Author: Vinny Messana

Photo Credit: St. Louis Athletics An athlete on a mission is often like a runaway train. It cannot be stopped. Holbrook native and Tampa Bay Rays prospect Alec Sole was not content with his professional debut in 2014 and made sure he did something to rectify that.“Everyday I had one thing on my mind–getting better at the sport I love,” said Sole. “Hopefully the hard work wi...

Photo Credit: Old Westbury Athletics Kean stayed unbeaten with a 6-1 win over Old Westbury. The Cougars are now 5-0 on the season. They received a tremendous effort from starting pitcher Emilio Calderon–who threw eight innings, allowing just one run on five hits and no walks. The Panthers actually got on top 1-0 in the first inning on an RBI single by Eddie Hernandez. The lead was short live...

Photo Credit: Todd MontgomeryUniversity of Tampa is the No. 1 ranked Div. II team in the nation The University of Tampa can smack the baseball. They are the No.1 ranked team in the country and they showed LIU Post  why with a 20-9 victory. They entered the game with a .341 AVG as a team, and boosted that with a 20-hit performance. Aside from the bottom of the first, Tampa scored in every inning...

Screenshot from SNY Broadcast Long Island native and Adelphi graduate Keith Couch recorded the six-out save in yesterday’s matinee matchup against the Mets. Couch fired two shutout innings with two strikeouts. The play-by-play went as follows Bottom 8 Danny Muno singles to CF Brandon Allen grounds into 6-6-3 DP Kirk Nieuwenhuis singles to RF Anthony Recker strikes out swinging Bottom 9 Gavin...

Photo Credit: SUNY Old Westbury Athletics Kean wasn’t content beating just one Long Island team. After coming back to beat St. Joseph’s, they beat Old Westbury 12-4. Ace Tim Ingram struggled mightily with his command. In his 4.2 innings of work, he walked six and threw three wild pitches–very uncharacteristic from the reigning Skyline Pitcher of the Year. He allowed four earned r...

Photo Credit: St. Joseph’s Athletics After five cancellations, the St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles were able to kick off their 2015 campaign against Kean University. They dropped a close one 5-4 to the perennial powerhouse. Entering the bottom of the ninth, the Golden Eagles actually held a 4-2 lead with Nick Girardi on the hill. After a single and a walk to begin the frame, Kean executed a...

Photo Credit: Vinny Messana Stony Brook split their double header today with Fordham in a set of games that was closed to the public. They won the first game 6-1 behind Tyler Honahan, but were defeated 9-6 in the night cap. In the first game, Honahan received the victory by throwing six strong innings, allowing only three hits, walking one, allowing one ER and striking out five. Fordham got out to...

Photo Credit: C.W. Post Athletics The C.W. Post Pioneers had the right idea by traveling to Florida to play some baseball. They dropped their season opener, however, 2-1 to Post University. The Pioneers bats did not warm up with the weather–they were held to four hits. Graduate student Rich Maccarone accounted for two of those. Their lone run came across in the fourth inning on a wild pitch ...

Photo Credit: Newsday Watch the Throne isn’t just a classic album by Kanye West and Jay-Z.It’s also the game plan West Islip must employ if they plan on returning to the Long Island Championship once again.The Lions are coming off a banner year in which they captured the Suffolk County title for the first time since 2008–when Nick Tropeano was striking out everyone in sight.The d...

Photo Credit: Molloy Athletics It’s always great to see local products succeed in fulfilling their dreams of playing professional baseball. Max Schonfeld, 2014 graduate of Molloy, recently signed with the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League.The East Meadow native grabbed the attention of Baseball on the Island last year by dominating the ECC and ultimately setting Molloy’s program...

Photo Credit: NY Times The nightmare Winter continues. The hope was that as the calendar flipped to March it would bring some better weather–that couldn’t be further from the truth. Between the snow this past Sunday, yesterday and the impending storm this week it has caused another flurry of cancellations. Stony Brook verse NYIT was cancelled yesterday. Adelphi cancelled its game verse...

Photo Credit: Farmingdale Athletics Sitting out a year is always difficult–being forced to watch from the dugout, visiting doctors and attending physical therapy is all part of the struggles of enduring a season-ending injury. The silver lining is that if you weather the storm and heal properly, you are often a stronger person and possibly a better player because of it. Farmingdale’s D...