By ANDREW McCLURE
Despite finishing 7-14 a year ago and having a relatively young roster, Valentino liked what he saw from his young Rams in the pre-season.
After back-to-back 11-0 victories over Roosevelt, the Rams are 9-0 and all alone in first place in Conference ABC-VII. Junior Mike Sassman went 4-for-5 and scored four runs, and junior Tyler Angelos was 3-for-4 to lead a sweep of the two-game series. Junior Matt Metz was 4-for-4 with a home run, a triple and six RBI in the opening game of the series. West Hempstead hit seven home runs in the two games; three by Roberto Reyes, and one each for Sassman, Metz, Brian DiGiovanni and Dom Alongi.
Valentino is pleased, but knows there’s a lot of baseball left to go. “So far, so good,” Valentino said. “We’re happy with what we’ve accomplished thus far, but we have some tough teams coming up over the next few games.”
One of the most often used clichés in baseball dictates that pitching and defense wins. West Hempstead has been outstanding in the field and on the mound. With Metz and senior Brian Donahue at the top of the rotation, the pitching staff, which is coached by Al Christenson, has a minuscule earned run average of 1.11. The Rams have made just eight errors on the season and yielded three or fewer runs in eight of their nine games.
As expected, West Hempstead has been aggressive at the plate and on the base paths. “We’ve made things happen with the bats, and have done a lot of good things on the bases,” Valentino said. “We’ve executed squeeze bunts, we move runners up, and we steal bases. The boys are really starting to believe in themselves.”
At the plate, Metz has been as good as advertised, hitting .385 through nine games. Mike Angelone has been a tough out all season. The junior third baseman is batting .375 and has five multiple hit games. Somewhat of a surprise has been senior Benny Sherman, who has seen time at second base and shortstop. Sherman is batting over .500. Sophomore Anthony Misiano has been solid at the plate and in the outfield.
While certainly proud of the start the Rams are off to, Valentino hasn’t let the success go to his player’s heads. Only one team from the conference earns a playoff berth, and Valentino wants to be that team. “The goal all season long has been to win the conference,” he said. “I remind the boys of that all the time. We can’t let up. There’s a lot of baseball to play.”
West Hempstead faces Sewanhaka in a three-game series beginning on the road Monday at 4:30 p.m. The Rams host the middle game on Tuesday and visit the Indians on Thursday.
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