Abraham Lincoln is on its way to being known as a baseball school.
The Railsplitters baseball team is having its best season in recent memory. It locked up the Public School Athletic League Staten Island-Brooklyn AA title with an 11–1 run-rule victory in five innings over visiting Benjamin Banneker on April 14. Lincoln is now 15–1, and one of the favorites for a city title.
The Coney Island school is best known as a basketball and football power, but it’s looking to establish itself on the diamond as well. Lincoln, which hasn’t won a city baseball title since 1990, has made the most of being moved down from the league’s top division.
“In school we get that a lot, ‘Oh, Lincoln is only a basketball and a football team,’ ” said junior Travis Buckman. “Everyone says, ‘Who cares about baseball?’ We want to turn that around.”
The squad has links to the school’s more successful programs. Basketball center Greg Poleon plays in the outfield along with football wide receiver Justice Seales. Catcher Daniel Hyman also played football. Poleon, who watched the baseball team go a combined 7–25 the last two years, is happy to be sending the program out a winner.
“It feels so good, like a big load is lifted off my chest,” he said.
Being moved down disappointed Poleon and his teammates, but the young club used it as motivation. It was a chance to build excitement around the program again and show the league it deserves a bump back up. Lincoln will lose just three seniors from this year’s club.
The rebuild has been gradual behind fourth-year coach Herbert Cruz. He forced his players to take the game more seriously with offseason workouts and established ties to the Brooklyn-based Bonnies travel baseball program. Junior slugger Travis Buckman transferred to Lincoln from Tilden knowing that Cruz was going to put in the time with him to help him improve.
“We have them working out all year round so they can get prepared and mentally prepared for the season,” Cruz said.
The Railsplitters feature a strong middle of the order with Poleon and Buckman, who went four-for-four with a home run, four runs batted in and two runs scored. Speed is also a big factor. Lincoln is super aggressive on the bases with leadoff hitter Cristofer Del La Cruz Diaz and Seales. Del La Cruz Diaz also allowed just a Jeremiah Gaddy sac fly and three hits in five innings of work against Banneker.
“It’s devastating for other teams,” Poleon said.
The team still hasn’t fully won over the school’s attention yet, despite its suceess. But the players know exactly how they will. Lincoln needs to bring a city championship banner to Coney Island and take the next step toward positioning itself with the borough’s top programs again.
“To prove our team is getting better, we are going to have to win that chip,” Buckman said. “Hang a banner.”
