Giancarlo Rengifo comes through with a momentous RBI double to center field to score Alex Frank and Clarke takes a 2-1 lead pic.twitter.com/uzJ5ZtWNFB
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2024
Giancarlo Rengifo was named the Conference MVP. The Adelphi freshman batted .447 with 6 HRs and 29 RBIs. He made his presence known in the LIC with some terrific at bats including the go-ahead RBI double in the top of the 9th.
Nick Berasti was a four-year varsity player who was All-State last season. He was dominant in the playoffs, where he pitched a complete game on two days rest to capture the County Championship and he matched Colagrande pitch-for-pitch in the LIC. He is now pitching at St. Thomas Aquinas. Sarrantonio was a key cog in their pitching staff for the past two seasons and won plenty of big games.
Top 6: Wantagh 0 | Clarke 5
Nick Berasti works out of a bases loaded, one out jam.
His line so far:
6 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 5 K, 1 BB, 87 pitches pic.twitter.com/XscLWqZs1v
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2024
“They all did a great job for us,” said Abruscato. “We take pride in replacing great players and there’s been a bunch of them. We have to try to do that again. There were not many seniors but they were big time leaders. I think we’ll have the leaders once again.”
They have only two seniors this year, but they are both terrific players.
Behind the dish, they have A.J. Cumbo – the last of the three brothers to don the Rams jersey. He batted .431 with 4 HRs and 26 RBIs. Abruscato noted that “he was signed day one to STAC.”
At third base is Queens-commit Dylan Vikara. He batted .430 with 4 HRs and 40 RBIs – which is close to a program record. The late Mike Appell owns that record with 49 which was set during his Diamond Award winning season of 2006. Vikara will also help out on the mound in addition to being a middle-of-the-order run producer.
Congratulations to Clarke’s Dylan Vikara on being the recipient of the Axcess Baseball x BK7 Brand Player of the Week. The junior infielder went 8-for-12 with 2 HRs, 15 RBIs and 6 runs scored pic.twitter.com/CmKR0fzOZb
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 14, 2024
It is very unusual for Clarke to have such a small class, but Abruscato noted that they have a very large and talented junior class and the grades below that are as well.
Leading the way from their junior class is Matty Kurz. He batted .421 as a sophomore. He will pitch and play CF.
“He’ a big kid, he grew a lot recently, he’s about 6’2. He’s also the QB on the football team. He was 85-86 MPH the other day during our workout,” said Abruscato.
They also have junior Mike Iadevaia, who batted .371 last season as a sophomore. He will pitch as well.
Richard Luke will be an impact pitcher for them. He pitched in the elimination game against Wantagh and fired a shutout in relief after coming in the game in the first inning with no outs.
James Beckworth is a RHP/SS that will have a significant role on the team. Coach also mentioned James Millman, Grady Rick, Craig Weydig and Brady Giannico as other players that he expects to contribute.
Abruscato stated that at least entering the season, their biggest question mark is their pitching staff since Berasti was such a workhorse for them. But they do return Luke, Beckworth and Vikara who all pitched last year.
He noted that his coaching staff is all former players of his at Clarke – Mike Meittinis (varsity assistant), Bryan Landini, Joe Barracato and Jesse Russo. That’s a big component of the Clarke baseball family, the players tend to want to stick around and give back to the program’s next generation of players. It’s allowed a relatively small district to continue to win at such a prodigious rate.
They’ll have a bye week to start the season. Their first game will be a non-league matchup against Long Island Lutheran and they’ll open up league play on April 8 against Valley Stream South.
