Long Beach bats break out

After scoring 20 runs through its first six baseball games against Conference A1 rivals, Long Beach’s bats came alive Monday afternoon to back the pitching of senior Connor Nooney to produce a much-needed 13-4 home victory over Great Neck South.

Nooney struck out nine over five innings of work and Aiden Cardo (three hits, three RBIs), Alonzo Espinet, Cian Cantwell and Troy DeFrancesco combined for nine singles as the Marines improved to 2-5. It was the second straight victory for Nooney, one of only four seniors on the roster.

“We have high expectations for a young team,” Long Beach coach Jason Zizza said. “Defensive mistakes cost us a few games and I expected the offense to take a little while to come along because of the youth and brutal weather.

“If we continue to play the way we played today, we believe we can compete with anyone and make some noise in the playoffs,” he added. “We hope to make the playoff picture interesting in the second half of the season.”

Only the top four teams in the seven-team conference will qualify for the postseason. With MacArthur and Garden City off to dominant starts, and both Great Neck North and Great Neck South scuffling, it appears only two spots will be up for grabs between Long Beach, Mepham and New Hyde Park.

The Marines, who graduated a dozen seniors from last year’s four-win team, took one of three games against New Hyde Park last week and have yet to face Mepham. One of last spring’s victories saw Long Beach rally from eight runs down to beat Mepham. One of this year’s defeats was a blown 8-0 lead against MacArthur.

“We’ve already turned the page on the MacArthur loss and it’s out of our system,” Zizza said. “I’m proud of how hard our team works and I love the way we compete every game. We can never be counted out.”

Nooney has started the first game of each series and relies on his accuracy, velocity and variety to get the job done. “Connor always battles every time he takes the mound,” Zizza said.

Junior Jake Scafa is a hard-throwing lefty who has finished off every series. He threw 25 innings last season and also serves as the leadoff batter and plays center field and first base. He’s hitting .400 through seven games.

Junior Jack Wachs, who plays shortstop twice a week, starts on the bump in the middle game of each series. He showed a strong sign of getting into a groove at the plate with a four RBI game against MacArthur.

Senior Pete DiGiorgio and sophomore Dan Defonte are both handling catching duties. DiGiorgio provides strong leadership as well, Zizza noted. Up from JV, Cardo (second base) and junior Dylan Cantwell (third base) have solidified the infield defense. Cantwell is a key bat in the heart of the order along with Espinet.

“We need to get the bats going consistently,” Zizza said.