DiPiazza’s First Full Season Underway
This year, Head Coach Joey DiPiazza is entering his first full year as the coach of the Vikings. DiPiazza remembers his first thought of the program when he received the job.
“[HVCC has] state of the art facilities to support its athletic programs, as well as academic programs,” DiPiazza said.
When DiPiazza arrived, he inherited a program that was on a losing streak to open the season, which stretched to 12 games.
“Playing baseball in the northeast, when baseball programs are starting up coming out of the gym, it’s difficult to be playing your best, sound, fundamental baseball,” DiPiazza said. “It’s towards the end of the season where you want to play the best ball you can be.”
That proved to be the case as the Vikings finished 19-22 and went to regionals. Entering his first full year, DiPiazza has seen a tremendous amount of work ethic out of the players.
“They’ve been working since they have been here,” DiPiazza said. “Back in the fall, when we started, we asked a lot of them to not only work on their game, but being a better person, student. We couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Not only is the work ethic improving day by day, but so is the chemistry in the clubhouse. Senior captain and UAlbany bound shortstop, Alex Lushkevich, has seen great chemistry between the returning players and incoming freshmen.
“We’re showing them what to do around here,” Lushkevich said. “Put in hard work every day, so next year they can show the incoming freshmen then what to do. We can start a tradition.”
One new player to the program who could play a key role in the pitching rotation is Matt Gallup.
Gallup transferred in from Stony Brook, where he was a member of the team that advanced to the College World Series last year, and will be attending the University of Connecticut in the fall.
He sees the pitching staff being a vital piece to the success of the team.
“I get to be a starter, finally,” Gallup said. “We have a deep rotation and solid bullpen.”
“We’re excited about the amount of depth in our pitching staff,” DiPiazza said. “We feel that we have six guys that can be starting pitchers for us.”
In the field, not only is Hudson Valley getting a strong returning infielder in Lushkevich, but also outfielder Andy Kozak, who won a Rawling’s Gold Glove last year.
“We’re solid defensively,” Kozak said.
“You want to be strong defensively up the middle,” DiPiazza said. “We have a lot of experience at key positions for last year’s team.
Offensively, Lushkevich sees it being a great part to the team’s success.
“Everybody can hit,” Lushkevich said. “We have contact hitters along with power.”
As for the incoming freshman class, DiPiazza sees a lot of players making an immediate impact.
“From a pitching standpoint, players like Charles Parslow, Anthony Scassia, [and] Mike Sukes have all had successful high school careers and [we] look forward to them having success at our level,” DiPiazza said.
“From a defensive standpoint, Brad Adams will mostly likely be our starting catcher. He will be another key component to the strength up the middle,” said DiPiazza.
DiPiazza expects a banner year out of this team.
“I expect us to be able to compete for a conference championship, our regional, and a national championship,” DiPiazza said. “Those are all goals that can be achieved by this program.”
The Vikings opened up their season last Thursday when they split a back to back double header against Jefferson.