Chaminade wins NSCHSAA baseball championship

Dynasties are different.

Their names are instantly recognizable due to histories of incredible, almost unfathomable success: The New York Yankees. The Montreal Canadiens. The Boston Celtics. The New England Patriots. The UCLA Bruins. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

And in Long Island high school baseball, the Chaminade Flyers.

“These seniors, they won a championship as freshmen, no season (their) sophomore year, one as juniors (and now). So you want to call that a dynasty?” said head coach Michael Pienkos after Chaminade’s 5-1 win over Kellenberg in Game 3 of the best-of-three NSCHSAA boys baseball championship series Tuesday at University Field on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead. Chaminade won the best-of-three series two-games-to-one, and now has won three straight league championships -- 2019, 2021, and 2022; the 2020 season was canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic--and 20 titles overall.  

After splitting the first two games of the series Monday -- Kellenberg won Game 1, 4-3, and Chaminade came back to win Game 2, 8-1 -- the top-seeded Flyers (23-2; 19-2) broke open what had been a taut winner-take-all game in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs to stretch a 2-1 lead to 5-1.

After Kellenberg starter Braden McCann walked Brady Steinert to load the bases, Nolan Nawrocki lined a two-out, two RBI double off Brendan McCann.. Moments later, Steinert scored on a wild pitch.

“With Nolan coming up in that situation, I knew he was going to hit the ball hard,” Pienkos said. “Thankfully, he found green grass.”

Nawrocki, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, added, “Off the bat I barreled it. I hit it high enough where I knew it was going out of the infield and I was right.”

And just like that, the outcome of what had been a classic was, for all intents and purposes, determined.

“Unfortunately, it’s kind of the story of our season,” said Kellenberg coach Pat Miles. The third-seeded Firebirds finished the year with a 17-9 overall record, and 16-9 in league play. “Whether it’s swinging at a bad pitch or it’s just taking a good pitch or whatever the came may be, we went through stretches of just not being able to capitalize. …Unfortunately today was one of those days.”

Chaminade starter Andrew Heiderstadt went 5 ⅔ innings before giving way to Antonio Tufano for the final 1 ⅓ innings.  

Andrew Koshy, who left the second of two games Monday after being hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first inning, started and played third base for Kellenberg. He went 1-for-4 with a two-out double in the top of the seventh as the No. 3 hitter in the Firebirds lineup. Miles said Koshy was diagnosed Monday with a contusion, and the decision to play was made by the junior.