On Thursday, the Railsplitters beat Banneker Academy 11-1 to finish their season with a 15-1 record and are headed into the playoffs as one of the top teams in the AA division.

“It’s funny because people say to me, ‘Oh, you play baseball?’ because they all see me as a basketball player,” said Greg Poleon, who plays both baseball and basketball at Lincoln. “What they don’t know is that I only started playing basketball at 14, and I’ve been playing baseball since I was 5.”

Herbert Cruz has been a huge part of the changes taking place in Coney Island. The coach took over the junior varsity program in 2011. Although his teams didn’t win a single game over the course of two years, he was still promoted to varsity coach in 2013. His team won three games that year and four the next. It wasn’t until this season that the Railsplitters broke out under Cruz.

“When I first got here, a lot of guys didn’t play outside ball so a lot of what we were teaching them, they were forgetting,” Cruz said. “The big difference now is that we have guys who play all year long.”

Not only do many of the Railsplitters play summer ball now, but Lincoln also has them in a nearly year-round training program. The fact that Poleon comes from a winning basketball program, and players like Justice Seales and Daniel Hyman come from a winning football program, has also helped the atmosphere around the team as well.

“They know what it takes, and they pass it along to other guys,” Cruz said of his two-sport players, all of whom have won a city title with their other teams. “Greg has been a big leader for us this year. He’s been helping guys get along. I’ve had him all four years so he knows what he’s doing and really pushes guys.”

The result of all of these changes is that Lincoln now has one of the most powerful lineups in the division with strong table setters including Edwin De La Rosa and Malik Mantro hitting in front of big boppers Poleon, who is hitting .485, and Travis Buckman, who leads the division with a .568 average.

The Railsplitters are hoping that lineup, along with De La Rosa and Justin Faison on the mound, can carry them to a championship this season because they’re looking for respect and they know that the way to get it around Coney Island is by winning.

“We have to make a statement,” Buckman said. “To prove anything, to prove we’re getting better, we’re going to have to win that chip and hang a banner.”

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