Coming off a section championship victory in 2016, the Indians had huge shoes to fill in their 2017 season. The theme for this season, established by head coach: Geoff Curtis, was “TNT,” meaning “there’s no tomorrow.” This was meant for the players to focus on the task at hand in order to succeed and accomplish their goals.

 John Jay finished off the regular season with a mediocre record of 11-10 (6-2 in league play). With the program’s past, this didn’t meet their standards, however it was enough to get the Indians into a play-in game for the section playoffs. John Jay cruised by Somers in this round with a 8-1 victory. Next, the Indians took on Lakeland’s ace Matt Mikulski, committed to Fordham University, and suffered an extremely difficult loss. Jay effectively set out with two runs early in the game, however Lakeland’s big bats took over in the late innings leading the Hornets to a 3-2 victory. It was a tremendously devastating moment for the players and coaches because of all the time, work, and effort they put into the season.

Junior pitcher: Brendan Carberry, says the game was, “… incredibly disappointing and emotional. We were a talented team that got a tough draw.”

The team was led this year by returning varsity players: Matt Hegarty (senior), Alex Kohlhagen (senior), Ryan Bryggman (junior), Brett Paulsen (sophomore), and Joe Biancone (sophomore).

Hegarty and Kohlhagen were two of the most influential leaders on the team for the Indians this year. Hegarty, who is continuing his baseball career at Macalaster College in Minnesota, batted .351 with 10 RBI’s and 6 doubles. Kohlhagen, who is taking a post-grad year at Trinity Pawling School, batted .290 with 15 RBIs and 2 homeruns.

Kohlhagen reflected on his baseball career at JJ by saying, “John Jay baseball has provided me with the best four years of my life. I learned tons of things and matured greatly both on and off the field. Nobody works harder than this program and it shows in our constant success.”

 Bryggman, who committed this May to Binghamton University for baseball, was John Jay’s ace this year finishing with a 3.28 ERA and 59 strikeouts over 46 ⅔ innings pitched. When asked about the season, Bryggman said, “The ending wasn’t what we expected, but it was a great learning experience for all the younger guys. We’re going to be working extra hard this offseason to bring a section title back to John Jay next year.”

Since they are only sophomores, Paulsen and Biancone are the future for John Jay baseball. Both of them are on their way to be playing Division 1 baseball, and they didn’t disappoint this year with their production. Paulsen had an outstanding numbers with a .490 batting average, along with 18 RBIs. Biancone had similar success, batting .391 with 20 runs scored.  Paulsen and Biancone look to carry the Indians offense next year, as they continue to improve their game during the offseason.

 Next year, John Jay will be looking to get back on track with talented players like Colin Walsh, John Schwoerer, Greg Patti, Stephen Fisher, and Jonathan Preddice stepping up from their previous roles. Although the season didn’t go as John Jay had hoped, the boys really came close together not just as a team, but as family. The Indians are hungry for another section champ, and are going to be working extraordinarily hard this summer in order to achieve it.

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