Plenty of coaches talk about taking it one day at a time and not looking ahead. McKee/Staten Island Tech’s Mike Grippo takes it to the extreme.
“He just keeps saying it,” catcher Joe Trezza said, cracking a smile. “He doesn’t ever stop.”
Who could blame him with the amount of success he has enjoyed at the Staten Island school with that approach?
MSIT has improved in each of Grippo’s six previous seasons. It reached the PSAL Class A quarterfinals last year and finished second in Staten Island A, just two games behind juggernaut Tottenville. A year later, the Sea Gulls are in a similar position, a game behind Tottenville in the loss column after Monday’s 8-0 shutout of Susan Wagner.
Co-ace Ryan Mannello did the heavy lifting for MSIT, tossing five shutout innings of two-hit ball for his fourth league win. Offensively, Nick Skomina drove in Ian Gutch for the first run, Frank Cautela and Matt Abramowitz also had RBIs and MSIT scored three unearned runs to pad its lead.
“We’re starting to score more runs and I know it makes me and the other pitchers more confident on the mound,” Mannello said.
Mannello kept Wagner at bay by throwing strikes and keeping the Falcons off balance. The junior right-hander, in tandem with senior hard-thrower Matt Abramowitz, gives MSIT (6-1) a splendid 1-2 punch atop the rotation. With stellar defense behind them, and an improving lineup that has come alive after a slow start, the Sea Gulls have won five straight division contests.
“Right now, whoever we play, we’re in the game because our [pitching] and defense is solid,” he said. “I feel good because that’s going well.”
Slowly, Grippo’s club is building a reputation as a solid, if unspectacular, program. Grippo wouldn’t say he considers the Sea Gulls an elite team in Staten Island, just because the division is so difficult to predict. But his squad beat Tottenville last year, has lost to the last two city champions in the postseason and has fared well against the city’s best in non-league contests, losing a by a run to Xaverian, The Post’s top team in NYC, and Brooklyn power Poly Prep, and beating Moore Catholic, 3-0.
“If they don’t respect us before we play them, they definitely do after,” said Trezza, the senior catcher.
While Grippo is pleased with the direction of his team, he of course wouldn’t look ahead to the program taking the next step in its evolution and winning a division title or making the final four. It’s not his way. Even his players weren’t into making predictions, although Mannello did say, “we definitely have the tools to do it. We have the potential.”
The key, Grippo said, is receiving production from role players. The Seagulls will need more than Mannello and Abramowitz. Robert Caggiano, who has pitched well in non-league games and tossed a shutout inning of relief, must emerge. The back end of the lineup, which has produced thus far, will have to continue to do so.
“That’s gonna determine our season,” the coach said.
Trezza, who has played three seasons for Grippo, said his rudimentary approach helps the team take each game as it comes. It makes failure easier to deal with, not looking at the bigger picture, or what lies ahead. The Sea Gulls don’t get too high or too low. It’s all about the immediate task at hand.
“It keeps everybody grounded,” he said.
