by Vinny Messana
After seven months of planning, the inaugural Battle of the Border finally went down. I’ll get to the timeline of how it came about and all the difficulty that went into planning it shortly–but first, here’s how the game went.
Suffolk won 5-0 behind the stellar pitching of Matt Kostalos (ECC Pitcher of the Year from St. Thomas Aquinas), Nick Girardi (St. Joseph’s), Dylan Mouzakes (Pace), Kevin Martinez (Farmingdale), Matt Leach (St. Joseph’s) and Peter Vath (Molloy). They allowed only three hits as a staff.
The game was scoreless until the fifth when Suffolk broke through with RBI hits by Nicholas Gargan (St. Thomas Aquinas) and Joe Calabrese (St. Joseph’s). They added a run on a wild pitch.
T.J. Riccio (New Haven) added an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth. They added another run on a wild pitch as well.
(Photo Credit: Alex Fuller)
There was talent up-and-down the rosters. Suffolk displayed their elite talent beginning with Kostalos on the mound and Brandon Fischer (St. Thomas Aquinas), Anthony Gatto (UMBC) and Nicholas Gargan in the field. Gatto just narrowly missed a solo HR in the eighth inning but settled for a double off the wall.
Girardi came in and pumped 92 MPH from the left side, displaying why he has been a name to watch for the MLB Draft.
Despite allowing five runs, the Nassau staff was filled with prospective MLB draft picks. Matt Diaz (NYIT), Alec Eisenberg (Hofstra), Alex Vargas (Quinnipiac) and Vinny Caputo (Old Westbury) all worked in the low 90s, but the high fastball of the day was Deilyn Guzman (Molloy), who touched 95 in the eighth inning.
Both teams played stout defensively and it made for a very smooth game.
Joe Daru (NYIT) and Thomas Roulis (Dartmouth) showed their speed on the bases.
(Photo Credit: Alex Fuller)
T.J. Riccio was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Game, he went 2-for-3 with an RBI and played very well defensively.
Kevin Martinez (Farmingdale) was the winning pitcher, he fired two shutout innings.
(Photo Credit: Alex Fuller)
Now for how this whole thing came about:
(Photo Credit: Alex Fuller)
November: I had the idea to play a college All-Star Game for the top players on/from Long Island.
December: Booked the field for Dowling.
March: Began selecting players. Also began hearing rumors about Dowling possible shutting down.
April: Uniforms ordered. Rosters finalized. Sponsors locked in.
May: NCAA announces that Div-III underclassmen cannot participate in the game. The search for fill-in players continues.
May 31: Dowling announces it will be closing on June 3rd. Game is temporarily cancelled.
June 1, 11:00am: St. Joseph’s has availability for Sunday. I announced the game will be played Sunday at Gregg Alfano Field.
June 2, 11:15am: St. Joseph’s cancels due to Island Fastpitch having the field booked for Sunday.
June 2, 1:15pm: PAL Stadium has field available for Sunday. Game will be played there.
June 3rd, 9:00am: PAL Stadium cancels game due to Boys of Summer league game.
June 3rd, 11:00am: PAL Stadium has opening for Monday, game will be played there.
June 6th: Game is played.
Along the way, almost a complete roster turnover occurs due to injuries, player’s previous commitments and potential NCAA violations.
Now that it is over, I can take a deep breath and enjoy the fact that we pulled off an event that included some of the top talent on Long Island that sets the stage for an even better event in 2017.
