St. Anthony's slugger CJ Alfano leads LI's baseball elite at Nassau-Suffolk Grand Slam Challenge
C.J. Alfano of St. Anthony’s hits a home run during a CHSAA baseball game against Chaminade on April 28 in Hicksville. Credit: Kelvin Loarca
CJ Alfano set a St. Anthony’s record this year by blasting 13 home runs — and he did it with a wood bat. No one on Long Island was close to that total.
“No one crushes the ball like CJ in BP,” St. Anthony’s coach Paul Parsolano said. “He just visited Baltimore for a private workout and lit it up. Baltimore’s director of amateur scouting was here for a batting practice session and CJ really impressed him.”
So what’s next for Alfano, who is committed to playing for West Virginia University in the fall?
The next stop is Farmingdale State College for the Orlin & Cohen Home Run Derby and the 19th edition of the Nassau-Suffolk Grand Slam Challenge, which pits the senior all-stars of the respective counties against each other, at 7 p.m. Monday. It also is the fourth year since the event was named in honor of former Commack baseball coach Bryan Bonin, who died at 33 in January 2022 after battling melanoma.
“It’s really important that my last game played on Long Island be with my school coach Parsolano and playing with my other St. Anthony’s captains, Jacob Vaccariello and Luke Coats,” Alfano said. “And helping raise money for the Bryan Bonin Scholarship Fund makes it more meaningful.”
Alfano is going to enjoy his last hurrah on Long Island before he heads off to West Virginia, which made the final four in Omaha at the College World Series.
“He’s excited to play in this game for charity,” Parsolano said. “We’re all proud to be a part of something that makes the Bonin name relevant and continues to inspire people and raise awareness about the fight against cancer. He was a terrific coach and a better person. He was a cerebral leader with great mojo, and all the coaches respected him. He died at such a young age. But he was the epitome of what a great coach should be.”
There is a donation of $10 per ticket to attend the home run derby at 5:30 p.m. and the game. Suffolk leads the series 10-8.
Two coaches who led their respective teams to the Long Island championships will lead the squads. The Suffolk team will be led by Paul Gibson Jr. of Center Moriches, who guided his Devils to the Long Island Class B title. The Nassau coaching staff will be guided by Plainedge’s Colin Fratrik.
The Nassau pitching staff will be led by Diamond Award winner Joe Carey, a workhorse for Garden City this year. He pitched 73 innings and won nine games, leading the Trojans into the Nassau Class AA finals against Bellmore JFK.
The staff has championship-caliber arms, including Long Island Lutheran’s Matt Muzikant, who fired a three-hitter as the Crusaders won the NYSAIS state championship with an 11-2 win over Horace Mann. Jack Scannapieco earned the win when Massapequa closed out Liverpool, 7-1, to capture the NYSPHSAA Class AAA title.
“We have top-notch pitching and we’ll tighten this series for Nassau,” Long Island Lutheran coach Shaun Manning said. “We’re loaded.”
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
