With Entire Team Back, Bridgehampton/Ross Baseball Looks To Build Upon Last Season

The Bridgehampton/Ross School baseball team burst onto the scene last season, its first varsity campaign in 43 years, by sweeping its first two opponents in Shelter Island and Greenport and jumping out to a sparkling 6-0 start.

Following that quick start, though, the Killer Bees failed to win another game, finishing with a 6-12 League VIII record and outside of a postseason berth, something the team realistically thought it could accomplish. But with the entire team still intact, having not graduated a single player, and having only added to it from the junior varsity and middle school ranks, the Bees are looking to build upon last season and vie for a postseason spot.

“You know me, I’m not one for predictions. We’re just going to focus on us,” Bridgehampton head coach Lou Liberatore said. “We’re going to focus on getting better and doing all of the right things, and if we do that I think we’ll like where we end up by the end of May.

“We learned a lot last season,” he added. “We had a lot of close games — we only lost, 1-0, to Long Island Champion Port Jeff — so we did do a lot of things well. We’ll apply everything that we’ve worked on this offseason. I think you’ll see that we’re a different team on the field, in the pace that we play at, our confidence, we’ll be faster and physically stronger, and we have good senior leadership.”

Liberatore is excited about the return of Ross junior Milo Tompkins, who he thinks has the ability to be one of, if not the, best player in the league this season. Tompkins will catch the first two games of each series, Liberatore said, and then he’ll pitch the third game and he’ll be a key middle-of-the-order bat as well.

“He does it all,” he said. “He worked hard all offseason, put on a lot of muscle. He certainly looks the part in terms of being one of the team captains and we expect him to have a big season.”

Also rejoining the team are twin brothers Kris and Scott Vinski, now seniors. Both are left-handed pitchers and will be key everyday players for the Bees — Kris is the program’s first college-bound ballplayer in decades, heading to St. Joseph’s University of Brooklyn. Ross senior Yudai Morikawa provided solid offense and defense last season and should do the same again this season, and Bridgehampton senior Dylan Fitzgerald will man the hot corner at third base.

Liberatore is also excited about a couple of new additions to the team, namely Ross freshman Tate Foard and Bridgehampton freshman Kai Alversa. Foard is the son of Ross School Head of Middle School Mark Foard, who also used to coach Ross’s baseball team. Alversa is the son of East Hampton varsity baseball head coach Vinny Alversa, and with the Vinski brothers, Liberatore said, adds three very viable left-handed arms on the mound for the team.

Bridgehampton/Ross will compete in League X this season along with alternatively placed and playoff ineligible Amityville, Greenport, Pierson, Port Jefferson and Southold. The Bees also have a handful of mandatory nonleague games that will count toward its league schedule and thus have an effect on qualifying for playoffs. Speaking of playoffs, even combined with Ross, the team has moved back down to Class D and is the only ‘D’ school on Long Island, making a postseason run to the state tournament that much more viable.

The Bees open the season at home against Southampton this Thursday, March 30, at 4 p.m. and will open the league season with a doubleheader at Port Jeff on April 12.