Nassau County Student Athlete Of The Week: Massapequa Pitcher Jack Scannapieco

MASSAPEQUA, NY — To call Jack Scannapieco a “big game” pitcher might be underselling things. The senior told Patch his first start at the varsity level came with the season on the line last year; Massapequa was tied 1-1 in a three-game series against Oceanside, needing a win to advance. With the season on the line and most of the arms on Massapequa’s staff already burned in the first two games of the series, Scannapieco took the mound.

“I was really nervous,” Scannapieco said. “I hadn’t been on the mound.”

Luckily for Massapequa, Scannapieco delivered under pressure and they beat Oceanside 9-2. It was the first of three consecutive elimination games he would pitch that season, coach Tom Sheedy said.

“That's when he came of age,” Sheedy said of the consecutive elimination-game run. “Just to give you a very quick, brief history, in 2024, George Adams was the Nassau County Pitcher of the Year. 2023 was Erik Paulsen's year. So we go back to where we have these aces: Erik Paulsen in 23, 24 was George Adams, 25 was Tom Harding. This year it was Jack's time to take that step forward and become the pitcher of the year for us.”

On June 13, Scannapieco cemented his place among the great pitchers to come out of Massapequa, starting in a state championship game that Massapequa won 7-1 over Onondaga County’s Liverpool Warriors.

While the season ended with a title, the road to get there wasn’t always smooth for the senior. After a hot start to the year, Sheedy said Scannapieco experienced something that happens to pitchers at every level, even major leaguers: Dead arm.

“By the time playoffs started, my arm was just giving up, it was tired” Scannapieco said.

“As we got into middle and late April, it just hit. Whatever the snap was on his breaking pitch, the extra spurt on the fastball, was just gone,” Sheedy said.

Scannapieco said he didn’t pitch in the Long Island Championship, giving him the week leading up to that championship and the week after it to rest his arm. Then, the day the baseball team was set to leave for state championships in Binghamton, something happened: As the whole pitching staff scrambled to squeeze in bullpen sessions before the bus left to go upstate, Scannapieco’s arm came back to life.

“My arm just felt completely fine. It felt great,” Scannapieco said. “It was a great feeling after the first throw…We were kind of rushing, because everyone needed to throw a bullpen [session]. So I didn't get to do all of my [resistance] bands and my [plyometrics] and my whole [warmup] routine. I did a couple of bands, I did a couple of plyos, but then I just jumped out on the mound, and there was no discomfort. My arm felt completely normal.”

After they got their senior pitcher back, Sheedy said, “We knew we were in really good shape…having Jack Scannapieco back at the level he was at last year and in the first part of this year, we knew we were in very good shape.”

As the state championship game would prove, Scannapieco was at the level Massapequa needed him to be.

Next year, Scannapieco will be playing baseball at University of St. Joseph in Connecticut. He’s one of a host of pitchers graduating from a staff that Sheedy said is, “going to reload.” While the coach is confident in the underclassmen who will be on the mound next year, the loss of so much veteran pitching — Scannapieco, James Alonso, Sal Apap, Anthony Conza, Jack Corrigan, Justin Graham, Matt Longhitano, Brady Love and Alex Van Schuyler — looms large.

“You just can't put a value on a dollar value on it for us,” Sheedy said of that experience. “There's nothing like having been in that situation and come through, especially on the positive side that Jack did. He just reveled in it. He was so ready. We didn't have to talk to him about anything mental wise. We said, Jack, just go out and pitch.”

Reflecting on his final high school season, Scannapieco said the most important part was not the fact that Massapequa won a state championship, but who he got to win it with.

“It was just playing with my friends. Like, I got to play with the friends that I grew up with for my whole life,” Scannapieco said. “I played baseball with them — maybe five or six of them — my whole life, and I’ve known, probably, all 15 of them my whole life. I've been playing baseball with them since I can remember playing baseball. So it was great to play my last season of [high school] baseball with them, and win a state championship.”