Friday, June 20, 2025
The Sewanhaka baseball team has had a long journey this season, navigating tough losses, gritty wins and everything else the 2025 season could throw at them, according to coach Mike Senese.
Currently with 9 wins, 5 losses and a tie, the Ravens have amassed plenty under the belt with one week left in the season.
The season started out slow for Sewanhaka, with it losing the first three of the four games they played before the wins started to rack up.
“Throughout the season we get stronger, that’s what I’ve noticed here,” said Senese. “Big thing on defense; once our defense plays well, that’s how we win. You got to put the ball in play, you’re not going to strike everyone out.”
The first two games of the year were 13-2 and 13-3 losses to Valley Stream Central before the squad caught a break in a 15-5 thumping against Westbury. That relief was short-lived, when Westbury shut them out 5-0 two days later.
Senese mentioned that Gabriele Gil has been holding the third base corner well for the squad, plugging into shortstop if needed. There’s also freshman Logan Lievano at second base, who Senese said is also playing well in the infield.
An outstanding member of the defense, however, is the backstop: Joshua Weingart. “He’s being throwing out a lot of runners and that’s really been helping us,” Senese said.
The Ravens’ bats had a similar start to the season: cold at first but thawed out and ever-present now.
Ethan Tome is known to have a solid bat, especially after a 3-for-3 game where he left the yard and hit a pair of doubles against Lawrence in the team’s 16-3 win on April 25, putting up five RBIs and scoring three runs himself.
The only part of the equation left is the arms, the guys who set up real estate on the mound.
“Pitching’s been okay, I wish we went a little deeper into games with starting pitching, but we have about four to five arms that I use,” Senese said. “It’s been better than the beginning of the year. Beginning of the year we never really do how we should, we just get better as the season progresses and as the weather gets warmer you can say.”
The two main arms have been Gabriel Gil and Nicholas Tome.
“[Gil] just throws the ball over, he throws strikes,” Senese said. “Nick threw a good game against Elmont.”
Against Elmont, Tome went 6.2 innings and fanned 11 in the team’s 12-7 win. His offense provided plenty of cushioning with Lievano’s 2-3 performance at the plate with two ribees and two runs scored.
Senese said that this year especially, Tome stepped up his game both at the plate and on the mound, and that both he and the team are reaping the rewards, regardless of where he plays on any given day.
Sewanhaka concludes the campaign this week with one game versus West Hempstead and a pair against Hempstead.
