CHSAA baseball preview

Holy Trinity had quite a run to the NSCHSAA regular-season title and the playoff championship last year with a blend of power pitching and timely hitting. The Titans lost six of those starters but don't tell head coach Bob Malandro his team can't repeat.

"We have pitching, defense and speed," said Malandro, Newsday's Coach of the Year in 2010. "And the goal is to defend the crown."

Holy Trinity won the title for the first time since 2003 by sweeping St. John the Baptist in the best-of-three finals. The Titans will rely on junior lefthander Alex Robinson. Last season, he was 6-2 and earned the win in the title-clincher.

Chaminade returns 16 players, including 15 seniors and one junior, Terrence Connelly, the first sophomore called to varsity in 13 years. Seven players have committed to Division I schools and the pitching staff is 12 deep, led by seniors Kevin Weissheier, Brendan Mulligan, Zach Grossfeld, Andrew Gallagher and Eric Truss. The Flyers' offense will revolve around switch-hitting second baseman Tommy Roulis.

St. John the Baptist is loaded with pitching in senior Brendan McKnight, junior Andrew Sesto and sophomore Chris Lemorrocco. The Cougars have been to the finals four straight years.

St. Mary's catcher Alex Falconi is Seton Hall bound but he only has shortstop Vin Maietta and senior Joe Tracy on a team with little depth. And St. Anthony's first-year coach Rob Wilcox will have to choose from some excellent junior pitching prospects in Jake Kurz, Dave Groeneveld and Alex Castellano to help turn the Friars' program in the right direction

There is no overwhelming favorite, which makes the all-wood bat NSCHSAA very interesting this year.