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Babylon Enters Season as Back-to-Back Class B County Champs

Babylon Enters Season as Back-to-Back Class B County Champs

Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series

by Vin Messana

Babylon has quickly become one of the better small schools on Long Island. They made a run at perfect season in 2023 – right up until Game 2 of the Suffolk County Finals. They ultimately finished as the Class B Long Island Champs with a thrilling win over Seaford at St. Joseph’s University. They followed that up with another Suffolk County Championship last year – although they did lose to Wheatley, 3-1, in the Long Island Championship at Farmingdale State College.

Unfortunately for Babylon, in addition to losing the game, Coach Michael Birnbaum noted that their ace starting pitcher, Aidan Kistner, suffered an injury to his UCL that day and he will not be pitching in 2025. He was outstanding on both sides of the ball last year, batting .486 with 2 HRs, 18 RBIs, 26 runs scored and a 1.272 OPS. On the mound, he went 6-2 with a 1.89 ERA and 67 strikeouts over 48 innings.

He will likely DH for the Panthers this season, but his impact on the mound will be missed.

SS Johnny Harkins is back for his senior season as well. He recently committed to Queens College and was named All-County last year.

“He’s a special kid that flies under-the-radar. He will be a four-year starter for us,” said Birnbaum. “He played behind Cristino Tufano in 2023 and learned a lot from him. He is automatic at shortstop. Last year, his arm was a weakness – or something we wanted him to work on. He was 83 across the diamond and now he’s up to 90.”

Harkins had a great season for the Panthers. He batted .411 with a 1.193 OPS, drove in 18 runs, scored 18 runs and was successful on all 31 of his stolen base attempts. For his career, he has been successful on 59-of-61 attempts.

Those two were the anchor for the offense last year and will be once again this year. They graduated only one senior from last year’s team.

Behind the dish, they will have Eastern College-commit Gio Rodriguez.

“He’s a really sound baseball player,” said Birnbaum. “Very good defensive catcher and he hits the ball hard.” He also had a great offensive season for the Panthers, batting .415 with a 1.080 OPS batting in the 3-hole most of the season.

He will be tasked with handling a talented pitching staff of Jake Ostertag, Gavin McDonnell, Joe Cavallo and James Rugolo.

Ostertag, who we featured as part of our “Up Next” series, is an exciting player. He is a corner outfielder and pitcher. Last season, Birnbaum noted they protected him on the mound, throwing only 10.2 innings but he struck out 13 batters with a 2.65 ERA. This year, “the shackles will be off” and he will be a starting pitcher. The sophomore’s fastball has been up to 88 MPH.

“The ball comes out of his hand easy. He should be up to 90 very soon. We don’t like to put expectations on kids but he should be a very high ceiling kid.”

At the plate, he is impressive as well. He batted .329 with 2 HRs. 18 RBIs, 14 runs scored and a strong .868 OPS. He saved his best when it mattered most, going 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs in the County Championship.

Joe Cavallo is committed to SUNY Old Westbury and is the rare switch-pitcher. He has a double flap glove to allow him to switch mid inning. Birnbaum stated that his fastball is up to 86 MPH and he also is a lefty hitter with some pop, he has two homers last year.

Gavin McDonnell was outstanding last season for the Panthers. He pitched 36.1 innings and struck out 36 batters with a sub 2.00 ERA. Birnbaum noted that he allowed no earned run from early April until his outing in the County Finals.

“He doesn’t throw hard. He pumps the strike zone and just hits his spots. He really bought into letting his defense work.”

Charlie Murphy, who is a catcher and outfielder, batted around .400 last season. He is “a good athlete and will be a part of the lineup.”

Junior Owen Killeen suffered a freak elbow injury last year and missed the season. Birnbaum stated that “he has nasty stuff, he throws in the low 80s with a good splitter.”

Senior 1B Tobin Gold “loves the game and is a vacuum at first. He makes it easy on our infielders.”

Last but not least, coach mentioned Brett Coffey is a “student of the game, a lefty bat and a change of speed pitcher.”

He noted that they have a few underclassmen that will be vying for roles on the team as well.

They will be competing in League VII with Mattituck, Pierson, Port Jeff, Bayport-Blue Point, Center Moriches, John Glenn and Southampton. It will be a challenge to face some of those teams but Birnbaum stated, “I like this better. When you play Class C and Class D teams, those can be tough for different reasons.” It is a split league, with Pierson, Port Jeff and Mattituck as the other Class B teams.

Coming off back-to-back championships, one would think that a group of young players could become complacent. That is not a concern for Birnbaum, who had the following to say:

“They have an incredible work ethic. We’re constantly competing with each other. Guys are chomping at our annual inter squad we have Thursday and Friday of first week of the season. But the biggest this is we all believe we’ve underperformed. We want to end the season with no games left to win.”

The Panthers will begin their quest for a three-peat against Mattituck on March 31.

 

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Vinny is the President of Axcess Baseball. He is a 2013 graduate of Adelphi University and he is currently the Long Island area scout for the San Diego Padres

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