Baseball: SWR’s O’Reilly wins Yastrzemski Award as top player in county
After a remarkable season that saw him club two walk-off home runs in the playoffs and strike out 19 in the Long Island championship game, Shoreham-Wading River senior Mike O’Reilly was honored with the Carl Yastrzemski Award as the best player in Suffolk County for 2012.
Former Major Leaguer Keith Osik, the only other Shoreham player to win the award, handed O’Reilly the trophy at Villa Lombardi’s Wednesday night to conclude the All-County Awards Banquet. Osik won the award in 1987.
O’Reilly helped lead the Wildcats to a second straight county championship in a season where he dominated both at the plate and on the mound. He batted .467 with 4 home runs, 23 RBIs and a school-record 17 doubles.
He hit walk-off home runs in the extra innings of playoff wins over Rocky Point and Sayville. The latter came after the Wildcats fell behind by a run in the top half of the inning.
On the mound O’Reilly finished 8-3 this season and for his career was 17-3. He had a 1.24 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP. He struck out 141 batters in 84 2/3 innings, which was just shy of the school record of 150 set by Osik.
O’Reilly also walked away from Wednesday’s dinner with awards for League VII MVP and the Small School Playoff MVP to go with his All-County award and of course, the Yastrzemski.
Perhaps the most famous Yastrzemski Award winner went on to excel in an entirely different sport. Former New York Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason won the award in 1979 playing for East Islip.
Former Patchogue-Medford pitcher/shortstop Marcus Stroman, a 2008 winner of the award, was just drafted this month with the 22nd pick in the MLB Amateur Draft.
