Massapequa Coast Juniors Top West Islip for the Long Island Title

The Massapequa Coast Junior Baseball team has been crowned the newest Long Island Champions after defeating West Islip in convincing fashion, 10-1, on Sunday morning at the East Meadow Complex.

Coast finished the Sectional tournament with a perfect 4-0 record while West Islip finished at 2-2, with both losses coming at the hands of the champions.

“When you throw strikes, good things happen, and we didn’t walk too many people,” said Massapequa Coast head coach John Cosenza. “It is a good feeling when you have good players out there competing.”

Just as they did in their previous game against East Meadow, Coast got off to a good offensive start, taking a 2-0 lead after two RBI groundouts by Bobby Honeyman and Alex Cosenza. West Islip got a run back in the bottom of the first with an RBI double from Brett Baynon.

Coast widened their lead with a run in the second and two more in the third. With a 5-1 lead, Cosenza, one of the top pitchers in the Junior Division, kept West Islip hitters off of the base paths. Between the second and third innings, he struck out five of the six batters he faced, totaling nine strikeouts in five innings of work. Coast allowed just three runners on base in the second through fifth innings.

“I always feel comfortable on the mound because I’ve got my defense behind me,” said the pitcher Cosenza. “This was always my goal to try to get back to the States and win it. We got through two steps and hopefully will make to the next championship game.”

With the defense doing their job, the Coast offense continued to roll. Nick Breslin hit a triple to right field in the fifth and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Honeyman. They added four more runs in the next inning to cap the scoring.

Joe Walsh came on in relief for Cosenza to pitch the last two innings en route to the championship win. In two games against West Islip, Coast outscored their opposition, 19-1.

“All of them played very well and it is unfortunate that we didn’t make it past the championship game, but it is our first time being here,” said West Islip coach Paul Kory. “We have a great town, great ballplayers, and the future is looking good for the team.”

Massapequa Coast will move on to play other Sectional champions from around New York State. The tournament starts on Friday, July 29 at the East Meadow Complex, which is located at 90 Merrick Avenue in East Meadow.