March 17, 1994

Bobby Hopson, the Bridgehampton School’s all-time scoring leader, recently capped a dazzling four-year career at Wagner College, scoring 19 points — and thus raising his career total to 1,568, good for fifth place on the Staten Island college’s all-time list — in a Northeast Conference semifinal-round loss to Rider College, the eventual champion. It was the third time this season that Rider, an 83-75 winner, had defeated Wagner.

In the six Northeast Conference tournament games played in his career, Hopson, a 5-foot-10-inch shooting guard, averaged 24 points per game, shot 53.5 percent from the field, and netted an amazing 60.6 percent of his 3-point attempts.

. . . In the Rider-Wagner conference final last year, ESPN announcers raved about Hopson and his opposite number, Darrick Suber, who’s now playing professionally in New Zealand. 

—

Bob Wolff, a sports anchor on Channel 12, exhorted attendees at Monday’s Athletic Leaders Club seminar at East Hampton High School to follow the Golden Rule, and to remember that in the end “it’s not so much the glory, the accolades, or the money, but what sort of person you were. . . . Success, he said, required “more perspiration than inspiration,” adding that “a pat on the back is a lot more effective than a kick in the pants,” and that “the only race you should care about is the human race.”

March 24, 1994

The East Hampton 9-and-10-year-old Biddy basketball team added the Sag Harbor invitational tournament championship to its laurels Saturday, going 4-0 during the course of the day and edging its Harbor peers 41-40 in the final.

It was the third time this season the young Bonackers, who finished the season at 12-0, prevailed over the Harbor Biddies. All of the games were nip-and-tuck.

. . . In the end, it was Marcele Street who carried the mail for East Hampton. Held to only 3 points in the first half, Street scored 13 in the second half — 6 of them in crunch time. Street’s big baskets at the end — and the fact that Eric Thompson, Sag Harbor’s center and the tallest kid on the floor, fouled out with four minutes remaining — served to tilt the game East Hampton’s way.

. . . “I don’t think there’s a better 9-10 team than East Hampton in the county,” said Tom Mac, the Harbor Biddies’ coach. “Both towns are on the ball now — we’ve got good programs again.”

—

Andy Levandoski drew a crowd at the East Hampton Bowl on March 15 as word got around that the veteran bowler was flirting with a perfect 300 game.

Actually, Levandoski, who is with the Van Dyke & Hand team, a middle-of-the-pack entry in the Tuesday businessmen’s league, wasn’t flirting — he was in hot pursuit. And he would have made it had he not been “rapped” in the 12th frame by the 10-pin.

“Andy’s last ball was a good one,” said Steve Graham, one of about 30 onlookers. “Ordinarily, the three-pin will take out the six, and the six will take the 10, but this time the six went wide. When that happens, it’s called a ‘rap.’ ”

Levandoski’s 299 is apparently the first 299 at the Bowl since the late John Vinski did it some 30 years ago. It was Levandoski’s personal best in a lifetime of bowling that began, he said, when he was 8.

Jon Reed in an email this week said that league play is about to get underway at the Montauk Downs golf course. A Wednesday morning men’s league is to begin this week; three women’s leagues are to begin early in June.

Playing in leagues, Reed said, “is a great way to meet new friends — weekly matches are arranged by the pro shop, and the format changes every week. Low gross and low net prizes will be awarded. There will also be inter-club play, home and away, and league participants will get discounts on carts, range balls, and lessons.”

Play in the men’s league — the registration fee is $175, $200 if handicapping service is required — is to begin Wednesday, at 11 a.m., and is to continue through Nov. 13. “A shortened four-month membership is available for $125 with no handicap service.”

Registration fees for the 18-hole, 9-hole, and 2x9-hole women’s leagues range from $125 to $150.

The East Hampton High School boys tennis team, as strong a one as East Hampton has had in recent memory, dropped a 5-2 decision to Half Hollow Hills East, a nonleague opponent, here on March 27, but the Bonackers, a number of whom were admittedly off that day, may get a chance to avenge themselves in the countywide team tournament in May.

Jonny De Groot, a Bridgehampton senior who has all the shots and a big serve, won at first singles, defeating Ishen Varma 6-2, 6-3. Luke Louchheim, East Hampton’s number-three, a Pierson freshman, also won, by scores of 7-5, 6-4. Ravi MacGurn, an East Hampton senior who plays two, lost 6-4, 6-1 to Hills East’s Michael Han, and Max Astilean, an eighth grader, lost at four, 6-4, 6-3.

Regarding De Groot, Kevin McConville, the coach, said, “I’m working with him on hitting his serve wide to both the deuce and ad courts. Because of his high-kicking serve, everyone’s been playing eight to 10 feet behind the baseline. If he can angle his serves wide, the whole court will be open for him.”

The doubles teams were swept by Hills East’s teams, though Bonac’s second and third duos — Jamie Fairchild and Brad Drubych and Matthew McGovern and Miles Clark — kept it close.

During a conversation over the weekend, McConville said he thought that his second and third doubles teams would prevail, “but four of our six kids had bad days,” a critique, he added, that was not gainsaid.

“There was a big buildup to this match” with one of the county’s strongest teams, “and the kids were too excited,” said the coach. “There were a lot of double faults and blown shots.”

On the other hand, McGovern, a sophomore who last year was the recipient of McConville’s “most improved” award, came in for praise. “He’s been our most improved player this season too, by far. He’s grown two or three inches and is the best poacher we have.”

Asked if he’d been telling his other doubles players to watch him, McConville said, “I have.”

Drubych, a Pierson senior, has also been playing well, which has got McConville thinking of pairing McGovern with Drubych, who also is a good poacher, soon. As for first doubles, Alex Weseley, a Pierson senior who missed East Hampton’s first three matches, was, not unexpectedly, “really rusty.” He and Jaedon Glasstein lost 6-2, 6-4 that day.

Drubych and Fairchild lost 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, and, at third doubles, which McConville thought would be the deciding point, McGovern and Miles Clark lost 6-4, 7-5.

Given the interchangeability of his doubles players, he might continue to mix and match in an attempt to arrive at the most compatible combinations, McConville said. “Matt and Brad ought to be good together — I think they would go undefeated at two or three. . . . I might put Alex and James at either two or three. I may throw someone else in with Jaedon. . . .”

His strategy for MacGurn, who covers the court well “and doesn’t make a lot of unforced errors,” was to extend the rallies with Han, who, McConville said, “had the best backhand I’ve seen, and his forehand wasn’t bad either. Our plan was to grind it out. . . . I think he was Hills East’s toughest player.”

Louchheim, said the coach, “went down 1-4 in the first set, but adjusted to a more aggressive game, playing the ball to the other kid’s backhand at every opportunity, and turned it around. I’m so proud of him.”

At four, “Max made a lot of unforced errors against a solid kid.”

Of course there was good news too last week inasmuch as East Hampton, whose League VII record stood at 4-0 as of Monday, bageled Southampton and Mattituck in league matches. The Bonackers lost only one game in singles versus the Mariners last Thursday, and the doubles teams all won in straight sets.

Only De Groot had to go all the way in the match on March 26 with Mattituck, prevailing 10-3 in a deciding super tiebreaker after losing the second set 7-6.

Looking ahead to the postseason, McConville said, “There are five or six teams who can beat each other. Harborfields beat Hills East 4-3, Hills West beat Harborfields, Hills East beat Commack 4-3. . . . Of course you never know just from the scores who might have been absent on a given day or what the individual match scores were. But, countywide, it seems pretty even.”

Commack is to play a mandatory nonleaguer here tomorrow, another big match for the Bonackers, who will be without the services of Fairchild.

Today, East Hampton is to play at Westhampton Beach. East Hampton defeated the Hurricanes 7-0 in their first meeting, though it wasn’t a blowout as some of the matches have been.

McConville said he still thinks Hills East and Commack are the class of Suffolk County, “Hills West too, though they’re not the juggernauts they used to be.”

The East Hampton High School baseball team was to have gotten one more chance at a nonleague win at Bayport-Blue Point Tuesday as it heads into league play, with Westhampton Beach, next week.

Despite the three losses, to Mattituck, Southampton, and Shoreham-Wading River — the latter a Long Island champion in three of the past four years — Vinny Alversa, the Bonackers’ head coach, was upbeat. “We’re scoring more, we’re hitting more, and our strikeouts are down,” he said during a telephone conversation Tuesday morning.

Though blanked 8-0 at Shoreham on March 27, Alversa said that “it was much closer than the score indicated. It shoulda been 4-0 if we’d played better defense, if some fly balls hadn’t been misjudged.”

Jackson Baris, his starter, “pitched great — he only gave up three earned runs. It was 7-0 when he came out after five innings. Colin Ruddy [the freshman first baseman] finished up.” 

“We were swinging the bat,” the coach said in reply to a question. “There were no strikeouts.”

Shoreham, he said, scored in three of the game’s seven innings. It had been, he said, a decent ballgame all in all.

The Bonackers also lost last week to Southampton, a League VIII team like Mattituck — Shoreham and Bayport are League VII teams, East Hampton is in League VI. 

“I’d like to have that one back,” Alversa said of the 18-4 loss. “When you walk 15 or 16 people, it’s hard to win.”

Elian Abreu, who otherwise plays third base, started, but “could not find the strike zone, which isn’t typical of him — he only walked 11 in 41 innings in summer ball.”

Westhampton Beach is to open the league season here Tuesday. Game time is 4:30 p.m.

East Hampton’s softball team as of Monday had one win, over Elwood-John Glenn, and had lost three, the latest a 15-0 shellacking on Monday at Miller Place, the League V leader at the moment.

A nonleague game with Mattituck here Friday went down to the wire, however, with the Tuckers winning it 10-8 as the result of a three-run home run to center field by Jaden Thompson with two outs in the top of the seventh.

Annemarie Cangiolosi Brown, who was not immediately available for comment, and her fellow coach, Melanie Anderson, are in the midst of rebuilding the program.

As is the case also when it comes to girls lacrosse, whose head coach, Jessica Sanna, has a physical education job now in the district, at the John M. Marshall Elementary School. That, she said during a conversation this week, ought to bring some stability to the program, which has had several head coaches in the past several years.

East Hampton, she said, received a preseason ranking of 24 among Division II’s 25 schools, and thus could expect a number of mismatches. “It’s a tough league,” Sanna said.

But the good news is that the team, which includes four players from Pierson — Sophia Bitis, an attack who was forced by anterior cruciate ligament surgery to sit out last season, Grace Perello, a sophomore who handles the draws, Emma Rascelles, a precocious eighth grader, and Kristin Pettigrew — has often been finding the nets, a recent 18-8 loss to Longwood and an 18-7 loss to Hauppauge providing evidence of that.

Others on Bonac’s squad are Ella Bistrian, a ninth grader, Stella McCormack, Rorey Murphy, the goalie, Anna Hugo, Tiffany Taylor, Lucy Short, Asha Hokanson, and Marilyn Bruehl, all sophomores, Tiana Treadwell, a junior, and Emily Lupercio and Kenverly Munoz, seniors.

The boys and girls track seasons began last week, with both teams losing to their Westhampton Beach counterparts — the boys by 81-60 and the girls by 87-56. 

Concerning the latter loss, Yani Cuesta, the girls coach, said that, given the fact she had a lot of new kids (as apparently is the case too with Ben Turnbull’s boys team) and was still trying to assess their strengths, it had been a pretty good showing.

“We did extremely well in the field events,” Cuesta said. “Jen Ortiz P.R.’d and was third in the triple jump at 31 feet 5 inches. In the shot-put Paige Schaeferwas was second and Helen Barranco was third. They reversed those positions in the discus, with Helen second at 73-11 and Paige third at 70-1. Bella Espinoza won the pole vault, at 8-0, Grace Brosnan was second in the high jump, at 4-6, and Lillie Minskoff won the long jump, at 14-4, with Ortiz third, at 13-6.”

On the track, said Cuesta, Ava Eng­strom won the 3,000-meter and 800-meter races; Mimi Fowkes and Jiji Kramer were second and third in the 1,500-meter racewalk, behind Westhampton’s Natalie Ehlers, the fifth-ranked racewalker in the nation; Bella Tarbet was second in the 1,500; Brosnan was second in the 400 intermediate hurdles, and Minskoff was third in the 100 and 200.

“We’re very, very excited about the season,” Cuesta said in signing off.

Horcasitas Wins on Clay

Playing in his first International Tennis Federation 55s tournament recently, Vince Horcasitas, a real estate broker with Saunders and Associates, though unseeded, swept through five clay court matches to win the Miami Beach Tennis Cup. 

“It was a 32-draw with players from all over the world,” Horcasitas said in an email. “It was my first tournament in this age group.”

On the way to the championship, Horcasitas defeated the eighth seed, Ludek Kleibl of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-0 in the second round; Achim Gass, the top seed, a German who is ranked seventh in the 55s worldwide, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals; James Tracy of Doral, Fla., 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals, and Denis Dumas of Montreal, the second seed, 6-2, 6-1 in the final.

Laps for Lessons

Norma Bushman, the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter’s aquatics director, is overseeing until March 30 a “laps for lessons” scholarship fund-raiser at the Y’s pool, with pledges keyed to laps swum by registrants. The top fund-raiser is to receive a three-pack private lesson, the second place fund-raiser is to receive one free nine-week session in any of the Y’s swim classes, and the third-place fund-raiser is to be given a Y.M.C.A. swag bag, according to a flier.

Lifeguard Training 

Sunday junior lifeguard training sessions culminating in 9-through-12-year-old and 13-through-15-year-old swim tests are being held from 2 to 2:45 p.m. and from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. on Sundays (except April 14 and 21) at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter through June 16. 

A flier announcing the sessions, which began March 3, says that “returning junior lifeguards must take a swim test to qualify for our summer program,” and that, as a prerequisite, “trainees will be asked to swim 50 yards freestyle, to tread water in the deep end of the pool for at least five minutes, and to swim 10 to 15 yards underwater in the deep end of the pool.”

Each year the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter Hurricanes’ performance at the state Y swimming meet is a hard act to follow, inasmuch as the 8-through-19-year-old team keeps raising the bar across the board.

Last year, in Buffalo, Tom Cohill’s charges placed third among 39 entries, breaking eight state records along the way. This past weekend, at the Nassau County Aquatics Center, the Hurricanes finished fourth among 36 teams, behind Flushing, which has won this meet 33 straight times, the Cross Island Y, and the Rye Y, all of which had many more entries than did East Hampton, whose roster comprised 55 swimmers.

“So you could say that pound for pound we’re the strongest team in the state,” an elated Cohill said during a conversation at the Y’s pool Monday afternoon.

Cohill had a lapful of plaques to show — one for the 13-14-year-old girls, who were tops in their age group, one for the 15-19 girls, who placed second in theirs, one for the 9-10 girls, who were third in their age group, and one for the 15-19 boys, who also placed third.

Moreover, the Hurricanes’ head coach and Craig Brierley, one of his assistants, are to take 10 competitors — the most ever, there were eight last year — to the Y national meet in Greensboro, N.C., next month.

Angelika Cruz, one of the Hurricanes’ coaches, said in an emailed account that “there were personal bests by every swimmer in at least one event, the most noteworthy performance coming in the girls 13-14 medley relay. East Hampton’s team of Cami Hatch (backstroke), Jane Brierley (breaststroke), Summer Jones (butterfly), and Emily Dyner (freestyle) won the event and set a team record of 1 minute and 53.39 seconds in doing so.” “Ethan McCormac,” Cruz said, “broke a state record [that had stood for 30 years] by winning the 200 free in 1:41.49; Jane Brierley won the open 200 breaststroke, and was second in the 100 breast, and Julia Brierley swam a team-record 58.87 in the 100 backstroke, breaking Cecilia De Havenon’s 59.32.” Julia Brierley placed second in the 100 backstroke and was second, as well, in the 100 breaststroke.

McCormac was the Hurricanes’ top male point scorer, with 60. Cruz’s daughter, Daisy Pitches, a 9-10 competitor who won the 50 breaststroke, topped East Hampton’s girls with 54 points.

But perhaps most impressive, according to Cohill and Cruz, were the facts that numerous Hurricanes who had not done so before enjoyed top-16 finishes and that most of the club’s relay teams finished among the top five.

The 10 swimmers Cohill and Brierley are taking to the Y nationals will be Ethan McCormac, Jane Brierley, Julia Brierley, Sophia Swanson (who was second in the state 200 individual medley and third in the 100 fly), Joey Badilla, Jack Duryea, Ryan Duryea, Aidan Forst, Owen McCormac, and Oona Foulser.

Ethan McCormac, Forst, Owen McCormac, and Ryan Duryea placed second in the 200 free relay at the state meet; Badilla (backstroke), Jack Duryea (breaststroke), Ethan McCormac(butterfly), and Ryan Duryea (freestyle) placed fourth in the 15-19 boys 200 medley relay, and Julia Brierley, Jane Brierley, Swanson, and Foulser placed second in the 15-19 girls 200 medley relay.

The list of those with personal bests comprised Wes Bull, Allison Farez, Lucy Knight, Mia Luna, Zoe McDonald, Aidan Menu, Erika Chunchi, Elizabeth Daniels, Jasiu Gredysa, Liam Knight, Ben Kriegsman, Miles Menu, Lylah Metz, Ben O’Sullivan, Pitches, Dylan Cashin, Ava Castillo, Lily Griffin, Ashley Leon, Margot McAuliffe, Patrick O’Donnell, Daniel Piver, Chloe Resnick, Nicky Badilla, Margaret Breen, Jane Brierley, Dyner, Hatch, Jones, Aidan McCormac, Curran O’Donnell, Tenzin Tamang, Daniel Aliakseyeu, Joey Badilla, Ryan Bahel, Kiara Bailey-Williams, Julia Brierley, Joan Delgado, Jack Duryea, Ryan Duryea, Forst, Foulser, Colin Harrison, Ethan McCormac, Owen McCormac, Fernando Menjura, Linda Pomiranceva, Swanson, and Bella Tarbet.

Assisting Cohill at the meet were Cruz, Craig Brierley, Andrey Trigubovich, Sean Knight, Sean Crowley, and Eugene DePasquale. “We’ve got a tremendous coaching staff,” said Cohill. “They’re either a teacher or a coach — they’re great educators.”

The captains, Ryan Duryea, Foulser, and Forst, were also to be thanked, Cohill said, as well as the Hampton Lifeguard Association and Norma Bushman, the Y’s aquatics director, “for the great support they’ve given us.”

East Hampton High’s senior-heavy boys tennis team is expected to have another standout season.

The Bonackers reached the semifinal round of the county team tournament last spring after sharing the league title with their archrival, Westhampton Beach — but only after Alex Weseley and Hunter Medler soundly defeated Brennan Tomlinson and Santo Benenati 6-1, 6-2 in a showdown that followed Section XI’s dismissal of a claimed 4-3 forfeit by Westhampton’s coach, who, in the second East Hampton-Westhampton meeting, called a halt late in the first set of the first doubles match on the grounds that Weseley was not wearing a team jersey. 

“Appropriate attire,” not necessarily a team jersey, was required, argued Kevin McConville, East Hampton’s coach, who in his successful protest said that while Weseley was not wearing a team jersey he was wearing one with the school colors, maroon and gray.

Westhampton was to have played a league-opening match here Tuesday, a match the Bonackers, who defeated Half Hollow Hills West 4-3 in a season-opening mandatory nonleaguer Friday, were expected to win.

East Hampton’s top three are familiar, with Jonny De Groot of Bridgehampton at one, Ravi MacGurn of East Hampton at two, and Luke Louchheim, a Pierson freshman, at three. The latter went undefeated in league play last season, and lost only a few matches, grudgingly — in nonleaguers and in the postseason — all told.

Max Astilean, an eighth grader who has transferred to East Hampton from the Ross School’s high-powered Tennis Academy, is playing at four, having replaced Brad Drubych and Jaedon Glasstein there. Astilean’s 6-4, 6-4 win at fourth singles was the clinching one Friday, said McConville.  

Drubych, with Matthew McGovern, won 6-2, 6-4 at third doubles, East Hampton’s sole doubles win. Weseley, who’s expected to play first doubles with Glasstein this season, was absent (as was Hills West’s number-two singles player) Friday. 

In Weseley’s absence, Glasstein played with Jamie Fairchild. Those two lost to their Hills West opponents, Keshov Khanna and Aman Khanna, 6-4, 6-4. Miles Clark and John Jimenez lost 6-3, 6-2 at second doubles. MacGurn and Louchheim each won in straight sets in singles. 

De Groot, after dropping the first set 7-6, won the second 6-4, “by keeping the ball low to the other kid’s backhand and coming in for putaways at the net,” McConville said, but lost 10-7 in a third-set super tiebreaker, trailing throughout. “The other kid had an unbelievable forehand, but Jonny played well, he played smart. He’s fun to coach because he has all the tools, a lot of weapons.” 

The head pro at Hampton Racquet, McConville is in his second year of coaching at the high school. He said he expected that Commack and Hills

East would again be the county’s 

top teams. “They split last year . . . Commack wound up as the Long Island champion.”

Hills East is to play a mandatory nonleaguer here tomorrow. McConville said that in the meantime he would be working hard with his doubles teams, “because it comes down to doubles. Teams like Hills East serve hard and poach — even at three.”

On to boys lacrosse: Having been moved up to Division 1 because of the combined enrollments of the high schools — Southampton, East Hampton, Pierson, Ross, and Bridgehampton — from which the South Fork’s team can recruit, the Southampton-based Islanders, whose roster of 23 players includes 10 from East Hampton, is nevertheless expected to be competitive, according to the coach, Matt Babb.

The Islanders lost 15-10 to Port Jefferson on Southampton High’s turf field Friday, but that was without the services of the team’s first-string goalie, Hudson Brindle of Pierson, who is expected to be sidelined for a couple more weeks with a broken hand. 

Cody Bezubek, an East Hamptoner, spelled him in the goal that day, and on making his first save, in the opening minutes, after the Islanders had taken a 2-0 lead, was loudly applauded by his teammates standing on the sidelines.

By halftime Bezubek had made six saves, but Port Jeff, a Division II team, had put seven shots by him for a 7-6 lead at the break. 

The visitors scored a short-handed goal to wrest a 3-2 lead with 4 minutes and 50 seconds left in the first quarter, and built the margin up to 7-2 before the Islanders, in the second period, scored four unanswered goals — one by Luke Morro, two by Zac Mobius, one of them following an interception in the defensive end, and one, a 28-yarder, by Brian Damm, a Bonac senior middie who was the Islanders’ high-scorer last year. 

With the Royals outscoring the Islanders 8-4, there was, however, less to write home about in the second half.

All of Babb’s defensemen are new, though, with Damm, Cole Shaw, and Logan Gurney, all of East Hampton, and with Morro and Mobius, and Connor Rozzi, he’s got some punch on the offense.

The combined team has games scheduled this spring with Sachem North, which finished fourth in the power-rated division last year, Walt Whitman, which finished fifth, William Floyd, which finished sixth, and with Patchogue-Medford, which finished seventh, among its 13 opponents. 

The Islanders, with a preseason ranking of 21 among 23 teams, will have to score some upsets of higher-rated teams to earn a playoff berth. Babb reportedly thinks it’s possible.

When a longtime spectator said he hadn’t seen so many hits in 10 years, Vinny Alversa, who’s in his third year coaching East Hampton High’s varsity baseball team, said Saturday’s display here versus Hampton Bays had surprised him a bit too.

Granted, it was a scrimmage, and the Bonackers, who won three games last season and none the year before, have been playing the year round, but still.

The Baymen, who had only one league win last year, it should be said, led the scrimmage off by touching the first of East Hampton’s pitchers, Kurt Matthews, for a two-run home run, but thereafter it was all good news as Alversa’s charges, all of whom swing the bat, amassed 19 hits and as many runs over the course of seven innings. Hampton Bays, thanks largely to an infield throwing error, were to score three more times, in the top of the fourth.

Hitting-wise, for starters, Matthews had a triple and a double; Austin Brown, the second baseman, had three hits; Colin Ruddy doubled to the base of the left field fence, and Henry Garneau, the center fielder, had two hits. . . . 

But lest one get too excited, Alversa, during a telephone conversation Sunday, reminded this writer that the team has been kicked up a league, and, as a result, would “definitely face really good pitching . . . fastballs in the 80s.”

But win or lose, there is a playful mood in the dugout these days — thanks in part to Alversa’s and his assistant Henry Meyer’s young sons — Kai, 10, and Finn, 8, in Alversa’s case, and 11-year-old Hudson, the official batboy, in Meyer’s.

“Yes, there is a different feel,” Alversa agreed, adding that his players had enjoyed success in the Brookhaven Town summer league and were a little bit older. 

The coaches have seven pitchers at their disposal, beginning with Matthews, Jackson Baris, and Lou Britton, all of whom threw in Saturday’s scrimmage — Matthews for three innings, Barisfor two, and Britton for two — and including Elian Abreu, Charlie Condon, Tucker Genovesi, and Colin Ruddy, a 6-foot-5-inch freshman, the only ninth grader on the 18-man team, which also has four seniors, seven juniors, and six sophomores.

Britton, one of the seniors, a left-hander, had played baseball as a freshman, but had been hobbled by a bothersome foot injury, which required surgery, in his sophomore and junior years. 

James Foster, the first-string catcher, was on the bench Saturday owing to the cast he’s been wearing since breaking his left hand in a gym workout in November. He’s expected to return soon, though, perhaps this week.

Meanwhile, Zach Barzilay did well in standing in for Foster Saturday. Of Barzilay, Alversa said, “He’s the ultimate team guy. He’ll play anywhere — first, catcher, third. . . .”

Defensively, the team did well too, Alversa added in answer to a question. Condon and Colin Ruddy alternated at first base, Brown was at second, Genovesi at short, Abreu and Owen Ruddy took turns at third, Britton was in left field, Garneau was in center, and John Rutkowski was in right.

Others on the squad not heretofore mentioned are Luc Campbell, George Karras, Miguel Mizhquri, Drew Salamy, and Tom Desmond. Andrew Rodriguez is overseeing 16 on the junior varsity.

Alversa said he thought the team would be competitive in its new league, which includes such teams as Rocky Point, Sayville, Harborfields, and Islip. 

Schedule-wise, East Hampton was to have scrimmaged Southold here Monday and at Hampton Bays Tuesday. Pierson was to have scrimmaged here yesterday, and Southampton is to play a nonleaguer here this coming Tuesday, followed the next day by a nonleague game at Shoreham-Wading River. The Bonackers are to play a nonleaguer at Bayport-Blue Point on April 2. A home game with Westhampton Beach is to open the league season on April 9.

Perhaps another reason for the upbeat mood in East Hampton’s dugout is the fact that the Bonackers are playing on a new turf infield. 

“No more bad bounces — thank goodness,” said Alversa. “Those days are over.”

Thursday, March 28

GIRLS LACROSSE, Islip at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS TENNIS, Southampton at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS LACROSSE, Smithtown East vs. South Fork team, Southampton High School, 4:30 p.m.

Friday, March 29

SOFTBALL, Mattituck at East Hampton, nonleague, 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 30

BOYS LACROSSE, South Fork team at Half Hollow Hills East, 10 a.m.

Monday, April 1

SOFTBALL, East Hampton at Miller Place, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 2

GIRLS LACROSSE, Babylon at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS TENNIS, East Hampton at Southold-Greenport, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, East Hampton at Bayport-Blue Point, nonleague, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS TRACK, East Hampton at Sayville, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 3

GIRLS TRACK, Sayville at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

SOFTBALL, Sayville at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS LACROSSE, Walt Whitman vs. South Fork team, Southampton High School, 4:30 p.m.

March 3, 1994

Two local former high school basketball stars, Bobby Hopson of Bridgehampton and Scott Smith of East Hampton were to have played in conference tournaments this week that could lead to berths in national championship tourneys.

Hopson is a Wagner College senior, and Smith a New Hampshire College freshman.

As of Tuesday, Hopson was in seventh place on Wagner’s all-time scoring list with 1,514 points, just 19 points shy of fifth place. The 5-foot-10-inch senior, who has captained his team since his sophomore year, is averaging 17.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game.

March 10, 1994

Joe Landi is in his fourth year a dart player, and is as enamored of the traditional pub game as most golfers are of golf.

The East-West League at Southampton’s Treasure Inn is one of three that Landi, who has a dartboard hanging not far from his store’s checkout counter, throws in. . . . “They still throw nails in England and Scotland. It’s like any sport. You step in the box, you watch the ball, and, with practice, you get better.”

Having taken up a solid position at the toe-line, seven feet and nine-and-one-quarter inches from the board, one should hold the shaft of the dart between thumb and first finger, Landi said, with the second or third finger along the point. The arm should be parallel to the floor, and the thrower should sight along the flighted stem. 

“Aside from the forearm, nothing moves. People who score well, their bodies don’t move. You take a full breath, let out half of it, and hold your body still. No, you shouldn’t snap hour wrist — just let it go. Be careful not to push.”

As this writer can testify, it’s a lot harder than it looks, a lot more challenging, and a lot more fun.

—

“We try to stress the fundamentals of the game, not so much winning,” Scott Rubenstein, who’s helping Joe Marciniak coach East Hampton’s 9-and-10-year-old Biddy basketball team, said during a recent practice session at the John Marshall Elementary School.

“If Scott had his way, it would be nothing but drills,” said Marciniak. “If it were me, there’d be nothing but scrimmages.”

Tom Mac, Sag Harbor’s Biddy coach, said during a telephone conversation later in the week, “The main thing we’re trying to teach these kids is that good sportsmanship and good teamwork enable you to win. I’m getting tired of what I see at these high school games — the temper tantrums, the posturing. . . . We’ve got a friendly, competitive rivalry going with the East Hampton team. We tell the kids that after the game it’s okay to talk to the other guys.”

Of the dozen or so who played for East Hampton’s Biddy team in 1970 and ’71 — Howard Wood, the best-known alumnus, could not play because he exceeded the former 5-foot-6-inch height limit — seven wound up playing on East Hampton’s 1977 state championship team that went 22-1, said Rubenstein.

“There was Kenny Carter, Eddie Petrie, Tony Gilliam, Randy Strong, Jerome Jefferson. . . . We played in national tournaments in New Orleans and Puerto Rico.”