Three Pine Bush High School athletes secured their immediate collegiate futures when they signed their National Letters of Intent to continue their academic and athletic careers in college.

Pine Bush field hockey captain Jennifer Sorrentino signed to play Division I field hockey at Bryant University, Alex Bucolo will play Division II baseball at Mansfield University, and Samantha McKee will swim at Queens University’s Division I program in North Carolina.

All three were key members of their respective team.
Sorrentino was a multi-year captain for the Bushmen, and recently helped lead her team to the Section 9 Class A championship game on October 27 against the Kingston Tigers, where the Bushmen suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to end their season.

The Bulldogs recently finished a 5-14 season that saw them post an 0-8 mark in their conference. They finished the season the same day as the Bushmen, beating Queens, 2-1, on October 27.

Bryant is expecting to lose six seniors off this year’s team.

In the spring of 2024, Bucolo will join former Pine Bush teammate Joseph Gleason at Mansfield University.

Gleason, who graduated from Pine Bush High School in June, is a freshman at Mansfield and will have his first taste of collegiate baseball in the spring.

Last spring, along with Gleason, Bucolo helped pitch the Bushmen to a berth in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA semifinals, where the Bushmen were eliminated by a 1-0 loss.

He pitched two innings of relief of Gleason in the Bushmen’s 6-4 win over Kingston in the Section 9 Class AA championship game. A week later in the regionals, he rebounded from a four-run sixth inning to slam the door on Roy C. Ketcham High School to send the Bushmen to Binghamton.

He had his best postseason performance in the state semifinals, allowing two runs in 6+ innings in the Bushmen’s 2-1 loss to the Fayetteville-Manlius Indians.

He’ll join a team that had an 11-13 record in 2022 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.

Samantha McKee has been an important part of the Pine Bush swim program for the past five years, which saw the Bushmen win more than 50 straight dual meets and counting.

She was part of the Bushmen’s Section 9 championship 400-yard freestyle relay team, and the 200-yard freestyle team. Both teams will compete at this weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.

McKee is also ranked ninth in the 200-yard and 100-yard freestyles, 10th in the 50-yard freestyle.

She’ll join Queens University’s Division I program in the fall of 2023. Queens opened its season in early October and is 5-1 on the season so far.

The team is coached by Jeff Dugdale.