How Stony Brook is benefiting from influx of local baseball talent
George Adams of Massapequa and Paul Dulanto of Massapequa react after a double play ends the inning during a Nassau high school baseball game against Farmingdale on Tuesday, April 29, 2024 in Farmingdale. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Matt Senk knows recruiting is an inexact science. But if the Stony Brook baseball coach could build the perfect formula, Long Island’s top high school seniors would be the cardinal element.
The Glenn High School alum, with a .585 career winning percentage in 34 years at the helm, has taken the Seawolves from a once-Division III program to the sport’s highest heights: six NCAA Division I Regionals and a trip to the 2012 College World Series. Local talent has been at the forefront of it all.
“The foundation of our program has always been a Long Island player,” he said.
The 2025 campaign, and beyond, will be no different. Seven Newsday All-Long Island selections — Kings Park pitcher Hunter Colagrande, Massapequa pitcher George Adams, Commack pitcher Evan Kay, Farmingdale pitcher/first baseman Jordan Welch, Comsewogue shortstop/pitcher Nick Zampieron, Smithtown East catcher Luke Ciminiello and Massapequa catcher Paul Dulanto — and All-NSCHSAA third baseman Michael Cervoni (Chaminade) will join the Seawolves as freshmen next season.
“To go out and recruit and be able to get some of this top talent from Long Island is just kind of what we’ve done in the past and it's been the staple of our program,” Senk said. “We’ve had a lot of success doing that, and we hope that this class is going to come in and be successful as well. If what they’ve done in high school translates to college, we’re going to be in great shape.”
Dulanto, an All-Long Island pick each of the past two seasons and the Nassau Conference AAA-I most valuable position player this year, was the first of the octet to commit to Stony Brook, announcing his commitment on June 17, 2022. He had a fellow Massapequa player talk him through his recruitment in Erik Paulsen, one of 15 Long Islanders on Stony Brook this spring and a first baseman/pitcher who earned Freshman All-America honors.
As the earliest to commit, Dulanto put on his recruiter hat to help persuade Adams, this year’s Doug Robins Diamond Award winner as Nassau’s top pitcher, to join him.
“I would convince him. I’d be like, ‘Hey George, when are you gonna come?’ ” Dulanto said. “Me and Erik would bug him all the time, tell him that he has to come, has to come.”
Dulanto said the group has already become close, and he has hit with his future teammates and caught some of the pitchers.
Colagrande, who had a 10-0 record with 104 strikeouts and a 0.30 ERA this spring, won the Carl Yastrzemski Award as Suffolk’s top player. Kay, who tossed a Long Island-record 60 consecutive scoreless innings between 2023 and 2024, won the Paul Gibson Award as Suffolk’s best pitcher.
Colagrande said it speaks volumes "that the top pitchers on Long Island — like we all got the awards, the Diamond Award, the Gibson, the Yastrzemski — that we're all staying home to pitch together."
Welch and Zampieron starred as two-way players this spring. Welch went 7-3 with a 1.59 ERA and hit .392 with seven homers. Zampieron went 7-2 with a 0.87 ERA and hit .481 with 26 RBIs. Ciminiello also garnered hardware as Suffolk’s Gold Glove catcher.
“They’re guys that have been really successful, had great ends to their career, their senior years, well deserving of all these awards,” Senk said. “And to have them be able to come into our program and develop . . . I think they’ll be impactful players at the college level like they’ve been at the high school level.”
"It’s just all around the Island, just seeing it, it's just crazy how you can almost pinpoint top players, and it’s Stony Brook," Dulanto added. "They're going to Stony Brook.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.