Thursday, October 1, 2026
Losses can linger, but for Long Beach baseball, it sparked a response.
After a 10-0 defeat to South Side on April 7, the Marines flipped the script a day later, riding timely hitting and a strong outing from senior ace Nathan Hall to a 10-6 win; an early example of the resilience that defined the start to their season.
Long Beach is coming off an 8-14 season, where it lost to Mepham and Bellmore JFK in pool play. Through the Marines’ first six games, they’re 3-3, but 1-2 in Conference AA-1, and the record doesn’t tell the entire story.
“We got timely hits that day,” Long Beach coach Jason Zizza said of the April 8 victory. “Our pitching was outstanding from Hall. [sophomore] Kellen DeSantis came in and closed the door in the final two innings, who’s a 10th grader.”
Hall earned the team’s first conference win. He tossed five innings of two-run ball and struck out three. He headlines Long Beach’s rotation as its ace.
“Nathan’s what I like to call a gamer,” Zizza said. “He wants the ball all the time and goes out there and competes. He’s a strike thrower. He works really fast; his tempo is great. He keeps hitters off-balance. He goes after guys; it’s really fun to watch him pitch. We were able to come away with a victory, which is great against a team like South Side.”
The Marines’ offense got ‘timely hits’ and ‘capitalized’ on mistakes made by South Side, which propelled them to victory.
“Jesse Stadtman is our leading hitter right now,” Zizza said about the junior catcher who entered Friday’s game batting .600 with a .667 on-base percentage. “He’s been on absolute fire. He went one-for-three [on Friday].
“Ryden Nafte [junior second baseman] is our lead-off hitter who’s on fire as well. He’s hitting in the high .400’s. He’s great at the top of the lineup; he has really tough at-bats. Against Kellenberg, he had a 16-pitch at-bat, then managed to work a base hit on the 16th pitch.
DeSantis, who plays first base, came up with two big hits in the win against South Side. Senior infielder/outfielder Joe Lordi is hitting around .400.
Long Beach is a team that’s becoming a fixture in the playoffs. The Marines have punched their ticket to the postseason the last four seasons and eight of their last 10. “We feel like we’re a playoff-caliber team every year,” Zizza said. “We feel like our program’s at the place now where we’re ready to take that next step and we’re ready to become a team where making the playoffs is expected.”
An identity for this young team was described as ‘relentless’ on both sides of the ball and they’re going to ‘compete on every pitch,’ Zizza said.
“Our pitchers are going right after hitters,” Zizza said. “We stress throwing strike one and we have a motto on our team: On or off in three, strikeout in four. That means we challenge our pitchers to get every hitter to never see more than three pitches unless they’re striking out.”
The Marines are back in action on Friday against New Hyde Park on the road. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.
