Sweeping last year’s final three-game series gave William Floyd 10 League I wins and a spot in the Suffolk Class AAA baseball playoffs, which was short-lived after defeats to Smithtown East and Riverhead in the double-elimination tournament.
The Colonials lost the majority of starters and entered this spring with more questions than answers, but a solid 4-2 start has coach Keith Kobasiuk even more encouraged than when tryouts began a month ago.
“I’m very happy with the way we’ve come out of the gate,” said Kobasiuk, a 2004 Floyd graduate and former baseball player. “We’re way ahead of the game in terms of playoff pace, but we don’t want to think too far ahead. We have another close-knit team off the field and that’s always a plus.”
Making the four wins in the first two series more impressive is who the Colonials beat. Last year they dropped two of three games to both Walt Whiman and Patchogue-Medford. This spring they flipped the script, including a pair of wild victories over the latter.
Floyd scored late to beat the Raiders by one run on April 6 and 7. In the series opener, senior CJ Burkhardt lifted the Colonials to a 10-9 win, driving in senior catcher Andrew Marino with a double in the bottom of the sixth inning and striking out the side in the top of the seventh for the save.
“CJ is a cool, calm and collected kid,” Kobasiuk said of Burkhardt, who also earned the win a day later in a 9-8 walk-off. “He’s an excellent glove at first base and has been clutch at the plate and on the mound so far.”
The series opener also saw a hit parade featuring three from senior center fielder Gabe Beta, two apiece from Burkhardt, Marino and senior Cayden Doll, and a three-run homer off the bat of junior Jacob Cooke.
Floyd blew an 8-4 lead in the sixth on April 7, but managed to scrape across a run in the bottom of the seventh to win it. Sophomore third baseman Evan Pacella was the catalyst, leading off with a single, stealing second, and eventually scoring on junior Aidan Dobrie’s sacrifice fly.
Dobrie, who plays right field, isn’t a typical cleanup hitter, Kobasiuk said, but makes consistent contact and brings swagger to the dugout as a three-year starter.
Cooke, who dazzled as the No. 2 starting pitcher last spring, is the ace this season and started three of the first five games. “He throws strikes and gets a lot of grounders and popouts,” Kobasiuk said.
Sophomore Kiernyn Mehmel got the Colonials off and running with a leadoff homer in their first at-bat of a 10-0 victory over Whitman on March 26. He plays shortstop and pitches. “The offense runs through him,” Kobasiuk said.
Beta is swinging a hot stick behind Mehmel, and Marino, who along with senior Spencer Link’s work behind the plate, is batting third. This year’s utility knife is Andrew Winter, who primarily plays second base but can also pitch and play elsewhere.
Another test looms with league favorite Longwood on deck.
“It seems like every day someone different is coming up big for us,” Kobasiuk said.
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