On a hot & humid August afternoon, two players stole the show and stood above the rest in their respective brackets.
Steven Rizzo (St. Anthony’s) captured the high school division and Vito Friscia (Hofstra) captured the college division in front of a packed crowd at Baseball Heaven.
Rizzo led all high school hitters with 10 home runs, including seven in the first round. He defeated Matt Brown-Eiring (Connetquot 2020) in the championship round with two home runs.
David Falco (Center Moriches 2019) smacked 3 HR, Brock Murtha (Saville 2020) hit two while Kyle Rausch (Longwood 2019) and Brown-Eiring each hit one.
The college age players put on a clinic.
St. Joseph 1B Paul Britt hit four home runs. He is a finalist for our Axcess Most Valuable Player for his amazing 2018 season for the Skyline Conference champions Golden Eagles. He was their best offensive player–leading the team in hits (57), runs (43), doubles (11), triples (7), home runs (8), RBI (37), AVG (.404), OBP (.491) and SLG (.752).
Adelphi 1B Thomas Colombo got things started with 10 home runs, several OVER the scoreboard in right field. Colombo has put himself on the draft map, coming off a terrific junior season for the Panthers. His sweet-swing and defensive prowess has him on the short list of position players that could get drafted out of the Northeast-10 conference next season. His 10 home runs easily qualified him for the championship round, but he ran out of steam once he was there.
Michael Manzione (LIU Post) hit five HR and Vinny Rice (Farmingdale 2020) hit four HR.
The real show was Hofstra’s C/DH. The Valey Stream native just came back from the Cape Cod league, where he batted .375 while playing against the best collegiate players in the country. He has put himself firmly on the draft radar as well. In fact, he probably should’ve gotten drafted this past year, which would’ve given Hofstra 3 draft picks and 4 pro players overall. Regardless, he showed his ability by smashing an incredible 15 HR in the first round. At one point he had six HR and only one out. He clearly found his rhythm. It was pretty astonishing, as he used the entire field to compile his home runs as the crowd watched in partial amazement part disbelief.
In the championship round, Colombo lost a bit of his pop, just narrowly missing on a number of fly balls. He wound up with three HRs, giving Friscia some wiggle room to do what he does.
It took him longer than the previous round, but he crushed his fourth HR with only six outs as “Good Life” by Kanye West blared in the background.
We want to thank all the participants, the spectators and also our sponsors for helping out; Signature Bank, Caterpillar Inc, Muddy Locker Sports, Seven Tool Catching and All Pro Sports Academy.
