The calendar has flipped to 2026 and it’s time to shift our focus to the upcoming baseball season.
Last year was another magical season filled with terrific County Championships and another 1st round draft pic but it is in the rearview mirror now.
Without further ado, here are the major storylines for 2026.
Who’s this year’s Michael Oliveto?
We’ve been spoiled the last few years with our top-tier players getting national recognition. First it was Josh Knoth, then it was Jayden Stroman & Michael Oliveto last year. Stroman’s strong commitment to attending college ultimately resulted in him not getting selected and he’s currently at Virginia. It’s easy to forget he was among the top two-way prep prospects in the country. Oliveto stole the show with his tremendous two-year run between his junior and senior seasons culminating in him getting selected 34th overall by the Detroit Tigers in the 2025 MLB Draft.
Stony Brook School 6, Salisbury 4
WP: Chris NellTrailing 4-3 with 2 outs in the 7th, Aiden Ruiz hit a bases clearing triple pic.twitter.com/UVpm4Ln52j
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 31, 2024
While we shouldn’t take it for granted, it does appear that we have another potential first round draft pick on Long Island in 2026. Stony Brook School SS Aiden Ruiz just utterly dominated at the U18 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan. He’s a helium prospect that is now getting mocked towards the back end of the first round.
Expect to hear a lot about the speedy Vanderbilt-commit this season.
We did a feature story about him which you can read here.
Who’s the Favorite in the CHSAA ?
There is no question that the CHSAA has the most parity/volume of talent on the island. Every team is sending multiple players off to play Division-I/II baseball every year and this year there will be a couple of potential draft picks.
We did lose one potential draft pick when the massive news hit that reigning CHSAA Player of the Year, Victor Acosta, transferred out of Holy Trinity and de-committed from St. John’s and moved to Georgia Premier Academy. That certainly negatively impacts Trinity, who were in the mix to compete for a championship.
Last year’s finals was absolute cinema.
Kellenberg captured their first title since the famous 2017 championship (against St. John the Baptist), with a walk-off single in the 10th inning by sophomore Andrew Noe to defeat Chaminade. They graduated their best pitcher, Jack Durso, but they are headlined by a powerful rotation headlined by Chris Parisi and Kevin Prosceo. Offensively, they return Noe as well as their unsung hero behind the dish, Michael Cotto, Adelphi-commits Jaden Valdez at first base and Richie LaVacca at short They have to be looked at as a serious title contender once again.
St. Dominic is interesting because while they did graduate a dominant ace like Luke Lang, they have probably the best group of 2027/2028s in the league. They return their whole lineup including Rhode Island-commit Ray Kim, Hofstra-commit Connor Ackerman, Dom Muccia (who may break the school’s all-time hits record), Christos Vangelatos, sophomore Dylan Weinstein, Tyler Camastro, Michael Scarry and Nick Vitale. The rotation will be headlined by Kim, Ackerman and either New Haven-commit Lucas Moseman or Kieran Dunn.
St. Anthony’s will, of course, be in the mix once again. They won the championship in 2024, breaking a 24 year drought, and will return a big-time rotation of West Virginia-commit Luke Coats, Stony Brook-commit Jacob Vaccariello, Iona-commit Mario Lazzinaro and Kean-commit Michael Clare. Anchoring the offense is West Virginia-commit CJ Alfano and Vaccariello.
The favorite entering the season, though, should be Chaminade. One coach in the league said, “they have the best pitching without a doubt.” They have a number of returners but also younger arms that were not on varsity last year that will have an immediate impact. Of the returners, they have Villanova-commit Chris Dimitrakakis, St. John’s-commit Andrew Caramico, Queens-commit Carlos Pereira, Jack Pfeifer and some talented youngsters like Christian Calabro and Joey Lionetti Jr. They have a slew of talented impact players led by Nolan Fernandez – who came up with the huge bases loaded hit to beat St. Dominic, Jake Madsen and Nick Sweeney.
Who’s the Favorite for the Gibson/Yaz/Diamond Awards?
This is hard to forecast most years – except for last year in Suffolk County in which the three highest profile players all won an award; Jayden Stroman, Michael Oliveto and Thomas Costarelli. In Nassau, it was the opposite as Wantagh’s Gavin Diegnan emerged to win the two-way Diamond Award and Farmingdale’s John Franco became their first ever recipient of the award. Thomas Harding, the flame-throwing southpaw from Massapequa captured the top pitcher in the county. The St. John’s-commit had entered the season with enough buzz that it wasn’t a huge surprise.
As for this year, here’s a few predictions:
Nassau Hitter of the Year: Jayden Gigante, Carey
Nassau Pitcher of the Year: Jaxson Torres, Plainedge or Joe Carey, Garden City
Two-Way Player of the Year: Derek or Ryan Yormack, Bellmore JFK (I know I took the easy way out).
Carl Yastrzemski Award: Jagger Adamo, Connetquot
Paul Gibson Award: Lucas Patton, East Islip
Blue Chip Silver Slugger: Mason Miles, East Hampton
Can Farmingdale State Repeat as Skyline Conference Champs?
There was a time that the Skyline Conference ran through Farmingdale, NY. From 2008-2014, the Rams won every single single – often running the table in the conference playoffs. Since then, there was a time when several different teams won, there was also a dynasty in Patchogue from 2022-2024.
Farmingdale broke that streak last season when they took down top-seeded USMMA in a thrilling championship game on Mother’s Day in Kings Point.
From last year’s team, they graduated 11 players; including the aforementioned Johnny Dougherty who was named Skyline Conference Pitcher of the Year for the second straight season. He had a 2.85 ERA over 60.0 innings in which he struck out 79 batters. His presence will certainly be missed atop the rotation. The Kings Park native pitched three seasons for the Rams after transferring from Queens College, he compiled a 2.39 ERA over 162 innings.
Some other notable graduates include Tyler DiRocco (Skyline Tournament MVP), Jordan Lambert (.376 AVG, .933 OPS), Chris McGuggart, Michael Camardi (4-0, 1.39 ERA), Roman Dorosh and Matt Flood (.305 AVG, .855 OPS). Lambert, Dougherty and Camardi were all first team All-Conference.
In terms of the returners, they have several impact players. Headlining that group is OF Richie Heyder, who was named 1st team All-Conference after batting .441 with 5 HRs and 35 RBIs. He led the team with an 1.170 OPS and was second with 34 runs scored over 40 games. The Sachem East grad will hit in the top three spots in the order and be a crucial part of their success.
They also return second team All-Conference SS Kaolis Delacruz. The Division grad had an outstanding season for the Rams, batting .376 with a 1.012 OPS over 40 games. He led the team with 40 runs scored and walks (21). The sophomore will be a steady presence at shortstop and atop the lineup.
Utility player Ryan Wasserman will be a critical piece they will get back after he suffered an injury in the first game of last season and missed the remainder of the year. The Kellenberg grad batted .403 with a team-leading 50 hits and 40 runs scored and was second team All-Conference in 2024.
They’ll have a steep challenge with St. Joseph’s LI reloaded after their three-year run but with a younger and athletic roster. We spoke to Coach Caputo back in October and he had the following to say:
“We were old for a while,” said Caputo. “We have 15 new faces.”
They brought in a handful of transfers; John Margolies (Hauppauge), Preston Gerena (Longwood), CJ Pisano (St. John the Baptist), Troy Moussette (Newfield), Tommy McMichael (St. Dominic) , Frankie Asaro (Wheatley). Margolies especially is a huge pickup, as he can step in and immediate play third base while also potentially pitching in relief – as he did for Hauppauge when they won the Long Island Championship in 2024.
It will be another exciting year of baseball in the Skyline Conference. It looks as if Farmingdale will enter with the inside track.
How long until Adelphi is back to competing for the NE-10 Title Under New HC Mike Gaffney?
The last time we saw Mike Gaffney coaching, he was leading LIU Post to their most successful season in program history – the last season prior to combining athletic programs with the Brooklyn campus.
He’s now back, at the helm for the Adelphi Panthers – where his father is a member of their Hall of Fame. He takes over for Bill Ianniciello who retired following the 2025 season.
The Panthers will return plenty of players from the 2025 team that went 20-26 (10-14 in NE-10 play), but they will have the challenge of replacing some tremendous players. All-American RHP Dawson Montesa authored one of the best pitching seasons in Adelphi’s illustrious history. He compiled an 8-1 record with a sparkling 1.99 ERA and a program-record 105 strikeouts. He broke the previous record set by Robert Nixon in 2011. Nixon was later selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 46th round of the MLB Draft. Montesa, who was just a sophomore, blossomed into one of the best Division-II pitchers in the country. Unfortunately, that made him a valuable commodity and he transferred to West Virginia following the season.
They also received terrific production from freshman Jack Tate. The Wantagh-native was named NE-10 Southwest Rookie Hitter of the Year and NE10 First Team All-Conference. He led the team in batting (.352), second in OPS (1.026), third in runs (28), third in hits (44), second in doubles (9), second in homers (7). He transferred to St. John’s University following the season.
Their most productive offensive performer was senior Joe Pellegrino. The Commack-native was a force since stepping into the lineup in 2023. He was named NE10 Southwest Player of the Year and was First Team All-Conference He led the team in homers (10), OPS (1.096), RBIs (42), doubles (15), BBs (28) and virtually every other significant category. He compiled a 15-game hit streak. Pellegrino finishes his career 7th in program history in HRs with 25.
They also graduated 4-year starting SS Jack Wishner (198 career hits), Greyson Pizzonia (.289 AVG, .846 OPS), Alex Rende (.303 career AVG), among others.
Offensively, they will certainly rely on their bat-to-ball skills. Gaffney noted that they do not return many home runs from last season and they will emphasize playing their brand of baseball which features putting pressure on the defense.
They do have plenty of upperclassmen with a track record.
The infield features returning players such as Albert Ramos who batted .299 last season following a tremendous .335 season the year before. He plays a stout defense and will be one of their key cogs in the lineup. The infield also features Giancarlo Rengifo. Our audience may be familiar with him for his outstanding 2024 season in which he helped lead Clarke to the Nassau County Class A Championship. He batted .290 as a freshman, and certainly looks the part of an impact player. They return 1B Justin Wilkinson as well.
They also return senior outfielder Johnny Catuosco, who deserves a ton of praise for returning from a devastating leg injury during summer ball in 2023, to play a full season in 2025 and bat .301. He will likely man LF. They return CF James Eden, who batted .276 over 36 games.
Pace captured the NE-10 Championship last season. Adelphi will be looking to win their first since 2011, although they’ve been back to the finals a couple times since. It could be a rebuilding/evaluation year for the Panthers, but with Gaffney’s track record – they should be back in the mix by 2027.
