Garden City's Joe Carey wins Doug Robins Diamond Award as Nassau's top pitcher
Joe Carey of Garden City poses with the Doug Robins Diamond Award, recognizing Nassau County's top pitcher. Credit: Derrick Dingle
Joe Carey was a workhorse for the Garden City baseball team.
He logged 73 innings, won nine games and guided the Trojans to the Nassau Class AA baseball final. Carey led Long Island with 113 strikeouts and fired three shutouts this season. For his accomplishments, he was named the 32nd winner of the Doug Robins Diamond Award as the top pitcher in Nassau at the Nassau County Baseball Coaches Association banquet at the Marriott Hotel in Uniondale on Wednesday night.
He pitched 72 2⁄3 innings and allowed 37 hits, 12 walks and seven earned runs.
“He’s an old-school competitor that can bear down in any situation,” Garden City coach David Izzo said. “What made him special was the outstanding command of his secondary stuff. He had a slider and a split change that he could throw for strikes in any count.”
Carey, a 6-4, 205-pound righthander, is committed to Division I Holy Cross. He led the Trojans to the Nassau Conference AA-2 regular season title with a 9-1 record and 0.66 ERA. He threw seven scoreless innings in a wild 12-inning loss to Bellmore JFK in Game 1 of the best-of-three Nassau Class AA championship series won by Bellmore JFK in three games. His best performance, however, may have come against Mepham in the playoffs.
“I thought the best game of the year was when I pitched nine innings against Mepham and we won 2-1,” Carey said. “That was a battle. Being able to throw any pitch in any count and pound the zone . . . [but] the most important tool was the ability to throw my off- speed for strikes in hitters’ counts. That kind of command gets some easy outs.”
Izzo said the 73 2⁄3 innings was a comfortable workload, and Carey prioritized taking care of his arm.
The last two Garden City pitchers to win the Diamond Award were Matt Petiton (2005) and Joe Cesarini (2006). Tom Reifler won the Diamond position award in 2019 for Garden City. Carey is the fifth Garden City player to win a Diamond Award.
“Winning the award means a lot,” said Carey, who was a Diamond Award finalist as a junior. ‘It was an individual goal at the start of the season. It was a goal to accomplish. It means a lot for the program. I share this award with my teammates and coaches. I’m thankful for them at Garden City.”
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
