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Sean Keys of the Westhampton Aviators was named HCBL MVP. DREW BUDD
Southampton's Jacob Pedersen was named Relief Pitcher of the Year. RON ESPOSITO
John Kwiatkowski of the Southampton Breakers was named Pitcher of the Year. RON ESPOSITO
All three Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League postseason award recipients hailed from the South Fork this summer.
Westhampton Aviator Sean Keys was named the league’s Most Valuable Player.
Keys (Bucknell) provided tons of power to a Westhampton Aviators lineup that reached the HCBL Championship Series for the second consecutive season. Keys was rewarded for his incredible 2023 season by being named the MVP of the league.
Keys led the HCBL in home runs with 11 and finished third in league in batting average at .367 and was ranked second in RBI with 34 behind teammate Ethan Guerra (Paris JC) who had 45. Keys also led the HCBL in runs scored with 33.
The Centerport native’s biggest hit of the season was on the Fourth of July against the North Fork Ospreys, when he hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth for an 11-8 Aviators win. The home run was Keys’s second of the game, and he finished with six RBI on the day.
Keys was picked as the HCBL Player of the Week for Week 3, when he hit .455 for the week with five home runs and 16 RBI. Keys was selected to play for the HCBL at the NACSB Prospect Games in Virginia. At the HCBL All-Star Game in Sag Harbor on July 15, Keys had a hit in two at-bats for the Red Team with a run scored.
Keys’s 11 home runs in the 2023 season added onto his five home runs from the 2022 season tied him for the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League’s all-time career record for home runs of 16, which was originally set by Alex Volpi (Holy Cross) of the Shelter Island Bucks back in 2018.
Keys finished out his summer with the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League where in 10 games, Keys hit .385 with four home runs and 17 RBI in 39 at-bats.
Keys becomes the fourth Westhampton player to be selected as the HCBL’s Most Valuable Player. Kevin Heller (Amherst) was the first Aviator MVP in Westhampton’s 2011 championship season. JC Brandmaier (Dowling), who won the HCBL batting title in 2013, was selected as that season’s MVP. Nick Bottari (Southeastern FL) was the most recent Aviator prior to Keys who was named as league MVP having won it back in the 2017 season.
In the MVP voting, Keys received five out of seven coaches’ votes in the balloting, along with a second-place vote. Shelter Island’s Conor Kiely (Stonehill) placed in second with a first-place vote and a pair of second and third-place votes. Westhampton’s Guerra finished in third with a first-place vote and two second-place votes. South Shore’s Aidan Larkin (Molloy) and Westhampton’s Matt Torres (Dickinson) rounded out the top five in the MVP voting.
Kwiatkowski Continues Trend
John Kwiatkowski is the seventh Southampton Breaker to earn Pitcher of the Year honors since 2010, joining Mike Mandarino (2010), Chris Phelan (2011), Paul Paez (2012), Tim Ingram (2014), Evan Tubbs (2017) and Carson Seymour (2018). The Manhattan product led the league in ERA at 0.78 and was 4-1 for the Breakers in six appearances on the mound in the 2023 season. He only allowed two earned runs all season and struck out 24 batters while allowing just 12 walks. Kwiatkowski was selected as the HCBL Pitcher of the Week in weeks one and five. In game two of the HCBL Semifinals against top-seeded Westhampton, Kwiatkowski pitched 7 and a third scoreless innings, allowing an unearned run on two hits in the Breakers’ 4-1 victory over the Aviators.
Kwiatkowski had three first-place votes, two second-place votes, and a third in the balloting. Westhampton’s Michael DiForte (Saint Peter’s) and Jack Turner (Suffolk CC) finished in second and third place, respectively, in the final vote.
Pedersen Led League in Saves
Jacob Pedersen (Adelphi) garnered four first-place votes, a second, and a third to earn the Relief Pitcher of the Year Award over South Shore’s Kyle Salvati (Franklin Pierce) by nine points. Salvati had six second-place votes and a third.
Pedersen made nine appearances for Southampton this past summer and went 1-0 with a league-leading seven saves and an ERA of 0.57 in 15.2 innings pitched. On June 29, in the nightcap of a doubleheader against Shelter Island, Pedersen was part of the second no-hitter in Southampton Breakers history, pitching the last inning and a third in the Breakers’ 7-1 win over Shelter Island, joined by teammates Henry Escandon (Catholic U) and Connor Schlidt in the combined effort.
Pedersen was selected as an HCBL All-Star and pitched a scoreless inning in the 2023 HCBL All-Star Game on July 15 in Sag Harbor. He is the first Breaker to be recognized as the HCBL Reliever of the Year since Anthony Pisani (Rhode Island) in Southampton’s inaugural season back in 2009.
