Impressive start for Oceanside

With a 7-2 record, Oceanside has multiple moving parts to its baseball team to thank for its quality start to the season.

“Our pitching staff has been doing a really good job of limiting the other teams and we've been playing good defense and getting key hits when we needed it,” coach Mike Postilio said.

A starting rotation of, coincidentally all seniors, Patrick Pallentino, Jake Lunenfeld and Michael Regan, have been the guys to take the credit for impeccable pitching, partly due to the culture they cultivate between themselves.

“They just kind of feeding off of each other, each of them are out-doing the next guy and preparing and executing pitches and they’ve been pitching really well,” Postilio said. “I just think they've all put in the time and the effort.”

Pitching isn’t the only thing the team boasts, but good hitting as well. Junior centerfielder Kyle Scheurer, Lunenfeld (a two-way player, also plays outfield) and junior third baseman Luke Villella have all been key contributors to the offense.

“These guys have all been hitting right away for the beginning,” Postilio said. “Luke and Kyle have been starters since their freshman year and now they’re juniors so we expect those guys to lead the charge for us, they’ve been on the varsity [team] since ninth grade since they’re that good.”

In the leadoff spot, Scheurer has been aggressive on the offense on the base paths by stealing over a dozen bases in nine games so far, Postilio described.

“So he's a very fast, athletic kid at the top of our lineup,” Postilio explained. “Once he gets on, we have guys behind him that have good at-bats and either move him over or driving him.”

It’s not a top-heavy lineup in Oceanside, though, the bottom portion does its fair share to contribute.

“The biggest thing for the bottom of our order is to just have quality at bats [and] see a lot of pitches,” Postilio said. “[Then] hopefully get us back to the top [of the lineup].”

It starts with senior outfielders Sebastian Santiago and Nick Blette to round out the offense.

“[Santiago] is doing a good job of making good contact, hitting the ball hard, moving runners over and really trying to get us back to the top of our order,” Postilio said. “[Blette has been] having good at bats seeing a lot of pitches, taking walks when they come.”

Don’t think this is an upperclassman-heavy lineup, there’s also two sophomores providing big contributions: catcher Ryan Pender and shortstop Jack Regan.

The Sailors will be put to the test this week with a three-game set against Massapequa, concluding Thursday at home at 5 p.m.

“We have a good culture here. We work real hard, the kids expect to win and we work to win,” Postilio said. “It's never hard to get kids around and they're eager to go, so the energy is good. The quality of the character of the kids we have is good. When you surround yourself with good kids that have the same purpose and same goals, it makes it easy to come to work [and] work with them.”