Mineola Baseball Faces Challenge Opening 2013 Season

The Mineola Mustangs will open their 2013 season on April 1 at home against Lynbook as they look to improve on last season’s four-win total.

Head coach Helms Bohringer is confident that the team will be improved led by the talent of their middle infield.

“The strength of this team is the middle infield,” he said during a scrimmage against Carle Place on March 28. "Between Ryan Kelly, Nick Idideo and John Lasardy we’re very strong up the middle and they all pitch.”

But that ability represents a challenge, which is figuring out how to keep their arms fresh to enable them to pitch and play well defensively.

“For me, I need to make sure they don’t burn out their arms,” Bohringer said of his perennial concern as the season wears on.

Mineola also does not have the luxury of a true number one-type pitcher. They lost Anthony Riccardi to graduation after last season who was responsible for two of the team’s four wins last season, including a 12-strikeout performance against Manhasset. 

“Sometimes you have to look at the schedule and say, ‘what’s the best way to beat a certain team?’ Maybe we'll look at pitching our number three against team’s number one’s,” Bohringer said, eschewing the traditional idea of countering the opposing best pitcher with your own, justifying the tactic with via surprising the opponent’s batters by throwing a pitcher that keeps the oppositon off balance.

Even this close to the start of the season, there is still competition among positions, such as catcher, where starters have yet to emerge.

Sophomore Matt Demalis is the likely starting catcher but Bohringer has noted that he has struggling blocking pitches which poses a challenge if the pitchers do not have the confidence to throw a breaking ball in the dirt.

Another challenge will be the schedule. In the first week, Mineola will play perennial playoff contenders Division, defending county champion Plainedge, South Side and Lynbook.

Bohringer said that his “minimum goal” is to be .500 after the first week but recognizes the challenge ahead of them.

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