Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series
by Vin Messana
It’s almost hard to fathom how far they’ve come. Back in the early days of Axcess Baseball, The Stony Brook School was a League IX public school in Suffolk County, Since then, they have gone to the PSAA to now a fully-independent juggernaut.
Let’s start with their Division-I commits:
- SS Aiden Ruiz – Vanderbilt
- LHP Sebastian Santos-Olson – Miami
- OF Jordan Serrano – Wake Forest
- RHP Leo Vitarelli – Winthrop
- RHP Chris Nell – Lehigh
- C Anthony DeCesare – Delaware
- 2B Larry Hotaling – Villanova
That is not even considering that they have two freshmen (JuJu Martinez and Colin Raymond) that are ranked among the top players in the country in their class and another 2027, Brian Brower, is among the top pitchers in the state in the sophomore class.
They are coming off winning the 2024 NYSAIS State Championship. They defeated Poly Prep, arguably the top team in the northeast region, by the score of 6-0, to end the state tournament, before defeating Trinity, Fieldston and Columbia Prep in succession.
This season, they are forgoing the NYSAIS tournament in favor of a newly-formed playoff format among three other teams; Malverne Prep, Gloucester Academy and Poly Prep. The championship game will be at MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones.
Miami-commit Sebastian Santos-Olson FB T93 pic.twitter.com/jHA59GIScp
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 4, 2025
Head Coach Jon Brewer, who is a native of Georgia, has been at the helm since 2022.
“We’ve got the program where we want it to be. We play top teams around the country. We do recognize the we have advantages over a lot of teams around here, but it’s not about playing games around here for us. We want to be ranked in the country and be one of the premier programs,” he added.
They compiled an overall record of 18-5 last season. One of their losses was early in the season against St. John the Baptist in a game that they led 2-0 with their ace, Leo Vitarelli, on the hill. Vitarelli wound up being the winning pitcher in the state championship.
“That was probably the best thing that happened to us last year,” he said. “They were chirping us pretty good. Everyone wants to beat us. At the end of the day, our players are still kids and it’s hard to get them up for every game. They thought, ‘we have our ace on the hill, we’re good,’ but things happen. Now we are motivated. We are pretty dang good. Ultimately, they have to feel threatened and avoid complacency – that’s what I battle. But if they are motivated, they are tough to beat.”
There’s no question they have the talent to beat anyone. They have four pitchers that are throwing 90+. In some of their wins, they were up 10-0 early and had to take their starter out.
They just got back from a 2-week trip to Georgia in which they played some top teams in the state. Their Vanderbilt-commit SS Aiden Ruiz had a remarkable trip.
“What did he do? It would be easier to say what he did not do. He batted around .700 and played himself into being a first-round pick. I’ve been on the phone with every team since then.”
Ruiz will likely bat atop the order. They have plenty of experience on the team, but strangely enough their cleanup hitter this season will be 9th grader. JuJu Martinez, who is already in his 3rd year on varsity. He mostly batted 5th last season.
13-year-old JuJu Martinez (The Stony Brook School 2028) with a 2.09 pop time to second pic.twitter.com/17xe9CeICl
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 9, 2023
Serrano, who will be attending Wake Forest, led the team in AVG (.429), OPS (1.404), SLG (.821), HR (5), RBIs (24) and runs (30).
They also got a huge season for Seth Laureano, who has since graduated. He batted .426 with an 1.144 OPS, ranking second behind Serrano in both categories.
Leo Vitarelli led the team in innings (38.1) and strikeouts (46) while Chris Nell led the team in wins (6) and ERA (0.70).
The Bears will open up the season on March 15 at home against Paramount Academy in a scrimmage. They will travel to face Avon Old Farms on March 28 and fat Worcester Academy the next day. They’ll make trips to Lakepoint in Georgia as well as Cary, NC and Puerto Rico. The playoffs are set for May 18-20.
They will certainly be worth keep an eye on this season.
