By Joseph StasZeWski and Christine sampson
This year's team is loaded with seniors, including pitcher/outfielder and No. 3 hitter Lemonte Attles, pitcher/designated hitter Charlie Novak, third baseman Rubi Ramos and first baseman Ernie Reyes. The team also shifts divisions, going from Queens North B to South B this season.However, the Dolphins (12-4 last year) graduated their starting catcher of the last three years, Andrew Chaluisant. Senior Keron Carter volunteered this past summer to learn the position. Kazalski says his development will be important.Kazalski does expect the pitching to be stronger this year, with the return and continued development of his best pitcher, sophomore Danny Rodriguez.Ray Adamkiewicz is back in his second year as Townsend Harris' baseball coach. Last year, the Hawks won the PSAL 'B' title over Beach Channel in a thrilling 6-5 game. Adamkiewicz turned down an offer to move up to the 'A' league, citing a low number of boys at the school. Another reason to stay in the 'B' was the loss of six seniors from last year, including star pitcher Chris Fuchs, catcher Joe Kresse and shortstop Nikolas Kaloudis.Adamkiewicz thinks he has a strong, albeit younger team this year. He has mostly sophomores and juniors, and he'll be counting on his only returning starters from last year: senior first basemen John Tatti and senior pitcher Chris Guillou.Having graduated only three starters from last year's Queens B South division champion team, Van Buren coach Ed Shechtman is looking forward to another successful season.”Early on we were saying, 'the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender,'” Shechtman said. “We're a hardworking team. We go six or seven days a week.”One of the team's biggest challenges will be the amount of traveling it will have to do; Van Buren lacks a home field this season.But a pair of talented, experienced hurlers will make the VeeBees' task a lot easier. Senior lefty Craig Lalla was 6-0 in league play with a .390 ERA, and sophomore righty Matthew Maharaj was 5-1 in league play and racked up 63 strikeouts overall.Shechtman also boasts a talented freshman class, including Louis Massa, who pitches and plays third base, Joseph Zamora, who plays second base and outfield.Queens Vocational has a luxury most teams only dream of – experience and versatility. Coach Rob Schimenz returns a team of 10 seniors. Most of his upperclassman are utility players, many of whom who can pitch as well as play numerous other positions.The Tigers, which lost catcher Kendel Ortiz to graduation, still return a veteran group of senior captains; pitcher/third baseman Alberto Aspiazu, leftfielder/second baseman Sandy Rodriguez and pitcher Fernando Nunez. Sophomore catcher Daniel Medina and classmates, utility man Radell Fernandez and pitcher/infielder Diomede Gonzalez, should also make an impact. Austin Martin may be inexperienced, but they are filled with potential. Yet, coach Paul Herman's team will need to see both its pitching and fielding improve if it is going to better its record from a year ago. “It's going to be a process that's for sure,” Herman said. “We are either going to be very good or very bad.”The team does have an impressive battery of juniors, pitcher Michael Dejesus and catcher Ramon Acevedo. Kenneth Noriega will replace graduate Josue Fernandez at shortstop and senior pitcher Eugene Poulson, in his first season, will look to bolster the team's rotation.-Erin Bruel and Mitch Abramson contributed to this story
