2015 Orioles Sweep Athletics in Long Island 35+ Federal AA Championship Series
Long Island MSBL 35+ Federal AA Division
Suffolk Orioles 12, Athletics 4
Back row left to right: Jay Rand, Bob Giordano, Rich Woodford, Kirk Johnson, Brian Scholtisek, Don Hein, George Altemose, Jim Kuveikis, Matt Matera. Front Row left to right: Orlando Rodriguez, Vin DiBernardo, Jim Scalice, Mike Caravano, Jim Ross, Chris Tanico, Rich Graham
‘Rand leads the Charge to the Title’
Submitted by Jim Kuveikis, Orioles manager
We had a very good Suffolk Orioles team in 2014 in the Long island MSBL but were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in a very tough, to the limit, series. We then picked up two top notch players over the winter. The regular season was nothing spectacular (we were 9-6) mainly because we rarely had all of our top players together, some games we were missing a lot of key guys, and we batted everyone that was there….many times 13 guys!!! I told everyone before the season started that come playoff time I would only bat 10 slots and simply play our best guys on offense and defense.
We won the first round games 8-3 and 12-6 and then won the semi-final games 6-4 and 16-1. We stayed hot and won the final championship games against the 18-2 top seeded Athletics by scores of 15-5 and 12-4.
Our top four players batted between .492 and .556, playoffs included, and hit all 15 of our home runs!!! It would be tough to single out one of the four for MVP but I guess it would be Jay Rand because he was our best pitcher, and probably the best in the league, as well as one of our top hitters. The other three guys, Kirk Johnson (P,CF), Matt Matera (LF) and Richie Graham (SS) could all make a case for MVP because they were all awesome. We had many contributions from the rest of the team with many guys batting .350 or better and playing excellent defense.
Lastly I want to mention the guy that started the Suffolk Orioles back in 2005 and was always our top pitcher and catcher before Jay Rand came along. That guy is Brian Scholtisek, who started and finished two playoff games on the mound and caught the other four playoff games….a physically fit workhorse!