Ready and Willing

This is not the first spring Pat Torney has had high expectations. He’s always had talent at Bayside - power-hitting outfielders, hard-throwing right-hand pitchers, slick-fielding middle infielders.
In his 19 previous seasons as Bayside’s manager, the problem had never been lack of ability, but it seemed whenever Torney had a solid group, by the time the team was ready to accomplish something, to make a legit run at a division title or city championship, the core would unravel.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “the Bayside animal is such that by the time they get to senior year, they lose their hunger for the game. … They lose the desire to play, period. I’ve had kids who played their first three years, and decided they wanted to work, or their girlfriend became more important.”
Torney has made a point to tell this group that story each and every spring. For the most part, however, that isn’t a problem with this squad.
Besides No. 2 hitter Herbert Sheppard, who dropped off the team unexpectedly, and graduating senior Matt Perrone, the entire team is back from last year’s PSAL quarterfinalist group, including ace right-hander Anthony Velazquez, the much-talked-about author of back-to-back perfect games a season ago, senior southpaw Eric Strauss, junior outfielder Antonio Koulotouros, and talented junior shortstop Jorge Ynoa, among others.
“He always talked to us about those kids who fall out, drop out or whatever,” said Strauss, 2-0 with one save, a division-high 29 strikeouts and 1.75 earned run average. “We all stayed around. We came together, we were always pretty successful, always had fun together. There was no reason to leave.”
Asked what he thought of past Bayside baseball players who’d abruptly quit the team, Ynoa, a fierce competitor who leads the Commodores with seven runs scored, said, “They’re not real baseball players. When you’re hungry for wins, you will do what it takes.”
Assistant coach Matt Rotundi, a pitcher on the other Bayside team to reach the PSAL Elite-8 back in 1989, got the season off on the right foot by putting the team through an arduous calisthenics-based pre-season workouts this March. Even that early, he noticed this group wasn’t like so many others that let Torney down. “I really think we’ve got good, honest kids, and I can’t ask for anything more,” he said. “They are willing to learn.”
“I see it in the attitudes of all the players, we all want this,” Velazquez added. “This is probably like our only shot. I feel like this is the year we can actually do something, at least go past the quarterfinals. The city championship is definitely on our minds. Definitely.”
More importantly, the Commodores haven’t let last season’s historic run cloud this spring’s goals of going further into the postseason and winning the Queens East-A division. Instead of starting the season cocky, they’ve set out determined on improving off of last year’s finish.
Off to a 4-0 start in league play behind a surprisingly potent lineup, Bayside understands there is a long ways to go before they can compete with the city’s best.
“I know a lot of the kids on Monroe, George Washington, Beacon, and I know they are very, very, very good teams,” Velazquez said of the city’s supposed juggernauts. “I know we have to step up our level of play to play with them. [But] I really believe if we play to our full potential, I think we can make a city championship this year.”
After last year’s season-ending loss to Staten Island power Tottenville, many of the Commodores, including Torney, took a moral victory out of the setback. Playing the Pirates tough for a young team, after all, was definitely a step in the right direction.
Velazquez, perhaps sending an early message for the following year, said afterward: “Now we know we can play with every team in the city. Hard work, hard work, that’s all I ask. Get bigger, get stronger, get faster. … I’m pushing everybody next year.”
Torney was encouraged, but still unsure of what would happen the following spring. When practice began, and all his players were around, he was able to rest easy at last. “They’ve stayed hungry,” he said.
Not only have they returned but they appear even more focused. “They’re a lot more intense. They’ve been working harder; our practices are spirited. I find this group is more of a ‘we’ group than a ‘me’ group,” Torney said. “They’re not concerned so much with individual statistics as they are about winning games.”
Of even greater importance, the Commodores are all ready and willing to do whatever it takes.