Hackley Spring Sports: Baseball

When it comes to determining the success of this year's Hackley baseball squad, the Hornets' four senior pitchers will go a long way in deciding how well it will fare.

Three of those pitchers are returnees Sam Budlong, Jon Salandra and Eric Notari. When they aren't on the mound, they will be playing shortstop, outfield and first base respectively.

"They are all seniors and they are all pitchers," Hackley coach Steven Frolo said. "They are all going to have to pitch and play different positions this season because our numbers are low this year. None of them can afford to get hurt."

Another senior pitcher who will be expected to do well this season will be Steven DelMoro, who also plays third base. Frolo has high hopes for him.

"Steven's a hard-throwing right hander who's going to be counted on to be one of our top pitchers this year," Frolo said.

Providing a big boost with his bat and his glove is junior catcher Conor McDermott. McDermott is a returning player but he's going to be expected to have a much bigger role on the team this season. Considering his talent and passion for the game, McDermott should live up to the responsibilities of being more relied on.

"Baseball is Conor's life," Frolo said. "He has a good arm behind the plate. He has played a tremendous amount of baseball. He knows the game very well. He's also expected to be one of our top hitters this year, probably hitting in the two hole."

While the above veterans will play a key role this year on the diamond for the Hornets, another important player for the Tarrytown-based school is newcomer Peter Barrett, a junior second baseman. Barrett is a scrappy player who's very solid around second base and makes the routine play very well.

"We have some solid returning players who will play a big role in this year's team," Frolo said. "All the seniors are going to be counted on to lead this team. We have four senior starters that should give us quality innings. Our pitching should be our strength this year. We are looking forward to good things this year. We are looking to compete for our championship this year."

One reason why Frolo can feel confident about his team going into this spring is because of the experience it has playing baseball. For Frolo this is his 13th year of coaching Hackley baseball and he said he's been fortunate to coach some highly talented players through the years.

"This year's group, once again, we have some talented players who play summer ball ...  if you want to be good at this game you are going to have to play during the summer," Frolo said. "The nucleus of our team all played a lot of games last summer."

That is a good thing because Hackley has another challenging schedule, which includes three-time Ivy League champion Poly Prep, which has won the New York State Prep School championship two of the last three years. Hackley will also play Brooklyn's Berkeley Carroll, last year's private school state champion in a non-league game.

"We open up in the Iona Prep Tournament with Christ The King April 1," Frolo said. "There are a lot of the top Catholic and public schools in that tournament, so it's a real nice tournament. It definitely will be a challenge to play some of those big schools but I think we can compete with them this year."