GCAA Fall Travel Baseball Skills Clinic

Garden City's Travel Baseball Stars

On Sunday, October 7th, Garden City Community Park was the site of a baseball skills clinic for kids in the travel baseball program. Clinic orga-nizer John Sorensen brought together an experienced and dedicated group of instructors with expertise in the areas of hitting, pitching, fielding, catch-ing and base running to work with 55 of GC's best ballplayers.

The clinic included a special guest instructor, Storm Baseball Academy's Rob Cafiero, a current member of the Long Island Ducks. Rob discussed his philosophy on hitting while conducting both group and individual batting instruction. Rob also took time out for a personal autograph session with all of the players. Young pitching prospects greatly benefited from veteran instructor and former St. John's pitching coach Ed LaMarr. His techniques work, as a total of 26 of his pitchers at St. John's signed pro contracts. Former Notre Dame star Dan Bautch worked the base paths with running, leading, stealing and sliding drills. His stolen base totals with the Fighting Irish drew a round of applause from the kids during the intros. Rounding out the group of seasoned instructors was former Adelphi standout Phil Seskin. Phil worked overtime, spending four hours performing triple duty with the kids, as he conducted infield, catching and hitting drills with the assistance of coach Peter Sceusa.

John Sorensen (left) addresses the kids prior to the clinic

A special thanks to the parents and especially the kids, who so enthusiastically participated on this special day of baseball instruction at the ball-park.

Phil Seskin explains the balanced approach to hitting The line for autographs forms to the left Pitching prospects under the watchful eye of coach LaMarr Long Island Duck's Rob Cafiero talks about his approach to each at bat. Ed LaMarr demonstrates the proper arm angle for a powerful delivery. Coach Seskin advises infielders to stay low and in front of the ball. Dan Bautch (with help from son Jack) drills on getting a good jump off first base. Coach Bautch instructs on the proper running angle for an outfield hit. Rob Cafiero provides one on one batting instruction