Cafiero Is Excited To See What New Season Will Bring For Reigning HCBL Champion Southampton Breakers

The Southampton Breakers led from start to finish in the shortened 2021 campaign of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, culminating in what was their third league title.

After sitting in first place for most, if not all, of last summer, the Breakers swept the Sag Harbor Whalers in the semifinals before sweeping the Riverhead Tomcats in a best-of-three championship series to clinch their first title since 2014.

Rob Cafiero, the longest-tenured manager in the HCBL, entering his 13th season, agreed that with so much turnover that happens in a summer league from year to year, it just wouldn’t be fair to call anyone “the favorites” going into a new season.

“That’s the beauty of the league. Every year is different, the kids are different,” he said. “And the talent across the league is matched up pretty well against each other. Our recruiting coordinator, Casey Harms, does a great job putting kids on each team and is pretty fair across the board.”

To that end, there are only two holdovers from last season, outfielder Beau Root (Middlebury College) and left-handed pitcher Zach Karson (Florida Southern). Root just finished his sophomore season at Middlebury where he raked at the plate, batting .409 across 33 games, swiping 28 bags, scoring 45 runs and driving in 23. Karson went 5-2 while pitching for Florida Southern’s junior varsity team once again this past spring. He only allowed seven earned runs in 35 and two-third innings, and Cafiero is going to rely a lot more on Karson, he said, this summer than last.

“I know him. I know what he’s capable of,” the manager said.

The Breakers will also feature three local players this season in Brandon Erbis (Westhampton Beach/Southern New Hampshire), Jordan Falco (Center Moriches/Adelphi) and Andrew Smith (Southampton/Queens College). Falco and Smith both did well in the spring. Falco, a 6-foot, 6-inch right-handed pitcher, pitched 36 innings in his freshman season at Adelphi and held an earned run average of 3.50 and struck out 29. Cafiero said he looks at Falco as one of his top pitchers coming into the season.

Smith, meanwhile, a Hampton Bays resident, drove in 25 runs in 30 games for Queens, and Cafiero likes the fact that he batted in the middle of the Knights lineup for much of the season.

Of the newcomers, Cafiero mentioned a few names to look out for. One was Eric Genther, a catcher, who was recently named to the 2022 Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team, after what was a very successful freshman season at Rhode Island. He hit .304, swatted five home runs and drove in 42 while starting in 54 games.

A.J. Hansen (Villanova) and Esai Santos (Holy Names University) were two other names Cafiero mentioned. Hansen hit four home runs and drove in 21 runs in 48 games this past season for Villanova. The Berkeley, California, product Santos batted .366 for Holy Names and hit five home runs and had 29 RBIs.

“We do have some kids coming to us who have had a lot of at bats this season, we don’t have too many pitchers that have had too many innings, so we’re excited to see what these kids could do when they get here,” Cafiero said. “It’s exciting and I’m looking forward to helping them get better.”

The season is starting a little bit later than the typical June 1 Opening Day in previous seasons, last season’s COVID-shortened season notwithstanding. HCBL Opening Day is Friday, June 10, and the Breakers will be starting where they won last year’s championship, at Sgt. Jonathan Keller Field at Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton against the Riverhead Tomcats.