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Blue Chip Prospects Grand Slam Challenge

Gavin Buda hurls a pitch during the Blue Chip Prospects Grand Slam Challenge all-star baseball game. File photo by Bill Landon

Gavin Buda’s first word was “ball.”

“True story,” the Harborfields dual-sport standout athlete said. “I’ve been playing sports as far back as I can remember.”

Harborfields wide receiver Gavin Buda waits for the ball to drop along the sideline during the Empire Challenge football game. File photo by Bill Landon

Baseball was his first love, he said, signing up for every team he could play on. He played for the varsity team from freshman through senior year of high school, also competing on high-level travel teams and tournaments in other states.

“It just seemed my path was set to play baseball in college,” he said.

But during his sophomore year, he decided to try out for the junior varsity football team with some of his friends. The team went undefeated, and the wide receiver was hooked.

“There was a feeling I got playing football that I never felt playing baseball,” he said. “This bond that is created between teammates that only happens in football. The knowing that you have each other’s backs — that feeling made me think if I work hard enough, this is the sport I’d like to play beyond high school.”

He never gave up on either sport, spending three days training for football and the other three for baseball. He said winters were intense, spending time indoors at batting cages while also gearing up for the fall football season, working with trainers like Jay Fulco, Mike Bouranis, Mike Feldman, James Brady and Jay Fiedler.

Buda this month became the first Suffolk County athlete to play in both the Rawlings Blue Chip Prospects Grand Slam Challenge and Empire Challenge football game, with Wantagh’s Ryan Sliwak achieved the feat in 2011. Buda said he had no idea the history he’d made at the time he was selected.

Gavin Buda makes a catch between two Rocky Point football players during Harborfields’ homecoming spoiling win. File photo by Bill Landon

“From a young age you could tell the kid was super athletic — he stood out among his peers, and from there, he put in a ton of hard work to really hone that and continue to stay ahead of the pack,” said Harborfields baseball coach Casey Sturm, who coached Buda since he was in seventh grade. “He was a special player, and what really stood out at the end of his tenure wasn’t even so much what he did at the plate but his defense in the outfield and ability to pitch were huge.”

In Suffolk County’s 5-4 loss to Nassau June 8 at St. Joseph’s College, Buda tossed a baseball for what might be the last time. The pitcher and outfielder took over on the mound in the bottom of the fifth and retired the side in order.

“To end my high school baseball career being selected to play alongside players that were drafted to the MLB or heading off to colleges like Vanderbilt to play baseball is just awesome,” Buda said, although he joked if he let up a homerun he might not have been as happy. “To get on the mound and face those guys one last time was a great way to go out, and luckily, I did pretty good.”

A week later, he’d put down his glove and bat to strap on some football equipment.

In the Empire Challenge game, he made a 30-yard reception during a play he wasn’t even slated to be a part of. Knowing Northport quarterback Ryan Walsh, he said during the call in the huddle he told Walsh he could beat out the kid that was guarding him deep. Walsh trusted him, and Buda delivered. A step ahead of the defender, he said there was no way he was letting the ball drop.

Gavin Buda rips the ball deep into the outfield during the Blue Chip Prospects Grand Slam Challenge. File photo by Bill Landon

His two-year head coach Rocco Colucci said for him personally the moment was fitting. Being a teacher at Northport he’d coached Walsh on the junior varsity level.

“This is why I coach football,” he said. “To see these guys grow and excel.”

He said too it was a privilege to watch Buda excel the way he did.

“Right off the bat I knew he was going to be a playmaker,” Colucci said. “His hard work showed. He was always looking to get better. He was very coachable — anything I told him to do, he’d do it. And because of that, [when other teams] put their best defensive players on him,  he’d still make the catch. He likes that type of best-on-best competitiveness in football, and there’s a lot of areas in football where he excels.”

Buda will be taking his talents to Hobart and William Smith Colleges to join the football team, but said he’ll never forget where he came from.

“Harborfields is a great school, but for some reason we are always under the radar in athletics — it’s a smaller school so I guess that’s why,” he said, adding that while other top athletes chose St. Anthony’s or Chaminade, he never questioned becoming a Tornado. “There were some great players that came through Harborfields before me, and there’ll be more after me. I just hope that I did my part to help put Harborfields sports on the map. The experience these last two weeks of playing in both all-star games is something I will carry with me forever.”

This version was updated June 20 at 12:43 a.m. to indicate that Gavin Buda is the first Suffolk County athlete to be chosen for both all-star games, not Long Island. 

After thinking he threw his last high school pitch, Shoreham-Wading River senior standout Brian Morrell continues to lead the way.

The University of Notre Dame-bound senior, who started at first base for Suffolk County, had an RBI-single that scored Commack’s Peter Theodorellis to get his team on the board first, and later scored on a wild pitch to put Suffolk ahead 2-0 at the end of the first inning en route to a 10-4 win over Nassau in the Blue Chip Prospects Grand Slam Challenge.

The best baseball players from across Long Island all squared off at St. Joseph’s College June 9, where seniors from Shoreham-Wading River, Commack, Smithtown, Northport and Ward Melville helped take home the all-star game title in front of a packed house.

Morrell said it was a great experience playing under the bright lights with and against the best players on Long Island, even despite it being an exhibition game.

“There’s definitely a competitive edge between the two counties going into the game,” he said. “We had a lot of fun and the energy was awesome throughout the game.”

Rocky Point baseball team’s head coach, Andrew Aschettino, served in the same role for the Suffolk County team. He said part of his message before the game was for the players to embrace the opportunity to represent their family, their school and the county.

“If you heard them throughout the game, it was pretty cool — there was definitely a pride thing going on,” he said. “I told them before the game — ‘you’re here for a reason and just go do what you guys do, enjoy it though. Don’t get caught up in the pressures of it, just enjoy it because you’re one of a select few kids that get to play in this thing every year.’ It was really cool to watch them do their thing.”

The Suffolk squad tacked on another run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Babylon’s Ken Gordon, and two more on a two-run single by Greg Tsouprakos of West Islip in the fifth. Morrell’s Shoreham-Wading River battery-mate Thomas Brady doubled and scored in a two-run sixth inning to extend the lead to 7-0.

“It’s an honor playing with all of these guys,” Brady said. “I played with all of them when we were young. Just to get back on the field with them — catch some of them — it’s an honor. It’s great. I love all of these guys.”

Smithtown East’s Michael Ruggiero and Rocky Point’s James Weisman each pitched a clean inning.

“It was a great experience being able to play for my high school coach one last time,” Weisman said of his unique position. “My whole life I’ve dreamed of being the player that I am today, and I still want to succeed and do better.”

Aschettino said he was also excited for the opportunity to take the field with a familiar face.

“It was a pleasure that I got to spend one more game with him, because he played for me for so long,” the coach said of his four-year varsity starter. “[Weisman] was just the greatest kid in the world to coach. He works his butt off everyday, so I was very, very excited that I got to coach him for one more day.”

Shoreham-Wading River outfielder Nick Manesis joined Morrell in the starting lineup in right field for Suffolk, though he struck out in his only two at-bats. Nick Trabacchi of Smithtown West reached on two walks, stole a base and scored a run. He also pitched the seventh inning and allowed the first two hits of the game for Nassau. Outfielders Joe Rosselli, of Ward Melville, and Frank Stola, of Northport, also saw some action. Tsouprakos took home the most valuable player award, and Hauppauge’s Matt Overton was named the offensive player of the game for Suffolk.