This past week I spent the afternoon observing the Dodgers Nation team workout at LI Sports Dome – which consisted of their top 14 and 15u teams.
The workout was led by Al Marrazzo – the Lynbrook varsity head coach. The team began the day working on a bevy of base running and infield defense. Additionally, the pitchers threw bullpen sessions and all hitters took a few rounds of BP.
Alonso Espinet (Long Beach 2024) pic.twitter.com/oAf8LOWOi9
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 20, 2022
The founder of the organization, Christian Byrnes, is extremely high on this group of boys – stating that they will eventually turn into some of the best players on the island. Some of the top players that were in attendance were Tommy Morton, Chase Palma, Paolo Palleschi, Nick Karras at the 14u level while the 15u team has a number of standout players. This group went 7-0 down at the Ripken tournament last year and also captured the Axcess Invitational.
8th grader Tommy Morton (North Babylon) pic.twitter.com/fVwjI73WHk
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 20, 2022
The organization, which began in 2017 with 7 teams, has now blossomed into 30 teams.
They have done a nice job at getting their top-end talent placed at the collegiate level. Here’s what they have:
Patrick Dalton – Cortland
Brian O’Boyle – LIU
Richie Gennaro – Molloy
Peter Schimmel – St. Thomas Aquinas
Nick Giardino – Misericordia
Andrew Moy – Swarthmore
Will Stewart – Farmingdale
Zach Schnabel – St. Joseph’s Brooklyn
Phil D’Aguanno – Adelphi
Brendan McCann – Pace
Conor Burns – Ithaca
Pavlos Papoutsakis – Dominican
Drew Stabinsky – Purchase
In terms of league and tournament play, 2021 was a fruitful year. Here’s what they were able to accomplish:
8u McCloskey – won the East Coast Fall, Hot Stove Columbus Day. Went 16-2 in summer
9u Finelli – East Coast Summer Champs, Hot Stove Father’s Day Champs
10u Byrnes – first place East Coast spring + summer, Hot Stove Father’s Day Champs, Islip tournament Champs, won over 40 games total.
11u Branscum – won East Coast Spring Championship
12u – Diamond Pro Spring Tournament
13u – won East Coast 4th of July tournament and won 34 games
14u Marrazzo – lost in Finals of Boys of Summer, won Ripken Myrtle Beach, won Axcess Invitational, Perfect Game semifinals
14u Pallatto – lost in Finals of Boys of Summer, won Brian Moore Memorial tournament
16u Jasmin – lost in Finals of Boys of Summer, won Hot Stove Fall Bonanza, won Columbus Day tournament, lost in Finals of BSE Pennsylvania Showcase Tournament
17u Burns – Boys of Summer back-to-back champs
When asked about the past season, Byrnes had the following to say:
“2021 was a great year for me personally as I just finished my 17th year coaching varsity at Bethpage. We won the County Championship and I was beyond proud of this particular team because I also had majority of them at Dodgers Nation. There was a reason my 18u won consecutive BOS championships, and my 17u also won BOS Championship back-to-back years and was ranked nationally. Dodgers Nation was on the map. With a combination of 10 varsity and 10 JV coaches the emphasis is devleopment and hard work. My hitting style is consistnet through the organization. Al Marrazzo (Lynbrook varsity) coaches our strong 15u, Tom Pallatto (Oceanside) takes over our top 14u. After the success of our upper levels, I dropped down to build up our younger age groups and we are continuing that success. Brian Redash handles all the day-to-day stuff, Gene Walsh handles our college placement division, and I brought aloing Martin Green to build up our fitness/speed and agility program and Julio Micheli was brought in to handle our catching program. We added some top 13u talent with two teams coming aboard. Our 15u group is strong. Niko Dovas and Mike Jasmin are handling the 16s and 17u group. This year is exiting as we are sending four teams to Puerto Rico for a tournament and having coaches USA travel teams that competed in China, Finland, Australia and Italy, I’m a big fan of the experience it provides our players.”
