With the 2022 season right around the corner it’s time to start digging into some story lines regarding the season. As I mentioned in the last column, the 2021 graduating class on Long Island featured several players who have since moved onto college off of Long Island where they should thrive, but that doesn’t include the players that stayed on LI and can have an impact on local colleges.
So this article we will dive deeper on five players that will help their teams win games in 2022.
John Rizzo, Adelphi RHP
Can’t look much better as a freshman than John Rizzo. The East Islip grad sits 86-90 T91 and spots his fastball and slider routinely pic.twitter.com/rNMEm0z4W6
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 27, 2021
Rizzo was an absolute steal for Adelphi. It was just a perfect storm for them. He is not a self-promoter so his videos weren’t all over social media, his velocity was mainly in the low 80s until his senior season and losing his junior season to covid didn’t help. Credit to Adelphi’s coach Bill Ianniciello for his recruiting because not many coaches sit through the amount of baseball games that he does. Rizzo turned heads during the Northeast Elite tournament back in October 2020 when he struck out 17 in a no-hitter against LI Titans-Parso. That’s when I noticed he was for real, so I watched him getting a lesson with Neal Heaton and realized he was a hidden gem. On Opening Day 2021, he struck out 20 in a one-hitter against Hills West in what coach Ciampi called the best pitched game he’s ever seen – and that’s saying a lot with the pitchers they’ve had at EI over the years. Rizzo performed very fall during the fall at Adelphi and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a conference starter. Oh and that velocity that was sitting in the low 80s is now in the high 80s, to go along with pinpoint command. If he stays healthy, he will be a force for them.
T.J Wachter, Fordham 1B
6’7 Fordham-commit Troy Wachter (P27 Academy 2021). Grew up in Shoreham-Wading River district pic.twitter.com/W7yim5bbjp
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) January 4, 2021
Not sure why every school in the country wouldn’t want to give a shot to a 6’7 225 lb power hitter. First let’s back track. I first met TJ about 4 years ago when he was at Shoreham-Wading River. With his height, he was definitely an interesting player, but he had not yet grown into his body and seemed like a raw project. Since that time, he has transformed himself. He first transferred to the Stony Brook School before attending P27 Academy in South Carolina. He has focused on hitting and it was the right decision due to his strength and massive potential. He’s been a huge part of East Coast Lumberjack’s team the past few years and according to Fordham’s website, he .370 with 54 RBIs over the past two summers (82 games) while being named to 16 All-Tournament team. I’m not really interested in the tournament accolades but the sheer volume shows you how consistent he’s performed. I don’t know what teams are looking for when they don’t try to go all-out recruiting a hitter like this. The ball explodes off his bat, and I can see him having an immediate impact in the lineup.
JC Kiss, Stony Brook LHP
JC Kiss (Hicksville 2021) up to 86 MPH at PBR NY State Games pic.twitter.com/yyW8UTlkgq
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 7, 2020
JC Kiss is a great name and for that reason alone I wanted to get him on a list. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a lefty southpaw that performed well enough in the fall where he will likely get plenty of innings as a freshman for the Seawolves. He allowed just two ER over 33 innings of work with 60 strikeouts for Hicksville last season. I haven’t seen him much in person but the feedback has been great. The challenge for Stony Brook freshmen pitchers is that they play such a tough non-conference schedule that they are basically playing a video game on level 10 difficultly right off the bat and if you fail it’s tough to significant innings after that. But if you can prove that you can throw strikes and stay healthy that’s a big step in the right direction. In general, this freshmen group is strong for Stony Brook with players like Chris Leone, Colin Rhein, JT Raab, Matt DeStefano, and it would’ve been even better had Tommy Ventimiglia not gone to pro ball. In any event, Kiss looks to have tremendous upside and he should get a chance right away.
Dylan Johnson, St. John’s RHP
Conference III MVP Dylan Johnson pic.twitter.com/gjdGfzXxOw
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 21, 2021
If you’ve been following along since the beginning, you are very familiar with the name and his family. They’ll go down as an all-time Long Island baseball family. Dylan was a four-year varsity player at Newfield HS where he helped lead them to their first County Championship and Long Island Championship in 2021 where he won the Carl Yastrzemski Award. His older brother, Kyle, was also a four-year varsity player at Newfield so there’s been a Johnson on that team every year since 2015. Kyle is currently a senior at Stony Brook University. His cousin, Chris Cepeda, won the Long Island Championship for Ward Melville in 2013 with a CG SHO over Massapequa and led St. Thomas Aquinas to the Div-II College World Series in 2017. His uncle, Raf, won the Yaz Award for Comsewogue in 1981 and his other uncle, Eddie, is a well-respected high school and college umpire.
Dylan is a dynamic player that wears his emotions on his sleeve. He’s a competitive force of nature, the type of player that can will his team to victory. As a freshman in the Big East, do I think he’s going to be a weekend starter and dominate right off the bat? Maybe not but I can see him being a high-leverage reliever by the time the conference schedule begins. Here’s what Coach Mike Hampton told me in October. “Dylan has been outstanding. He pitched against Boston College last week. He’s a special kid, he throws some funk and he’s a competitor. The tougher the situation, the more he steps up.” With that low 3/4 delivery and his wipeout slider, that should present a challenge to any right-handed hitter regardless of level of play.
Brian Forbes, St. Joseph’s LF
Brian Forbes rips one through the left side to score Mike Gunning and it’s 6-4 in the fourth pic.twitter.com/lAHv5e3JHu
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 11, 2021
Forbes is a graduate of Rocky Point HS where he had a great career for Coach Aschettino. Since then, he’s gone to Herkimer CC and Limestone College. At Herkimer he was a first-team All-American. He helped the LI Strong capture the summer championship this year as well. He has prodigious power and Coach Garrett told me he put on a clinic in the fall with his power. I expect him to put up huge numbers and compete for the Skyline Conference Player of the Year.
