I’m using this picture – of some random eighth-grade class from an epoch ago – because I couldn’t find my own junior high yearbook to scan pictures and mock my class (excluding myself, of course, because I was cool). So we go forth with this post, hoping that nobody reading this was in Mr. Hopkins’ class that year.
Those kids, who would be in their late 20s now, might have grown up to be successful and great, but they weren’t Tiana Giuliano in eighth grade. The kid in the back right corner looks jockish, and the one second from the left (rockin' the Howie Long flat top) has an almost-Groucho Marx mustache, but I doubt they had command of four pitches. Danny Almonte did, but he honed his skills playing stickball in D.R. with Miguel Tejada when they were both knee-high young'uns.
Giuliano, Babylon’s wunderkind, has been on a roll. Yesterday she threw a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts and gave up one earned run in a win over Center Moriches. She also went 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs. In her previous start, she scattered four hits, gave up no earned runs and struck out 11 in a win over Mattituck. Oh, and in the start before that, she no-hit Bayport-Blue Point (no pushover, with a 6-2 record). Giuliano struck out seven, walked none and, if not for a fielding error, would have had a perfect game (“Softball Immortality!”).
She has helped lead Babylon to a 7-1 record, second in League VII behind Mt. Sinai.
She was a second baseman for most of last season, batting .294. She became a pitcher late in the year and the 1.28 ERA convinced coach Rick Punzone to make her a full-time pitcher. She throws a fastball, curve, screwball and changeup – and has good control of all of them. The hard heater and slow change compliment each other well. She gave the Bay Shore girls some trouble with that combo in their pre-season scrimmage.
No fruit punch Juicy Juice with the scrunchy straw (or whatever kids are into now; I’m old), but we’ve got this:
