Redmond’s Michael Conforto will start for the New York Mets in left field in tonight’s World Series opener at Kansas City.

“I’m so happy for him. I know it’s a dream come true,” Dan Pudwill, Conforto’s former Redmond High baseball coach, said today.

“Surreal is a great way to describe it,” Conforto said in a Newsday article this week. “It’s all happened so fast. It really just feels like yesterday I was called up and was playing my first game in the big leagues (July 24).”

Pudwill remembers Conforto’s infectious energy, hard work and leadership with the Mustangs, who advanced to the state semifinals his senior year and the final eight his junior year.

The Redmond coach said that Conforto always played with a smile and hit the ball farther than anyone on the team. Because of Conforto’s big swing of the bat, Redmond had to alter its batting-practice time so that he wasn’t hitting the ball near the Little Leaguers when they began playing in right field on the adjacent field at Hartman Park.

Come game time, Conforto was ready to make an impact.

“He played his best when the lights were brightest and the stakes were highest,” said Pudwill, who spoke with Conforto and watched him play in August when the Mets visited the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.