East Meadow sweeps defending champs

East Meadow is turning heads on the baseball field in more ways than one. Not only did the Jets sweep defending Nassau Class AA champion Massapequa, in a two-game series, but junior Matt Mascia crushed a homer to dead center, nearly 400 feet away in the second game, a 10-1 victory on April 23. The wins were the program’s first over the Chiefs since 2005.

The Mascia blast, in the second inning, jump-started an offensive attack that would bat around in the very next frame and give senior pitcher Luis Cuello more than enough support on the mound. Seniors Chris Mackay and Ryan Bergmann and junior Marcus Kabigting each had two hits in the win as the Jets improved to 10-1 overall and 8-0 Conference AA-II. Cuello, meanwhile, continued his masterful pitching this season, going the distance and allowing just one unearned run and four singles.

For the season, Cuello’s numbers are eye-opening. He’s pitched 27 innings, allowed one earned run, struck out 33 and has yet to allow a walk. And of the 16 hits he’s allowed, 15 have been singles. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” East Meadow coach John Marciante said. “We’ve had kids with great control have a 3-1 or 4-1 strikeout to walk ratio, but never [33-0].”

With a pair of 10 strikeout games and a nine-strikeout game under his belt, Cuello’s four strikeouts against Massapequa may seem low, but that was all because of his opponent’s approach.

“They were very aggressive and swinging at a lot of first pitches,” Marciante said, noting Cuello needed just 76 pitches in the throwing a complete game. “So we decided to go off-speed and with [more] changeups. He got a lot of groundballs and popups and wasn’t getting those two strike opportunities.”

Teammate Brian Kavanagh led East Meadow to a 5-0 win over the Chiefs on April 21, scattering five hits and striking out eight. Kavanagh danced in and out of trouble for much of the game, including a bases-loaded situation with one out in the fourth. He induced consecutive groundballs back to the mound and went home for both outs to escape the jam. In the seventh, with a runner on first following a walk and no one out, the defense behind him turned a line drive to short into a double play—nailing the runner at first—and ended the game on a simple groundout.

“We picked a guy off second and also third base [in the game],” Marciante said. “He got out of some jams in the early innings, settled in and got stronger as the game went on.”

Mascia drove in two runs with a single in the seventh, helping Kavanagh improve his record to 4-0. The senior, a two-time All-County honoree, has allowed just one earned run on 24 hits and nine walks over 28 innings with 30 strikeouts.  Even junior Joe Minucci, the third starter in the rotation, has pitched in, spinning a shutout in a 9-0 win over Syosset, allowing just three hits and two walks, striking out six.