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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 difference is this year’s team will be returning their horse–James Kory, who went 10-0 (only pitcher in program history to do so) and took his game to an unprecedented level in the postseason when he was untouchable.Sixth year Head Coach Shawn Rush is confident that his team will be led by their rotation once again.“We have a lot of depth there–we’ll get a ton of quali...

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 record for lowest career ERA for a single season (1.61) as well as career (2.19). In fact, if you glance through the record book you will find Schonfeld’s name virtually all over the place. He was just one out away from throwing the most innings in a single season (92.2) and is tied for first with 13 starts in a season. He’s third in career wins (15), complete games (8), shutouts (2) ...

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 Molloy today. Dowling also cancelled its games today and this weekend. It has been nothing short of a nightmare. Hopefully next week brings different news.

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 Dalton McCarthy is coming off a torn hamstring that forced him to miss all of 2014, but he is healed and ready to have a huge 2015. The worst part was not being able to help my team. I always try to find the positives in every situation so I looked at last season as an opportunity to develop mentally as a player. I look at the game a little differently now that I had a chance to take a step back an...

This is a big week for Baseball on the Island If not for road trips down south, nobody would have played a game yet from Long Island. This week should change that. Now, there was snowfall last night but it’s expected to warm up this week and it should allow for actual games to take place on college campuses in Long Island.  Here is a breakdown of the scheduled games for this week. Division-I: Stony Brook: Tuesday vs NYIT, Saturday @ Fordham (DH), Sunday @ Fordham NYIT: Tuesday @ Stony Brook, Friday-Sunday @ George Mason Hofstra: Saturday @ Albany (DH), Sunday @ Albany Division-II: Adelphi: Wednesday vs Molloy, Saturday vs Bloomsburg (DH), Sunday vs Bloomsburg Dowling: Wednesday vs Pace, Saturday vs Franklin Pierce (DH), Sunday vs Franklin Pierce Molloy: Wednesday @ Adelphi, Saturday ...

Photo Credit: Stony Brook Athletics The Sea Wolves learned first hand how difficult it is for a northeast team to travel down south and face a powerhouse team in their environment. Despite hanging tough in the first game, the Sea Wolves ultimately were outscored 20-5 in the next two games and suffered the three-game sweep. In the third game, redshirt sophomore got the ball with the task of keeping the Gators at bay. He was able to strike out eight batters over five innings, but he did allow four ER on seven hits. The Gators got on the board in the second inning, when John Sternagel crushed a two-run home run, scoring Josh Tobias. In the following inning, Tobias stayed red-hot with a home run of his own to extend the lead to 3-0. The Gators extended the lead in the fifth inning with an RBI ...

Photo Credit: Stony Brook Athletics When Johnny Caputo connected to launch a three-run home run in the first inning to score Cole Peragine and Jack Parenty, it looked like Stony Brook might pull off an upset of the No. 2 ranked Florida Gators. It was, unfortunately, the only inning that the Sea Wolves would hold the lead. The Gators answered with a five-run bottom half of the first off Tyler Honahan. The offense went stagnant off A.J. Puk, who fired 6.2 innings, struck out seven and allowed only those three runs. Third baseman Josh Tobias led the way for the Gators with a 5-for-5 game, scoring one run and driving in three. Honahan falls to 1-1 on the season. Four Sea Wolves relievers combined to pitch the final 5.1 innings, but they did not fair much better–allowing eight earned runs...

Photo Credit: Vinny Messana It is no easy task going into Gainesville and  hanging tough with a perennial powerhouse such as the Florida Gators. The Sea Wolves did just that, losing a nailbiter 1-0, to the No. 2 ranked team in the country. The lone run came across in the bottom half of the sixth, when J.J. Schwarz drove in Harrison Badar with an RBI double off Stony Brook starter Tim Knesnik. Knesnik did a tremendous job of keeping one of the top offenses in the nation at bay for five shutout innings. He wiggled out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning by striking out A.J. Puk. He breezed through the next few innings, and it wasn’t until the run scored in the sixth inning did he run into any trouble. Matt Senk lifted him in favor of Kevin Kernan, who did a stellar job of putting...

Photo Credit: Vinny Messana Stony Brook will be the only local team in action this weekend due to all the cancellations that this winter has brought. They will begin a challenging three-game series against No. 2 ranked Florida in Gainesville, Fla. The Sea Wolves have never defeated a program ranked higher than No. 7 in their history–that came during the famous super regional upset against LSU. Florida enters with a record of 7-1, having lost only to Miami. They will have sophomore Logan Shore on the hill. As a freshman, he was named SEC Freshman of the Year as well as freshman All-American.The Sea Wolves will certainly have their work cut out for them. Stony Brook will counter with Tim Knesnik. He is 0-1, 4.00 ERA through two starts, but compiled a 2.39 ERA last year, making seven st...

Photo Credit: Vinny Messana Great pitching has been a staple of Adelphi’s success throughout the tenure of Head Coach Dom Scala. This year figures to be no different. “We have a young staff with lots of experience,” said the 12th year coach. “These guys threw a lot as freshman,” he added. The staff will be led by junior Jonathon Mulford. The former Massapequa star is coming off a terrific sophomore campaign in which he led the team with 71.2 innings, struck out 59 batters while compiling a record of 5-3, with a strong 2.89 ERA.  The captain will be joined by sophomore TJ Santiago.  “He (TJ) could be a No. 1 as well,” said Scala. That is no exaggeration–as a freshman he threw 60.1 innings, struck out 45 batters with a 3.28 ERA. Most impressive...

Photo Credit: Molloy Athletics The Molloy Lions headed down to Myrtle Beach, S.C to kick off their 2015 campaign. They did not fair particularly well, despite finishing the trip with a convincing 8-4 victory over Nyack. In that game, a wild first inning was capped with the Lions scoring six runs to take an early 6-2 lead. They small-balled Nyack to death with RBI singles by Michael Rahn, John Galanoudis, Elijan Leerdam and Jack McCarty. After starting pitcher Anthony Catinella was removed in the fourth inning, Sean Gordon came in relief to put out the fire. The sophomore from St. Dominic’s fired 3.2 shutout innings, allowing only one hit while striking out two. The Lions tacked on two more runs in the sixth on another run-scoring single by McCarty and a sac fly by Brian Murphy. Shawn...

It’s easy to fly under the radar when you play for Centereach. The program has won their league twice since 1991. One player that will force his way into the conversation is their ace Greg Marino. The monstrous 6’7″ Greg Marino will be entering his senior year with one goal in mind: leading the Cougars back to the playoffs. Centereach has not been a force to be reckoned with since 2010, but they might be feared every third day this season when their ace takes the mound. “My goal is to win as many games as possible on the mound,” said Marino. He took it one step further by saying “losing is not the team’s expectation this year”. He went on to say that “previous years have motivated me to turn things around and bring more wins to this sch...