Southampton Breakers Will Have Familiar Faces on the Mound To Start the HCBL Season

Southampton Breakers manager Rob Cafiero likes familiarity. And that’s what he’s got on his roster, at least for his pitching staff, coming into this summer of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League.

Cafiero, the longest tenured manager of the league by far, having led the Breakers since 2010, will have five arms returning this season in Cameron Heuer (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Zach Karson (Florida Southern), Jacob Pedersen (Adelphi), Connor Schildt (St. Joseph’s-Long Island) and Louis Stallone (Parkland).

They all had a hand in helping Southampton finish the regular season last year with a 17-14-5 record to clinch the third seed in the playoffs, although they had the unlucky draw of playing the eventual league champs, the Sag Harbor Whalers, in the first round, getting swept in two games.

“Every year, I always seem to have one or two kids coming back. This season, I’m fortunate to have five of them coming back, many of which contributed to our success last year. So I’m excited to see those guys back,” Cafiero said. “It makes me comfortable as a manager knowing what I’ve got in those five guys. It makes me comfortable putting them out there, especially early on in the season. I don’t have to figure out who I need to start, who is a reliever and who is a closer. I already know what they can do so that does help.”

Cafiero likes what he has on paper, overall. Michael Gatti (New Haven) and Zach Gehman (Centenary University) are both young arms who threw quite a bit for their respective colleges. Gatti threw over 31 innings for the University of New Haven, where he struck out 35 batters and held a 2.59 ERA. Gehman threw over 47 innings for Centenary, where he went 4-3 with a save and had an ERA of 3.78. Tom Wilkie is a local ball player who was born and raised in Hampton Bays and played high school ball at St. John the Baptist before moving on to Drew University. He’ll also be a part of the Breakers pitching staff.

Position player wise, Cafiero is high on catcher Ty Gilligan (Dominican University). An All-Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Second Team selection, the sophomore led Dominican in hits and RBI, was second in batting average, slugging percentage and tied for second in doubles, third in runs scored and fourth in on-base percentage. He was fourth in the CACC in doubles, 10th in hits and 13th in total bases and triples. The Gilligan name is also associated with baseball in more ways that one: Ty’s father and uncle founded the Akadema Leather Company, which specializes in making baseball and softball gloves and all baseball/softball apparel, in 1997.

Cafiero has heard a lot about his incoming first baseman Mitchel Johnson (Catholic University). A 2023 D3baseball.com and ABCA Second Team All-Region selection, Johnson batted .373 this past spring, driving in 48 runs and setting a new program record with 21 doubles in 36 games. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-handed hitter also hit seven home runs.

One other player to note is Johnny Catuosco (Adelphi), who is joining the Breakers after playing for the South Shore Clippers last summer.

As previously reported, the Riverhead Tomcats were dropped from the league in the offseason, giving the league an even number of six teams, which gives the league flexibility, mainly in scheduling, that it hasn’t had in recent years. All six teams will now have common days off, which will allow for easily scheduled make-up dates for rainouts.

While the number of games hasn’t changed, the league schedule has been reduced from eight to six weeks, mainly for housing reasons, league president Sandi Kruel said. Housing is a league-wide issue year in and year out and the league is trying something new to see if reducing the schedule will help. Cafiero said that has also created more scheduled doubleheaders, which he doesn’t mind.

“We’ll be playing two seven inning games in those doubleheaders, so it’s not a huge burden on the kids or pitching staffs,” he said. “We’ll be playing the same amount of games in one or two fewer weeks than we have done recently. I don’t really think it’s going to affect things all too much. The year after COVID, where we came back, we played a six-team season in a shortened schedule and it was fine, and I don’t think this season will be as short as that was.

“Once you start playing, you don’t realize the season has shortened,” Cafiero added. “These kids are here to play baseball. And, if anything, it will feel more like a pro schedule. These kids are trying to get to the pros, so it will be good for them to experience the game like that.”