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Scholastic Roundup: Another honor for Mitch Buonaguro

July 2, 2021 Andy Furman
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Mitch Buonaguro is a member of both the Bishop Loughlin High School Hall of Fame and the Five-Star Basketball Camp Hall of Fame.

And on August 1st he’ll receive the Barry Kramer Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame.  One of the most respected college basketball coaches in the country, Mitch serves as a consultant to The College of Sant Rose men’s and women’s programs.

Buonaguro started his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater, Boston College from 1975-77. He joined Rollie Massimino’s Villanova staff for the 77-78 campaign and stayed through 1985 after helping lead the Wildcats to the NCAA Championship. He then accepted the head coaching position at Fairfield, where he remained through the 1990-91 season. Under his guidance in 1985-86, Fairfield posted a 24-7 overall record and captured the MAAC regular season and tournament titles en route to an NCAA Tournament game against the University of Illinois.

The following year, he brought the Stags to a second-straight MAAC Championship and a berth to meet eventual national champion Indiana University in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

After Fairfield, Buonaguro joined the coaching staffs as an assistant at Texas A&M (1991-96), Cleveland State (1996-2003), UNC-Greensboro (2003-2005) and Siena (2005-10). He then took over the Saints’ head coaching position (2010-13) and returned to Fairfield as an assistant (2015-19).

Buonaguro was an integral part of three-straight MAAC regular season and tournament championships throughout his tenure at Siena. In addition, he led Fairfield to consecutive MAAC titles and NCAA tournament berths during his first two years and was subsequently named Basketball Times National Rookie Coach of the Year and United States Basketball Writers Association and NABC District Coach of the Year.

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Rene LeRoux, Executive Director for the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame reports that Adelphi University’s Dom Scala is the 2021 College Baseball Coach of the Year. The former bullpen coach for the New York Yankees is in his 18th year at the helm of the Adelphi University baseball team, and is currently the longest-tenured coach in the Panthers’ athletic department.

Over the course of nearly two decades, Scala has amassed almost 400 career wins and has led the Panthers to three conference titles between the Northeast-10 and East Coast Conference, and NCAA berths, including three NCAA Championships.

A standout athlete in both football and baseball at St. Francis Prep, Scala was selected to the school’s Hall of Fame in its inaugural 2013 class. He went on to play third base at St. John’s University from 1972-76. A collegiate third-team All-American and two-time ECAC All-Star, his name still appears in the top ten collegiate career record books in nine of 13 offensive categories. A team captain, he batted .420 his senior year, good for 15th in the nation and was named team MVP.

LeRoux also reminds that both Gil Hodges and Carl Erskine will enter the New York State Baseball Hall, Sunday, August 15th. Induction will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Troy, New York (518-272-1700) and tickets are available at $100 apiece.

“Carl is 94,” LeRoux said, “and Gil’s family is planning to attend.”

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Leave it to Sheepshead Bay and Brooklyn College grad Howard Kellman to keep tabs on former Brooklyn major leaguers.

Sheepshead’s Rico Petrocelli celebrated his 78th birthday on the 27th of June, Kellman notes on his twitter account. “He was a boyhood hero to those of us from P.S. 206 and Sheepshead Bay High School,” said Kellman who has called baseball for the AAA Indianapolis Indians for over 40 seasons.

It was June 19, 1952 when Carl Erskine threw the first of his two no-hitters. And, notes Kellman, of the seven no-hitters thrown in the National League in the 1950s, two were thrown by Erskine.

And on the same date – the 19th of June – Lafayette grad Bob Aspromonte turned 83. He’s one of 11 players to graduate from the Bensonhurst school and make it to the majors.

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Ike Pollack, Lafayette High’s basketball co-captain (1966), after reading the Brooklyn Eagle at his Arizona home e-mails Scholastic Roundup: “Please refer to former Dodger Carl no-hit pitcher by his “real” name – OYSK.

“His second no-hitter,” Pollack writes, “was pitched on a Friday night at Ebbets Field. The Mapleton Little League took all the kids to the ballpark the next day (May in 1956). The scoreboard still showed 0 0 0 for the opposition from the night before,” he said. “I asked the adults about that and they told me about the great OYSK. I was seven years old at the time.

“That same day,” he continued, “the Reds were in town with a rookie outfielder named Frank Robinson. He homered to the upper deck in left field where we were sitting. The ball was coming right to me but the man in front of me put his hands up just in time to snatch it away.”

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR

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