Coach of Year: Kingston reaches lofty state expectations under Groppuso
KINGSTON, N.Y. » If ever there was a team that had huge expectations, it was Kingston High’s baseball club.
There have been plenty of statetournament-hopeful teams in the area over the years, but most have seen those hopes dashed.
The Tigers, though, found a way.
Overcoming adversity, forced to find a way to tweak its struggling offense, Kingston repeated as Section 9, Class AA champions and — for the first time in five years — made its way back to the state final four.
“There were expectations,”
Freeman Coach of the Year Mike Groppuso said, “whether it be my expectations, the kids’ own expectations, the parents’ expectations. The expectation to me was they were going to be successful. We knew we were going to have a successful season. How successful? Again it goes back to the work that you saw in the winter and the adjustments that we made and they proved their weight in gold.
“Sometimes it doesn’t always work out that way and this year it did. “
A late snowstorm led to a late start and when the season began, the Tigers weren’t ready, losing 10-1 to Warwick.
“I never really recall an extended period of time where we just couldn’t get outside,” Groppuso said. “We knew there were going to be some bumps in the road and there was.”
A victory over a North Rockland team that would eventually be the top seed in Section 1 gave a hint of the team’s potential, but the Tigers were 2-2 entering the Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association season and first up was its main foe: Monroe-Woodbury.
“I knew the front end of my schedule was loaded, but never anticipated the weather. It really was a true test,” Groppuso said.
“In the time that you needed to find your swing and get acclimated outside and feeling comfortable with the daily routine, you’re doing it all in the heat of competition and you’re doing it against very good competition. They proved themselves.
Kingston beat Monroe twice, took two of three from Newburgh, then completed the sweep of the Crusaders. The Tigers, who finished 19-5 overall, lost only once more during the regular season.
“From that point on, we took off,” Groppuso said. “It was a six-week season that turned into a four-week season. We had 13 games in 20 days and with the pitch restrictions, it was tough.”
Kingston benefited from the senior pitching rotation of Avery Short, Jeff Hayner and Tyler Kelder. The offense, though, had to grind it out.
“I saw my guys struggle. It was frustrating, but we knew in time it would work out,” said Groppuso, whose team scored more than four runs in only six
of 20 games heading into the postseason.
With four games left in the regular season, Groppuso tweaked the lineup, moving Short from fifth in the order to leadoff, Fritz Genther from leadoff to fifth and switched Kelder from third to cleanup and Jon Kivlan vice versa.
“With some other changes that bumped Garrett (Warnecke) up and then Jake (McNutt) came into the picture and got a couple of other guys some opportunities,” he explained.
Groppuso prefers to go with his gut and has never been a devotee of the statistical analysis of Sabermetrics. As the postseason neared, it was time to combine the two.
“I’m not about the numbers and the stats. In juggling things up and having to make the adjustments that we had to make, I kind of went back and looked a little bit at the numbers and
who’s doing what.
“They do give you valuable information and, by me keeping certain things, I can see on-base percentage and contact numbers. There are certain things that I can see that made sense to put guys in certain spots. It worked out. Some guys seem to feel a little more comfortable with where they were.
“Part of that plan was to attack early. In the latter part of the season and into the postseason, we did just that. I think we scored in the first or second inning almost every game.”
Liverpool ended the Tigers’ title dream in the state semifinals, holding on for a 4-2 win. Kingston left 10 on base, including the tying runs in the seventh.
“They played the cleaner game. They didn’t make any mistakes on the bases. We did. We had a guy picked off. We uncharacteristically make a couple
of throwing mistakes where we pull our guy off the bag, otherwise we’re out of the innings with no harm, but they come back and score. They have a ball hit the line. They get the two-out hits. We hit into two double plays,” Groppuso remarked.
“And, with all that said, we got 3-2, two outs, Avery on third, Kivlan running from first and Ty at the plate. A line drive in the gap and it’s a tie ballgame,” he said. “The opportunity was there. Even with everything that transpired, we were still one swing from putting ourselves right back into the ballgame. if not winning.”
Groppuso hinted at some internal adversity the team overcame, but declined to identify the problem.
“We keep a lot of stuff within ourselves and we felt that was the best way to do some things,” he said. “There were some things that we went through and
I thought we handled and acccomplished with such class and integrity. This group grew from that; learned beyond my wildest dreams not just about baseball, but about life and so forth.
“The state championship would have been the icing on the cake, the cherry on the top, but I’ve said it before with certain teams, I don’t need that plaque to say that I had a state championship team. I know what I had,” Gropppuso remarked. “I give a lot of credit to Liverpool. Maybe it was their time. They went on to win it. I thought we were evenly matched. I thought we had the ability. We absolutely belonged out there and we could have won that game. It just wasn’t our time.”
The Tigers lose eight players to graduation, including all of the pitchers plus five everyday starters. The only starters back are shortstop Fritz Genthner,
Warnecke in left and Kivlan in center.
“It’s going to really fall on the juniors, the sophomores — the small nucleus of eight guys that I got coming back,” Groppuso noted. “For the guys that are coming up, the opportunity’s there.
“We had, as an entire program, a great year,” he said, noting the modified team coached by Eric Molinaro and the junior varsity helmed by Rob Parisian and Colin Lyons.
“We’re not going to make comparisons. We’re not going to say, ‘We got to get back there and do that,’” he said. “We got to do what we need to do to get the most out of our ability. The seniors left their mark and they left the program in really good shape.
“They kept that bar raised and I look forward to seeing how the younger kids come out and how they respond.”