By Paul Gotham
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Not that the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs 2011 existence was exactly akin to spending time in a shed without any working plumbing, but this year’s version earned their spot alone on the top floor.
And their skipper had an undeniable hand in the improvement.
Leading his club to a league-best 28-12 mark, Casey Scott earned 2012 New York Collegiate Baseball League Coach of the Year.
“It’s a great individual honor,” a humble Scott said. “But, I wouldn’t be in this situation had it not been for Mr. (Syracuse Jr. Chief owner, Mike) DiPaulo, Jo Anne, his wife, Karen (Palmer) the administrative assistant, all the players and my assistant, Mike Meola.”
Under Scott’s guidance, the Jr. Chiefs improved from 16-28 and out of the playoffs a year ago to first place in the NYCBL Eastern Division.
“We got lucky as far as these were a great group of guys,” Scott said of his players. “It’s always kind of a crap shoot when you get guys from all over from different programs, but from day one we laid down the groundwork in what we believe in, what we thought was the right way to do things, and our guys bought into it from day one, and it showed.”
With the league’s best offense, the Jr. Chiefs won 12 straight in the month of June to grab a lead in the East they never surrendered. Syracuse finished the season with a six-game lead in the division.
“One thing that I am proud of is that our guys played hard,” Scott added. “Regardless of the score, regardless of the competition, regardless of the field our guys just played the game the right way.”
The Jr. Chiefs led the league in team batting (.334), on-base percentage (.439), slugging (.478), hits (493), doubles (88) and, of course, runs (410) and RBI (363).
Lead off man, Frank Salerno (St. Thomas Aquinas) set the table for much of the Jr. Chiefs’ offense. Salerno hit .401 with 12 extra-base hits and 47 runs scored.
“They say players win games and the championship,” Salerno commented. “But it was the coach. Everything he brought to the table: his time, effort. He just loved the game, and you could feed off that. When you see the determination in a coach’s eyes, it’s easy for the players to feed off that.”
Despite playing three games on the last two days of the regular season, Scott’s club continued on its way winning six straight in the post-season to claim the 2012 NYCBL title.
“We had played seven games in five days going into the playoffs,” Scott explained. “We came out extremely, extremely sluggish in our first game. We didn’t play as well as we should have. All of sudden we find ourselves in a 6-2 hole in the bottom of the ninth inning. Out of nowhere we started hitting it. Until that point, I always said that once you get in the playoffs everything kind of starts over; the record doesn’t matter. But that was actually the first time I started thinking about the potential we had to move on and actually had a chance to win the title.”
This was the third year Casey Scott has been a part of the NYCBL. He was an assistant under current league Director of Baseball Operations, Jake Dennstedt, with the 2008 Brockport Riverbats which won the league title. Scott took over the Jr. Chiefs two weeks prior to the 2011 season. He has been an assistant coach with the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons for the last three years.
“Although this is a great individual honor,” Scott concluded. “It is to be shared with many, many people.”
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