Thursday, October 1, 2026
Lynbrook baseball coach Jon Zaccaro can only hope his team’s bats can start to heat up as the weather does.
Runs have been at a premium for the Owls this spring with just 13 on 18 hits in seven games, including three consecutive shutout defeats in their series against defending Nassau Class A champion Clarke last week. The losses dropped their Conference A-1 record to 1-5 and overall mark to 2-5.
“It's been a struggle,” Zaccaro said. “We're trying to get the bats going. We feel a little bit better about our swings recently. I know it doesn’t show in the offense, but the boys are coming out to work hard in practice every day.”
Lynbrook won seven games last year and Zaccaro was expecting this year's group to take another step forward, but injuries threw that plan into a tizzy.
“We had high expectations coming out of last season with a lot of young guys, so we figured they would mature with age and help us out a lot this year,” Zaccaro said. “We got stuck with some injuries to some of our seniors that aren't able to play, and it seems like we're back to another young group that we didn't expect to have.”
Lynbrook had to manufacture runs in its two wins.
On April 3, the Owls scored the lone run of the game against Floral Park in the bottom of the sixth when sophomore Marco Palleschi was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and scored on an error following a groundout. Their only hit came on a single by sophomore Jacob Knoblach the inning before.
A week later, senior Brady Rogan had two of Lynbrook’s four hits with three RBIs and tossed 4⅓ innings of four-hit relief with seven strikeouts in a 10-5 victory over Hicksville for the team’s second straight victory.
The offense showed signs of breaking out last Wednesday against Clarke by putting the first two batters on in each of the third and fourth innings while trailing 1-0. But the big hit never came, and six runners were stranded overall in an eventual 11-0 loss that completed the Rams’ sweep.
Rogan held a powerful Clarke lineup to just one run on three hits through the first four innings that day, as the pitchers continued to keep the team in games.
Palleschi yielded two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in the season-opening 4-1 loss to Floral Park on April 1 and, two days later, brother Paolo limited the Knights to just two hits with nine strikeouts over 5⅓ innings in a no-decision. Fellow junior Blake Jaworowski fanned five batters in relief for the victory.
Juniors Miles Storm and Chris Mangieri have shared leadoff duties, with Zaccaro lauding the latter for his leadership qualities. Freshman Chris Morrissey went a combined 2-for-3 with a walk in the last two games against Clarke and sophomore newcomer Eric Ruiz collected two hits against Floral Park on April 2.
Zaccaro said senior catcher Jameson Morrissey has shown great contact during recent practices and is poised for a breakout second half.
The Owls take on Valley Stream North in a three-game set this week.
