East Meadow baseball is on the verge of a long-awaited postseason run in Nassau Class AA as 13 seniors play on in the twilight of their final season. After several years of impressive development, the Jets are ready to win now and currently hold a 12-4 overall record as playoffs approach.
After wrapping up April with a series victory over Bethpage and a three-game sweep of Jericho, East Meadow is first in the AA-1 conference with three games to go.
"The conference is loaded," East Meadow first-year coach Billy O'Connor said. "You've got a lot of good teams and it's competitive. If we want to win the conference, we have to finish out strong and win it out. This is one of the goals the kids had at the start of the year, to win the conference."
With a 9-3 league record heading into the final series of the regular season, the Jets are currently one game ahead of Division and two games ahead of MacArthur. If they finish strong in their final series against Glen Cove, they have a chance to secure a high seed and potential bye in the Class AA playoffs later in May.
Seven of East Meadow's 12 victories so far have been determined by three runs or less, making timeliness as important to the Jets' success as outright talent. At the plate, senior captain and catcher Joe Lanza has not only provided pop in the middle of the lineup, but O'Connor stressed that he has also come through at the right times in a lineup that often follows suit.
"Some of these guys thrive in a big spot," O'Connor said. "When there's men on and the game's on the line, these guys keep coming through continually. A lot of it has to do with their maturity and being seniors, and the younger kids are seeing it."
Senior center fielder Eric Garcia is a catalyst in the lineup, a base-stealing leadoff hitter who sets the table for Lanza and other power hitters. Junior shortstop Trevor Smith was an All-County player as a sophomore and leads East Meadow in batting average, while senior outfielder Daron Lake has begun to develop a clutch reputation after several difference-making RBIs in close games.
It's hard to nail down a primary threat in East Meadow's deep arsenal, but O'Connor described senior first baseman Owen Smith, Trevor's older brother, as the Jets' best hitter batting third.
"His numbers right now probably aren't where he'd like them to be, but he leads the team in RBIs," O'Connor said. "He's had a couple of rocket at-bats where he has nothing to show for it, but he's a power threat and exceptional hitter."
Both Smith brothers also contribute on the mound for East Meadow and have helped fill the void left by injured ace Alec Coelho. Senior Spencer Kemler has also caught fire late in the season, often filling in directly for Coelho as a de facto ace.
Senior Samuel Dominguez, as well as sophomores Kyle Francis and Matthew Esslinger, round out the Jets' core group on the mound. East Meadow has provided its pitchers with countless high-leverage situations, but the staff has held up well to keep games close when necessary.