April 8, 2010
Dexter making a mark on NE landscape
by Kevin Henkin/
Maryland-bound Tim Kiene will lead Avon Old Farms this season.
The Dexter School in Brookline, Mass., has a long history, but baseball wasn’t a part of it until last spring. Although Dexter was founded in 1926, the school didn’t extend to the 12th grade until 2002 and didn’t form a baseball program until a few years after that. The upstart nature of the program, however, hasn’t stopped Dexter from making an instant impression on the prep school baseball landscape in New England.
Last year, in the team’s first full season as a varsity squad, Dexter played 15 games, mostly against teams from the vaunted Independent School League. The team won 14 of them.
Many of those wins were against ISL powerhouses including Buckingham Browne & Nichols, Thayer Academyand Lawrence Academy.
The secret to the success of the Dexter team — which is no longer a secret — starts with head coach Dan Donato. He’s the younger brother of Ted Donato, the former Boston Bruins defenseman and current coach of Harvard’s hockey team, but Dan Donato’s resume stands out on his own.
Donato was a star baseball and hockey player at Catholic Memorial, Loomis Chaffee and Boston University. He later spent four years playing in the minor leagues for the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In 2000, he landed at Salisbury School in Connecticut, where he coached hockey and baseball. He racked up wins and accolades there for the next seven years before accepting the challenge of starting up the baseball and hockey programs at Dexter.
Now entering his third year with Dexter, Donato has accumulated a loaded roster and taught his players to believe they can beat any team that comes their way.
Donato admits that his team may have caught several opponents by surprise in 2009: “I think a few teams took us a little bit lightly last year thinking ‘Oh, they’re not going to be great.’ We’re an independent, but we play an ISL schedule so I think this year we’ll see better pitchers from some of those teams that thought that ‘Hey, it’s a non-league game, it doesn’t really matter.’ ”
Looking ahead, Donato said: “We feel really good about the upcoming season. It all starts on the mound and we’ve got three guys that we’re pretty excited about handing the ball to. The first one is John Magliozzi [Milton, Mass.], a junior for us who is committed to the Universityof Florida. He’s a special kid who throws hard. Last year he topped out at 93 but has two secondary pitches as well; a great changeup and a breaking ball as well.”
“Then there’s Barrett O’Neill, another junior who’s committed to the Universityof Virginia. He throws in the low 90s and he’ll be exciting. Our third guy is Nick Malatos, a 6-3 lefty whose velocity continues to go up. He pounds the strike zone and keeps you on your feet as a defensive team. With those three, we like our chances going into most games.”
Offensively, Dexter will rely on the bat of O’Neill along with standout center fielder Evan Shifley, third baseman Kevin Green (Kingston, Mass.) and Pat Curtis, who transferred to Dexter after starring for Ashland High School last year.
Donato said he also feels good about younger players in the school that will be fed into the program soon enough.
“We had a bunch of kids come in this year, ninth-graders that are really fired up about baseball, so I like the future of the program. It looks pretty bright.”
Independent School League
At BB&N, winning isn’t just something the Knights aspire to. It’s become a habit.
Over the past two years, the Knights have compiled a 25-5 record against ISL opponents, and four of those losses were by only one run. Last year, BB&N (19-4) finished as co-champion of the league along with ThayerAcademy. This year, the Knights would like the crown all to themselves, and they appear to have the goods to get there.
“We’ve got a lot of talent back this year,” coach Rick Foresteire said. “We especially have some very talented arms with the return of [first-team All-ISL honorees] Andrew Chin and Devin Perry. Those arms put us in a great position so we can compete once again for the title. It’s just tough in this league, you only play everybody once. You can’t have too many slip-ups, so to speak, so we are excited to move in that direction and prepare for that goal.”
Both pitchers have committed to Boston College.
Offensively, Perry also will be a major factor and is expected to hit third. Other key returnees include Alex Farkes, who will be behind the plate this year, leadoff hitter/center fielder Rhett Wiseman and third baseman Robert Krentzman.
Another ISL team that will bring the heat with two exceptional starters is Lawrence Academy. Joe Napolitano returns for another year and will be joined by Tyler Beede, who transferred from Auburn High School after helping the Rockets win a Division 2 state championship last year.
Thayer will return without its top pitching duo from last year in Kyle McKenzie and Nate Sugarbaker. Regardless, the depth of the returning squad is enough to make the Tigers tough to beat. Belmont Hill also is expected to be back contending for the top of the league.
Other players expected to have standout seasons individually are ace pitchers/sluggers Griffin Tewksbury (son of former major leaguer Bob) at St. Paul’s and Michael Dodakian at Roxbury Latin, middle infielder Brett Frongillo of Grotonand hitting machine Jack Brewer at Rivers.
Reflecting on the quality of the league these days, Dexter’s Donato said: “If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have said that the Catholic Conference was head and shoulders above the ISL. Now I would say CM and BC High and those guys are very good but they’re no better than the Thayers and the BB&Ns of the world, either.”
Colonial League
Last season, Avon Old Farms was ranked 26th in the country in a preseason list compiled by Perfect Game USA. Avon went on to outscore its opponents 166-65 and finished the year at 15-4 with a share of the league championship. This year, the Beavers will face high expectations yet again with their preseason national rank at No. 100 (the only other team in New England on the list was BB&N at No. 97).
“I expect that we’re going to be competitive,” Avon coach Rob Dowling said. “We have a couple of really outstanding senior players and a bunch of guys who have been with us for a long time. [Maryland-bound first baseman] Tim Kiene [South Windsor, Conn.] is absolutely going to be an offensive leader for us.”
Alongside Kiene, who hit .458 last season, will be supersized catcher Cael Brockmeyer (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) and shortstop Pat Miller (Bristol, Conn.) to lead the offensive attack. Anchoring the rotation will be Columbia-bound Joey Donino.
“We’re expecting big things out of those guys,” Dowling said. “We’re optimistic about the season.”
Looking around the league, Dowling said: “I think Choate Rosemary Hall is going to be really good. And Loomis Chaffee is going to be strong. I’m expecting that they’re going to be really competitive.”
Loomis Chaffee coach Jeff Ross hopes Dowling is correct in that assessment.
“We have a good mix of kids to work with this year,” Ross said. “We return the left side our infield with shortstop Nic Civale and junior third baseman Steve Michalek. We have a veteran to plug in behind the plate who has been our backup for the two previous seasons in Jon Rosenthal. We got solid play at the end of last season on the mound and in the infield from one of our young guys, Mike Delalio. And we have four new upperclassmen who I think can fit in well in second baseman Cale Hanson, pitcher Luke Geoghegan and outfielders Jake Semones and Dylan Pazulenic. I think we should be able to create a lineup that gives us a nice balance of youth and experience, offense and defense.”
Added Ross: “I’m sure Avon and Choate will be solid. I think we’ll also be a factor, but I’m expecting the other teams in the league to be as good or better than a year ago.”
Eastern Independent League
Pingree (19-6) will enter this season happy to answer the doubters who wonder how the Highlanders will replace their two best players. Lamarre Rey, the captain of the 2009 team and the league MVP who batted .590 in his senior season, now is playing first base for BentleyCollege. Meanwhile, flamethrower Jolmi Minaya-Suriel, who struck out 55 batters in 33 innings last year, has taken his arm to the University of Richmond.
“We graduated some tremendous players, but with five returning starters, we hope to have a solid foundation here,” Pingree coach Chris Powers said. “With a good balance of returners and newcomers we should be very competitive this season.”
Breaking down his key returnees, Powers said: “On the mound, juniors Brendan Oliver, [all-league honoree] Jack Whelan and Brian Rogers will lead our pitching staff. At the plate, we expect solid seasons from Oliver, Rogers and Will Walfield as well as Chase Goodwin and Patrick Williamson.”
Powers said he expects his team to be in the mix for a league title.
“Portsmouth Abbey and Berwick Academy will be two of the top teams who will battle for the league title,” he said. “Pingree should be at the top of the league again this season. We have had great success over the past several years and haven’t lost a league game over the past three seasons. With a solid nucleus back and a couple of rookies, we should be in the mix to win the league.”
Berwick returns all three of its all-league players in SS/RHP Alex Tobey, C/OF Kyle Lajuenesse and 1B/LHP Kurtis McCabe. Coming back for Portsmouth Abbey are all-leaguers Marc Nunes and Liam O’Farrell.
Central New England
This year represents the end of an era in the Phillips Academy baseball program, or at least the transition from one era to another.
Andy Cline, who served at the team’s head coach from 1986 to 2009, has stepped down to become an assistant to new coach Kevin Graber (who was Cline’s assistant coach last year) and plans to retire at the end of this season. Cline earned his 300th victory with an 11-0 victory over Brooks. He also has seven league titles under his belt since 1995.
“This year is all about the players but it is also very much about Andy,” Graber said.
Turning his attention to his team’s lineup, Graber said last year’s experience should pay off for the younger players.
“I’m cautiously optimistic for a number of different reasons,” Graber said. “Last year, we had a relatively young team. We didn’t know what to expect and we sort of built our team around pitching in hopes that it would benefit us this year. Lo and behold, last year we ended up 14-6. We were in the championship game of the tournament, which we lost to Deerfield, 4-3, which was an outstanding result for us in the team we had last year.”
Coming back this year, the Big Blue have a solid nucleus, especially with their pitching staff. Jack Doyle (4-2, 1.60 ERA) and Tom Hamel (3-0, 2.28 ERA) return for their senior years and will be joined by Tom Palleschi, a 6-foot-9 sophomore who went 2-0 with a 1.71 ERA as he unveiled loads of promise. Fred Shepard, a lefty pitcher from Amherst Regional, adds further depth to the staff, as does post-graduate student Sam August.
The batting lineup will be built around junior Chris Cameron (.341 BA), who will shift from second base to shortstop, as well as Mike Difronzo (.322 BA). Tom Palleschi is the other returning .300 hitter. Leadership will be provided by outfielder and team captain Bennett Carroccio.
Assessing the competition, Graber said: “The good teams that were good last year that I think will be good this year were Worcester Academy, Phillips Exeter and Deerfield. Not that the other teams aren’t great, but those are the teams that were good last year that have kids returning.”
Deerfield, the defending champion and historically dominant team in the league, will return staff ace Noah Bakker (5-2, 2.23 ERA) but will rely on a generally overhauled lineup. Worcester Academyhas five-tool center fielder Steve Buduo back to lead its attack on the rest of the league.
Lakes Region
Vermont Academy (12-3) and Tilton (12-5) shared the Lakes Region League championship in 2009, but in 2010 the league seemingly is up for grabs. Vermont lost its four best players in Justin Beebe, D.J. Campbell, Gabe Nicasio and Tim McAuliffe and will reload around returning seniors including 3B/P Ryan Byrne and OF/P Ian Hoser.
Tilton faced similar losses with the departure of four all-league players and will rely on its strong feeder program to supply fresh and talented — if untested — reinforcements.
Holderness is considered an up-and-coming team and will rely heavily on the duo of Chandler Grisham and Ryan Tesnik, who both earned all-league honors as sophomores last season.
Similarly, Tyler Hill and Tyler Raphael will carry the hopes for New Hampton to rise into the role of league contender.
Top returning players elsewhere include standout hitter Ryan Cole of Kimball Union and 3B/C Michael Hemingway of Proctor Academy.
Western New England
Last year, league powerhouses Salisbury and Gunnery faced off in the Western New England Prep School Baseball League championship, with Gunnery coming out on top, 11-3. This season, the two teams are expected to vie for the top spot in the league once again.
Salisbury coach John Toffey likes his team’s chances.
“I think we’ll have a good team,” Toffey said. “Last year’s team was 15-3 and we return many of those players. We had a lot of guys last year who never had any experience playing varsity baseball before and they did a really good job. Now they are a year older and they have more experience. I’m really looking forward to coaching them.”
The team’s top pitcher, Jerry Silvey, is back for his junior season after going 5-0 a year ago. After Silvey, the second spot in the rotation is up for grabs, but there seems to be no shortage of candidates.
For example, James Lynch is back after missing last season to injuries.
“James is a hard thrower with velocity in the upper 80s,” Toffey said. “He hits his spots. He’s also an excellent hitter as well, a left-handed power-hitting guy.”
Brian Eggleston and Oliver Powers are in the mix as well after gaining good experience on the mound last year.
“Offensively, we return quite a few guys,” Toffey said. “Seven of nine starters, so I expect us offensively to be good.”
Key players back include middle infielder Jordano Rodriguez, outfielder/catcher Jake Mauro, Mike White (“Probably one of the best center fielders in New England,” according to Toffey) and shortstop Brookes Townsend (“I think he has a good chance of being a Major League Baseball draft pick this spring,” Toffey said).
Gunnery will need to replace the leadership and production of departed team captains Andrew Romanella and Ed Pequignot but nonetheless comes back armed with a slew of hitters including Shane Gorman, Nik Campero, Mike LoPresti and Rob Badger.
