Thursday, October 1, 2026
A largely rebuilt Seaford baseball team from last year's Class A runner-up finish is rounding into form.
The Vikings lost nearly all starters from last year's 19-10 team that fell to Wantagh in the county championship and then battled some key early season injuries. Seaford (9-9) has shown resilience though in rebounding from a 3-6 start to reach the Class A playoffs.
“We had to really start the season without any returning innings from last year,” said 23rd-year Seaford coach Mike Milano. “Everybody had to prove themselves and we were lucky to find a good number of guys to get us to nine wins.”
Seaford was dealt a blow prior to the season when reigning All County player and leadoff hitter Dylan Alt sustained an elbow injury playing basketball. Alt, a shortstop and starting pitcher, was sidelined the first month of the season but has begun to find rhythm offensively of late and on the mound as a reliever.
Alt’s injury meant the Vikings had no starting pitching experience to begin the season, but freshman Matt Villeck has stepped up to record four wins after shining on JV last year.
“He has emerged as a once a week take- the-ball and give us a good chance to win kind of kid,” Milano said of Villeck, who tossed a four-hitter in a 3-1 win against Locust Valley on May 1.
The pitching staff has also gotten contributions from senior lefty Matt Kind, who is starting on the mound for the first time in addition to patrolling first base for the third straight year. The versatile Kind, a standout football player who garnered the National Football Foundation’s Jay Fiedler Top Scholar Athlete award on May 1, hit a two- run homer in Seaford’s season-opening 5-1 win against Island Trees.
Seaford completed a two-game sweep of Locust Valley on May 4 with a 5-4 win on a Joe Rotondaro walk-off two-out single that drove in Kind as part of a 4-for-4, three RBI day for the junior catcher. Milano said Rotondaro has made big strides this season after serving as backup catcher the last two years.
“He has done a lot of work and he didn't miss a single bullpen session the whole winter,” Milano said of Rotondaro. “He has done a really, really nice job for us on both sides of the ball and he's getting better.”
Milano credits his assistant coaches Charlie Menges and Mike Sweeney with positioning Seaford for another postseason run which will commence later this week following the regular season finale at Wheatley on May 12. The Vikings' fortitude to once again reach the playoffs has been underscored, according to Milano, by the lineup only having one hitter batting over .300 in Alt.
“We're not even hitting close to .300 as a team, but it doesn't matter because it's mid-May and everything starts over once you get in the playoffs,” Milano said. “We're a better team in May than we were in April and I think we're going to keep getting better.”
