Author: Vinny Messana
Baseball Players React to the Passing of Yogi Berra
Legendary baseball player Yogi Berra passed away today at the age of 90. He played 18 of his 19 year career with the New York Yankees. During that time, he won 10 World Series and three MVPs while finishing in second place on two other occasions. Berra finished with a .285 career batting average with 358 home runs and 1430 RBI. He compiled a career OPS of .830. Just as famous as Yogi was on the fi...
The Incredible Story Of Nick Bottari: Re-Learning How to Walk to Div-I Baseball
Shoreham, NY 2010— It was a standard Suffolk County varsity game between Shoreham-Wading River and Amityville. Up stepped freshman sensation Nick Bottari of Shoreham. He had made a name for himself the previous season by becoming the first eighth grader to play on the varsity team for legendary coach Sal Mignano. On this particular at bat, he fell behind 0-2 on the count when the pitcher tri...
Biggest Start of Steven Matz’ Career Tomorrow in the Subway Series
One aspect of Steven Matz‘ game that is evident is his ability to mitigate any of the outside distractions and simply focus on pitching. He will need to possess a great deal of that focus tomorrow night in the Subway Series against Masahiro Tanaka and the New York Yankees. Matz will be pitching in front of his hometown fans in his fifth big league start. He will enter the game with an unblem...
David Palmer Ready to Carry the Load for New Haven
Coming off a strong freshman season at New Haven University, former East Islip star pitcher David Palmer is ready to take the next step and lead the Chargers to the NE-10 championship. The 6’5″ hurler threw 42.1 IP and compiled a 6:1 K/BB ratio over eight starts. He and fellow Long Island native, Vincent Aprea, both held their own as freshman starting pitchers in an uber-competitive en...
Marcus Stroman Makes Season Debut Tomorrow
It has been a long road back, but Marcus Stroman will finally make his season debut tomorrow afternoon in Yankee Stadium. It couldn’t come at a better time for the first place Toronto Blue Jays, who are looking to stave off the New York Yankees. The Pat-Med grad is coming off an 11-6 season with a 3.65 ERA over 130.2 IP in his rookie year. He compiled a 1.17 WHIP and struck out 7.6 per nine....
How “The Titan Way” Has Transformed Long Island’s Recruiting Scene
If you walk into any reputable baseball tournament across the country, you are bound to run into them. If you go to any college showcase, you are bound to see their uniform and hat well represented by the players. And if you look at any “League Standings” page for a specific season, you are bound to see their name at the top of the list. The organization has won seven National Champion...
Mike Demarest Reflects on his 2015, Discusses Goals for ’16
Every year there are players who take their game to another level and and put the hype machine into overdrive mode. Mike Demarest, who entered the season No. 60 on the preseason Blue Chip Prospects ranking, put East Islip on his back and carried them right to the finish line where they were finally defeated by Ward Melville. He won nine games for the Red Men, and nearly carried them over Ward Melv...
Danny Burawa Recalled by Atlanta Braves, Throws Two Shutout Innings in Debut
Lost in the shuffle of the slew of Long Islanders making an impact in pro ball this season has been Danny Burawa. The Rocky Point grad, and former St. John’s closer, originally made his MLB debut with the New York Yankees this season on June 21 when he allowed four ER in 0.2 IP against the Detroit Tigers. On August 5, he was designated for assignment by the Yankees and scooped up by the Atla...
Next Level Titans Qualify for Prestigious Perfect Game Tournament in Jupiter, FLA
The Next Level Titans rolled through a 64-team tournament with an undefeated 7-0 record this week and they now qualify for the prestigious Perfect Game tournament in Jupiter, FLA which will feature the top amateur teams from across the world. During the tournament, they scored 64 runs while allowing only 10. Rob Weissheier, a 2016 graduate of Chaminade that is committed to Hofstra, was named the M...
Kyle Strovink Commits to Lamar University
A lot of people like to bring attention to themselves by boasting about who they know. In fact, I had a kid brag to me the other day that he went to school with Steven Matz. Kyle Strovink is not one of those people. It might be easy to expect things handed to you when your uncle was a 10-year veteran in the big leagues; Keith Osik and your father played minor league ball. The senior from Rocky Poi...
Potter’s Pitch: Hofstra CF Was Team MVP
by PJ Potter When it comes to Steven Foster’s play on the field, he is humbled by those closest to him. As a freshman who struggled during the fall league for Hofstra, Foster was not expecting to play much in his first year of Division I baseball. “I had the jitters in the first month and I was doing too much to impress the coaches,” he noted. The speedster out of Sachem North High School in Lake ...
Going Brothers Transition From the Gridiron to the Diamond
Much like the story of the Weissheier brothers, the Going brothers never intended to play at the same school. In fact, it wasn’t even clear which sport was their best. R.J., the elder of the two, actually began his college career playing baseball at the rival Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire in 2012. After transferring to Suffolk Community College, he decided he really wanted to g...
