South Side baseball's pregame routine includes rolling out fences
Dom Galeofiore of Bethpage slides under the tag of South Side's Aidan Medeiros during a Nassau Conference A-III baseball game in Rockville Centre on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
High school baseball teams have all sorts of equipment they roll out to get ready for a home game. One might see weighted balls, resistance bands, L-shaped screens for pitchers throwing batting practice and mobile backstops that hitters take BP in. South Side has one piece of equipment it brings out before home games that you don’t see too often: an outfield fence.
While the Cyclones have a sparkling all purpose facility at the school for boys and girls soccer, football, boys and girls lacrosse and softball – among other sports – there isn’t enough space in the footprint for a baseball diamond. Instead South Side uses Barasch Field, 2.5 miles away and situated in the Mill River Complex Park.
For years the park had no fences and a very well-hit ball to right or center field could roll into the river. In 2016, the town enhanced the park and installed a walkway along the water with benches that faced it. “It was dangerous because the benches are cemented in and an outfielder could run into one,” Cyclones ninth-year coach Tom Smith explained. The remedy was temporary fencing to be put up in right and center fields.
Barasch has fixed into the ground holders for the posts of the fence and the Cyclones bring the fence from storage at the school and install it before starting batting practice. They bring it in after games when they are not going to be the next group to use the field.
“It’s a pregame routine that other teams don’t do, but we do what we have to,” Smith said.
Heyder, Oelcher power Sachem East
After Patchogue-Medford ace Josh Knoth’s pitched a one-hit shutout, Sachem East needed to win the last two games of the teams’ three-game regular season series to capture the Suffolk I championship. It used what has become this season’s tried-and-true formula to get it done: it rode the powerful bats of Rich Heyder and Nick Oelcher and posted 4-3 and 10-6 victories.
Oelcher, who had the lone hit against Knoth, was a combined 6-for-9 with five RBI (including all four in the first win). Heyder was 3-for-7 with six RBI and had a three-run homer to break open the rubber game.
“These guys have been a tough bump in our lineup for most teams to overcome,” East coach Kevin Schnupp said. “They’ve shown a lot of leadership and selflessness for us this season.”
In 19 games, Olecher – a St. Thomas Aquinas commit – is batting .493 with three home runs, 32 RBI and a 1.314 OPS. The NJIT-bound Heyder is batting .500 in 18 games with four home runs, 28 RBI, 13 stolen bases and a 1.468 OPS.
Seeds for Section VIII
Section VIII (Nassau) has announced seeding for its playoff fields. In the eight-team Class AA tournament, Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK is the top seed with Massapequa the No. 2. The top four seeds for the 19-team Class A tournament are, in order, Calhoun, South Side, MacArthur and Clarke; In the four-team Class B/C tourney, Wheatley is the top seed.
Section XI (Suffolk) is expected to announce seedings for its tournament on Sunday.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
