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Photo Credit: Molloy Athletics Usually teams are either young or experienced. In the case of Molloy, however, they may have found a way to be both. “We have a young team, but they all have experience playing in the conference tournament,” said Head Coach Joe Fucarino. Last year’s team finished with a 20-24 overall record, but qualified for postseason play. They were eliminated by St. Thomas Aquinas. That team graduated their terrific starting rotation of Max Schonfeld–who owns the program record for lowest-career ERA at 2.19, Alex Miden and Anthony Eichhorn. Fucarino said they are all “top end players”, as well as outfielder Carlos Guzman, who hit .287 with 24 RBI and 16 SBs. On a positive note, the team will be returning two players who were terrific as...

Photo Credit: Harris Rappel From 1990-’93 the Buffalo Bills set a dubious record by losing four consecutive Super Bowls. While it has not occured on the national spotlight, Old Westbury has made a similar habit of falling just shy at the finish line. Each year since 2010, they have been defeated by Farmingdale State in the championship of the Skyline Conference. Head Coach Rod Stephan is optimistic, however, that this will be the year that they turn the tables. “We’re as good or better than Farmingdale,” claims the fifth year Head Coach. “It’s just been a matter of a play or two. We have the talent. We just need to go out and have fun,” he added. Stephan may have a case. He noted that he has three returning outfielders that have been All-Region pl...

Although hitting has been a premium, it takes a tremendous athlete to dominate on the mound Baseball is a unique sport in many ways. Among those reasons is that it takes a specific skill set to excel at each position. Sure, some players like Pete Rose and Craig Biggio have become All Stars at multiple positions, but they are very much in the minority on that. Most players develop skills throughout their amateur careers that limit them to a particular position. It is often a source of pride for a player to say they excel at a difficult position such as shortstop or catcher. I wanted to get their take on it, so I asked  former college players about their experiences playing the position and they gave some great insight. Here is Part 3 of the series…Tom Buckley, Pitcher, Kellenberg HS a...

Photo Credit: St. Joseph’s Athletics In his first year at the helm for the St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles, Richard Garrett’s squad struggled to a 17-20 overall record (9-7 conference). He is confident, however, that this team has made the necessary improvements to take the next step and compete with the likes of Old Westbury and Farmingdale State for the Skyline Conference title. “We had an excellent recruiting class coming in,” said Garrett. “We had a ton of injuries last season. We lost our top six players. Three of them are coming back,” he said. That alone should warrant the improvement necessary to finish over .500. When you factor in new players such as INF James Nakashian, C Brendan Sullivan (from Farmingdale) and P Nick Girardi, the team could ...

Photo Credit: Hofstra Athletic Communications “Back-to-back seasons we had the go-ahead run on third base with the chance to make the playoffs on the line,” said seventh year Head Coach John Russo. “I’m anxious to see them play,” he said. The Pride will be fielding a very young team. According to Russo, only eight of the players will be juniors or seniors. The team will consist of 22 underclassmen–an extraordinary number. There will be three freshman in the Opening Day lineup on Friday against UCLA. Russo believes the most crucial stretch of the season will be the first 20 games leading up to conference play because he has a lot of questions to answer before them in regards to the roles players will be in. For example he said, “Who will replace Bre...

The shortstop is often the most athletic player on the field Baseball is a unique sport in many ways. Among those reasons is that it takes a specific skill set to excel at each position. Sure, some players like Pete Rose and Craig Biggio have become All Stars at multiple positions, but they are very much in the minority on that. Most players develop skills throughout their amateur careers that limit them to a particular position. It is often a source of pride for a player to say they excel at a difficult position such as shortstop or catcher. I wanted to get their take on it, so I asked  former college players about their experiences playing the position and they gave some great insight. Here is Part 2 of the series…Seth Pileggi, SS St. Joseph’sWhen did you realize shortstop wa...

Photo Credit: Vinny MessanaBeing a catcher is no walk in the park. Baseball is a unique sport in many ways. Among those reasons is that it takes a specific skill set to excel at each position. Sure, some players like Pete Rose and Craig Biggio have become All Stars at multiple positions, but they are very much in the minority on that. Most players develop skills throughout their amateur careers that limit them to a particular position. It is often a source of pride for a player to say they excel at a difficult position such as shortstop or catcher. I wanted to get their take on it, so I asked  former college players about their experiences playing the position and they gave some great insight. Here is Part 1 of the series…  Catcher-Kevin Hutzel, Adelphi University:  When did you real...

Photo Credit: SUNY Oneonta Athletic Department Some players spend their entire lives in the spotlight. Others make a rapid ascension in one year to get into that exact same spot. Steven Ascher, left handed pitcher in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, fits into the latter.  Often times players will say that they always knew their future was playing professional baseball. Ascher is the rare player that waited until the last possible moment to seize his opportunity.  “I never thought playing professional baseball would be an opportunity until a year or so ago,” said the Long Island native. “The reality of being drafted never hit me until I began throwing in front of a local Mets scout at All Pro Baseball Academy last winter (December 2013),” he said.  For most people, t...

Photo Credit: Vinny Messana I look back at 2014 as the most important year of my career to this point. I had a season that, honestly if someone told me before everything I did was going to happen, I would have laughed and said that’s next to impossible. My college stats speak for themselves and what I learned in my first year in pro ball will be with me throughout my life. The jump from Division-II baseball to professional baseball was something that you think about the second you realize there is a chance to play professional, but you never realize all the differences until it happens. When I arrived in Port St. Lucie I began to realize how different college players are compared to high school and Latin players. I got to really see how much a person grows up and develops in college and on...

There are very few stories to report in January and early February. But, baseball fans can read some stories if you choose to. Here is a list of my top five favorite baseball books that I have read… 5. Ball Four: Jim Bouton Autobiography Not many fans are familiar with Jim Bouton–he was a rather non-descript pitcher in the 1960s. His biggest contribution may have been a negative, actually. In his autobiography, he sort of was the first to let the cat out of the bag about the behavior of baseball players. Remember, pre-social media, fans only knew what they saw on the field about baseball players. They were all assumed to be 100% committed to their on-field responsibilities. Bouton exposed how players enjoyed to stay out late chasing women, gambling and boozing. It was a black e...

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/RwY8IlOvfY0&source=uds

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/fHLkfw2CYHs&source=uds Here is a Youtube video made by my old teammate Ryan Rubenstein. He did a terrific job with the shooting and editing. It is one of the most dramatic games I’ve ever witnessed–Farmingdale erased a huge 9th inning deficit to defeat Old Westbury and win their fifth consecutive Skyline Conference title. Enjoy.