AJ Conza works out of jam to lift Massapequa baseball past Farmingdale
Massapequa’s AJ Conza had one out, the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate but escaped on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Credit: Jonathan Singh
Massapequa junior lefthander AJ Conza has earned the trust of his teammates and coaches in tense moments.
“He’s known for these kind of situations,” senior second baseman Vincenzo Della Porta said. “He comes in late game all the time. He’s used to it by now. It’s normal for him.”
Conza entered with the tying run at the plate as visiting Massapequa led by four over Farmingdale with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the seventh. He immediately recorded a strikeout, worked around a four-pitch, run-scoring walk by Kenneth Roldan and induced a game-ending flyout to leftfield to secure Massapequa’s 9-6 win in a Nassau Conference AAA baseball game Wednesday at Howitt Middle School.
“I’m trying to throw strikes for my team and get ahead in the count as much as possible,” Conza said. “It's just about the first pitch. That first pitch means a lot. Once you get that first-pitch strike, all the momentum comes toward me and it basically takes the bat out of the batter's hands.”
Said Massapequa coach Tom Sheedy: “We had six sophomores last year with us. (Conza) was one of them. And because he was with us on the varsity, he can come in in those situations now. If he had come up to us this year as a junior, he's not ready for that situation. That's why we try to bring up some pitchers as sophomores a lot of times.
“We're proud of him. He's come a long, long way.”
Massapequa (3-2, 3-2) fought back after Farmingdale (5-1, 4-1) held a 4-1 lead through three innings. Massapequa, which rebounded from back-to-back losses to Oceanside, scored four runs in both the fifth and seventh innings.
“Our past couple games haven't been really us,” Della Porta said. “We all knew it's not how we want to play. It's not how we're going to play. We just have to come out high energy, got to move our bats. We did well today.”
Della Porta had a two-out, two-run double in the seventh to extend Massapequa’s advantage to 9-4.
Caiden Erker had two RBIs, a sac fly in the fifth and a seventh-inning double. Jason Romance had a two-run single with two outs in the fifth to give Massapequa a 5-4 lead, which it never surrendered.
Farmingdale had four straight baserunners to start the bottom of the seventh — a walk by Ive Mills and singles by Angel Cartagena, John Franco and Lorenzo Cimino, who hit a two-run homer in the second inning.
“Our goal is May and June,” Sheedy said. “It's a game in April, it’s important. But May and June is really where we got to make sure that we're playing the right way, and that's what we're working on.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
