Massapequa Jr. NEWSmakers

It was an intriguing match up at the quarterfinals of the Massapequa Little League playoffs. The upstart Ambassador Home Improvement Tigers, led by head coach Gary Zaccaro, were facing off against the red hot Westfield Sunrise Astros and their small ball style manager, Jordan Rose.

During pre game warm ups, you wouldn’t know by the mannerisms of the Tigers that they were underdogs in the game. Tigers Manager Gary Zaccaro had his band of scrappy kids pumped up to face the opposition. In my pre game conversation with Mr. Zaccaro, he spoke confidently about his Tigers chances: “We have an edge because we beat them (Astros) 11-5 during the regular season with only 7 of our own guys,” said Coach Zaccaro. “We’re one of only six teams left, while ten are at home sleeping.” Coach Zaccaro followed pride fully.

While the Ambassador Tigers and their coaching staff were excitedly brimming with exuberance, in contrast, the Westfield Sunrise Astros and their leadership seemed to have an air of quiet confidence about them. I spoke with the Westfield Sunrise Astros manager, Jordan Rose, about his pre-game expectations. More specifically, I asked Mr. Rose what he and the Astros intended to do differently to prevent another defeat at the hands of the Tigers. "We have to cut down on mental mistakes,” started Manager Rose.  “We’re very confident right now because we have won 3 in a row; we have great pitching, and we have a lineup that is very patient. We have a very good offense that puts the ball in play, and runs the bases very aggressively.”

I also caught up with a few of the Astros players before the game began.  Dan Alliano said “We’re going to rock!” while Joe Fusco and Kosta Marcopulos both agreed that the Astros would win a close game over the Tigers.

As the ballgame began, both teams took their positive attitudes with them onto the field. It was time to decide a victor on the baseball diamond.  The Astros threw their athletic fireballer Tommy Macri to start the game, and behind their starting pitcher, the “Stros” found a hot start. Through the first two innings, Macri mowed down the Tiger offense, going 2 2/3rds innings while allowing only one hit and one earned run which scored after Macri left the game.

While Astro pitching and defense kept the Tigers off the board during the early going, Jordan Rose’s 2002 Anaheim Angels style of offense proved the manager’s own words to be true. Through a combination of patience, contact hitting, and aggressive base running, the Astros were able to put up five runs over the course of the first two innings.  Although they fell behind early, the Tigers refused to go down without a fight. With two outs in the top of the third inning, timely hitting from the Tiger offense provided a two run rally. While the Tiger comeback effort was valiant in the top of the third, as well as the fourth when they scored again, the Tigers simply could not find an answer to the pressure offense of the Astros.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, with a 9-3 lead, the Astros scored four runs, causing the run rule to come into effect. This gave the Astros a 13-3 victory over the Tigers, sending the Astros to the semi finals of the playoffs.  It was not for a lack of effort that the Tigers were eliminated in these Little League playoffs. The Ambassador Home Improvement Tigers have a lot to be proud of as a group, and from the looks of things, they have a bright future ahead of them under the tutelage of manager Zaccaro. From the account of Tigers assistant coach Harry Moreno, the Tigers had a losing record during the regular season. “It’s a big deal for us to get this far. The kids really came together as the season went along after a sloppy start. To see these kids succeed is satisfying.” Exclaimed assistant coach Moreno.

But, when all was said and done, the story of the game was the solid pitching and offensive execution of the Westfield Sunrise Astros.  “We’re playing with lots of confidence right now,” exclaimed satisfied manager Jordan Rose in a post game interview.  “We’ve won four straight; the kids are having a lot of fun, and I’m proud of them.” Coach Rose said.

Following the game, I also spoke with Astros starting pitcher, and offensive contributor Tommy Macri. Macri not only pitched admirably, but also hit a double for the Astros in the bottom of the fourth, all but sealing the game.  “I feel happy.” Macri simply stated when asked about his triumphant playoff performance. Macri is a man of few words, but when push comes to shove, he’s the type of player you want out there in a pressure situation.

With a win on Wednesday evening, the Astros clinched a spot in the semi finals of the playoffs, just one win away from a World Series appearance.

CYO Basketball Presents Trophy of Appreciation to Legislator Mejias

Nassau County Legislator Dave Mejias (D—Farmingdale) was invited to the CYO Boys’ Basketball Program’s end of season pizza party held recently at St. Killian’s Church fellowship hall in Farmingdale. After celebrating a championship title for one of the teams, Legislator Mejias presented a citation to every youngster who participated this year.

Tom Cinelli, the president of this CYO endeavor, surprised Legislator Mejias with a trophy in acknowledgment of the legislator’s unwavering friendship and support of the program.

Dioguardi Scores Big in Linguistics Olympiad

            The Massapequa Public School District is proud to announce that senior Frankie Dioguardi is one of 120 students out of 740 nationwide to receive a top score in the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO) held at Columbia University. The competition challenged students with interesting linguistic problems from dozens of the world's languages. In solving the problems, students learned about the richness and diversity of language, while exercising logic, problem solving, and critical-reasoning skills. “I like to solve puzzles,” Dioguardi stated. “Accomplishing this using patterns from other languages was a great challenge.” Dioguardi has now moved on to the final round of the competition, after which eight of the top scorers will travel to Bulgaria for the international competition. Dioguardi is headed to The Citadel this fall on a full scholarship, and is pictured here with (left to right) Massapequa Public School District Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Chairperson Susan Ruiz, Foreign Language  teacher Pam Hudson, and Massapequa High School – Main Campus Principal Dr. James Grossane.

The Massapequa Wildcats took first place in the Girls U9 Division of the East Islip Indoor Soccer Tournament on Sunday, February 24, 2008.  The girls went undefeated as they faced teams from Smithtown, Sayville, East Islip, and West Islip. 

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The Massapequa Lightning took FIRST PLACE in the Girls' U8 division in the 2007 Father's Day Intramural Tournament on Saturday, June 16, 2007 at John J. Burns Park in Massapequa.  All four Massapequa U8 Girl teams went home with a trophy as they took first and second place in both divisions.

U8 girl teams participated from Rockville Centre, Plainview/ Old Bethpage, East Islip, East Meadow and Lindenhurst.
Pictured below: Front row: Ashley Cosenza, Allison Abbate and Claire Korber.  Center: Francesca Lawless, Lia Capuana, Grace Cirella, Sara Lutz, Shannon Brooks, Kaitlyn Lucey and Cassidy Byrnes.  Back: Coaches Frank Lawless and Jennifer Abbate.  Missing from photo: Christie Bott