County title a first for Carey

Feel free to go crazy!

After years of being merely mentioned among the best baseball teams in Nassau County, the Carey Seahawks are sitting alone on a lofty perch.

Senior Jesse Montalto pitched a complete-game shutout, and senior Tom Rydzewski was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored to lead Carey to a 3-0 victory over MacArthur Tuesday night and a sweep of the Nassau Class AA championship series at Farmingdale State College.

After coming up short in 23 previous trips to the postseason, it’s the first county championship in the history of the program.

“Finally, in our senior year,” said Kyle DeMeo, who leads the Seahawks with a .532 batting average. “We've been working hard since ninth grade; ever since we were on JV. We wanted to get back here after losing to Massapequa two years ago. As a team we made a big effort to get better on defense, because defense wins championships. We needed to find a way to win the close ones. It feels great to finally win.”

Montalto yielded just three hits while striking out nine. The Farleigh Dickinson-bound righthander improved to 8-1 with a miniscule 1.65 ERA. Senior Ron Licciardi’s long sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning gave coach Marc Hedquist’s Seahawks an insurance run.

Carey, a 10-1 winner in Game 1 behind the pitching of senior John Daddino, will face Suffolk AA champ Sachem North for the Long Island crown on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at Farmingdale.