25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports 04.04.13

April 7, 1988

    Shawn Turner set a new East Hampton High School high jump record of 6 feet 3 inches, and surprisingly good performances were recorded by hitherto-untried competitors in East Hampton-Pierson’s league season-opener here Tuesday with Mercy High School of Riverhead. East Hampton won the meet 106-19.

April 14, 1988

    Another honor came Kenny Wood’s way on Sunday as Newsday named him to its 10-player all-Long Island boys basketball team.

    . . . “You can’t stop him,” said Center Moriches coach, Dom Savino. “He brings the ball up, he gets the ball inside — he’s the whole team.”

    While he lost rather badly in the final, to Tim Mayotte, Paul Annacone, the East Hampton-reared touring tennis professional who lives in Knoxville, Tenn., last week enjoyed two wins over top-10 players — Jimmy Connors and Brad Gilbert — in the Chicago Volvo tournament.

    . . . Annacone’s father, Dominic, who is superintendent of Sag Harbor schools, said his son’s groundstrokes, which were weak in the final, were strong in the semifinal match with Gilbert. Following his brother Steve’s advice, Annacone forsook chip-and-charge tactics against Connors, whom he had never beaten before, in favor of staying back, at times even on his serve. The strategy worked.

April 21, 1988

    A team made up of East Hampton Town men’s slow-pitch softball league all-stars won a United States Slow-Pitch Softball Association tournament in Centereach last weekend, enabling the entry, Pete’s Boys, to qualify for the state championships to be played in Smithtown in July, and in the national tourney, which is to take place in Parkersburg, W. Va., over Labor Day weekend. It was the first time an East Hampton team had played in a USSSA-sanctioned tournament.

    . . . Pete’s Boys, sponsored by the Bologna and Landi Gallery and named in memory of the late Peter Landi, won all four games it played in its D classification bracket.

    According to Dan Mazzeo, the team’s player-manager, D teams are considered to be moderately powerful, but to guard against “beefing up,” over-the-fence home runs, he said, are outs in D ball. There is no prohibition against triples, however, and Pete’s Boys banged out six of them in the tourney, two each by Mazzeo, who caught, Steve Wilson, who pitched, and Steve Thebner, who played third base.

    There is more enthusiasm on the Montauk Rugby Club than experience. Thus, the side lost twice recently, to Amityville 24-4 on April 9, and to the New York Rugby Club, 15-0, on Saturday.

    As usual, the team, which must be able to field two sides if it is to continue playing in Division II come the fall, is looking for more players.

    . . . Asked what Montauk’s strengths and weaknesses were, Mike Toohey replied, “Actually, we tend to have more weaknesses than strengths — the team is so young. But we’re strong in key areas — at number-eight, where Keith Bunce plays, at second row, where Charlie Whitmore plays, at scrum half, where I play, and anywhere Larry Lillie plays. We’ve got a super outside center from Patchogue, too. I don’t know his name, but he can really run.”

April 28, 1988

    As of Monday, Jim Nicoletti, East Hampton High School’s varsity baseball coach, said Michael Sarlo was batting .483, Scott Loper, .478, Kenny Wood, .433, and Trevor Grunewald, .417. In addition, Sarlo was leading the team in runs batted in with 17, “probably putting him among the top in the county in that category.”

    The local running season was welcomed in Montauk Sunday by 52 road racers who had, it turned out, overwintered well. While Kevin Barry, 25, of Shelter Island, ran away with the 3.4-mile Dock race in 17 minutes and 46 seconds, just eight seconds off Neil Donahue’s mark set in 1982, there were few, if any, slouches among the competitors, whose ages ranged from 8 to 68.

    Annette MacNiven of Springs won among the women in 23:34, and finished 16th over all.

    MacNiven, who works weekends for Pony Farm Realty in Amagansett, had bid a customer a hurried goodbye, and had made it to the starting line in front of Montauk’s Shagwong Tavern just a few minutes before George Watson’s “Ready, get set, go,” turning some heads as she quickly shed a dress that she had worn over orange running tights.

    Duane Bock, a 1987 graduate of East Hampton High School who plays number-two for Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C., placed fourth in the recent Division 1 Big South Conference golf tournament.

    Attention all 9 and 10-year-olds who were cut in the recent East Hampton Little League tryouts. Help is at hand in the form of a Little League-sanctioned Minor League, which a Springs resident, Tedd Libath, has decided to launch.

    “There are at least 30 kids who don’t make Little League teams here year after year,” said Libath. “It’s not anyone’s fault — the Little League coaches are good people and they’d like to take everyone, but their rosters are limited.”

    Libath stressed that everyone who turns out will be able to play Minor League ball — there will be no tryouts.