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Photo is credited to J. Conrad Williams Jr. Despite Mariano Rivera receiving a hero’s welcome upon entrance into the All-Star game, which was won by the American League 3-0, Joe Nathan received the save. Nathan, a graduate of Stony Brook, has been one of the more unheralded pitchers in Major League Baseball throughout his career which began in 1999 with San Francisco. Now 14 years later, Nathan is a six-time All Star closer that has compiled 328 saves with a solid 2.80 ERA in 688 appearances. Nathan struck out the first two batters he faced, Matt Carpenter and Andrew McCutchen, before yielding an opposite field double to Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks. With the tieing run on deck, he got the dangerous Bronx-native, Pedro Alvarez, to pop out to second base to end the gam...

There were zero Long Islanders drafted on the first day of the draft, which included the top two rounds. That was not a shock. The next day was different. Hofstra’s Bryan Verbitsky was selected in the third round by San Diego. In a bit of a surprise, Stephen Woods of Half Hollow Hills East was picked by Tampa Bay in the sixth round. Woods, 18, compiled a 5-1 record, fired back-to-back no-hitters, struck out 90, yielded only 12 hits, walked 23 and posted a miniscule 0.63 ERA. The chips began to fall after that.  James Lomangino of St. John’s went Oakland with the 431st overall pick. Lomangino, a graduate of Connetquot in 2009, attended Suffolk for one year prior to transferring to St. John’s where he became the closer in his sophomore season. Also selected by Oakland with ...

Hofstra right-handed pitcher Bryan Verbitsky was selected in the third round of the 2013 MLB draft by the San Diego Padres. “So grateful and blessed to be a part of the San Diego Padres organization!! Dream come True!” Verbitsky had a solid junior season as he compiled a 3-4 record with a 2.66 ERA in 44 innings, accumulating 51 strikeouts and limiting the opponents to 27 hits and 10 walks. He really put himself on the map last summer by making the All-Star team in the prestigious Cape Cod league. Those who follow high school baseball are familiar with him dating back to 2007 when he helped Island Trees to the playoffs as a freshman. That year was the first time I watched him pitch, as I matched up against him in a summer league game which ended in a 1-1 tie through 7 innings. V...

Farmingdale 1 @ Ithaca 4 Coming off a big win in the opening round of the New York State Regional, #3 Farmingdale State Rams went up against #1 seed Ithaca on Thursday afternoon. They would have to face the incredibly tough pitching staff of the Bombers. Ithaca’s four starting pitchers on the year compiled a perfect combined record, going 31-0 with an ERA of 2.83, and would be sending out John Prendergast out to face the Rams. Jorge Ruiz started off the top of the third with a double for Farmingdale and later scored on an error by the shortstop. Ithaca answered back with three more runs in the bottom on the third. Kitt Cameron struggled to last only 2.2 innings, but the bullpen held Ithaca to just one more run in the bottom of the seventh. John Prendergast though did not surrender an...

It is rather ironic that the two players that I interviewed early in the season both were named All-Americans in 2013. Call it what you want, I call it impeccable talent evaluations. Dillon McNamara became the 14th Adelphi baseball player in the program’s decorated history to be named All-American, and the first since Robert Nixon went 11-2 in 2011. David Zilnicki became the first player (Tom Heeman was selected in 2009 but had it stripped after an NCAA investigation) in the history of Farmingdale State. McNamara was nearly spotless this season as the closer for the Panthers. The 6’5″ Staten Island native tossed 32 innings, struck out 42 and allowed one measly. Even that run wouldn’t have scored if not for a blown call by the second base umpire in the final game of ...

Photo Credit: Farmingdale Athletics 2013 did not feature the firepower that 2012 did in terms of Long Island baseball prowess. To be fair, not many years ever do. There were so many impact players it was easy to confuse Long Island for a southern baseball powerhouse like Texas or California. This year there was a significant drop off, but that is not to take away from the players that are on this list. There were still players able to compile monster seasons which have already landed them national recogniton. Stony Brook, a perennial 40-win team at the Division-I level limped to the finish line and will be forced to win the America East conference as a No. 4 seed. NYIT and Hofstra finished under .500 and were not factors in the conference playoffs. At the Division-II level, the most succes...

The New York regional may be owned by Cortland, but Farmingdale is looking for revenge on last year’s loss in the finals. They defeated Neumann (29-14) 7-2, behind the strong pitching of Mike Dolce and Alex Weingarten. For the fourth consecutive year, the Farmingdale Rams have won the first game of the Regionals. They are hoping to advance to the Division-III College World Series for the second time in program history. The biggest threat came in the top of the first inning, when Neumann loaded up the bases thanks to two errors, but Mike Dolce came through as he has all year long and eluded any damage. The game flew by as both pitchers cruised through the lineups until the bottom of the fifth when David Zilnicki drove in Mike Scarlato with an infield single. He then came around to sco...

The Stony Brook Seawolves will conclude their 2013 regular season this weekend at Hartford with a postseason berth on the line. It is a unique feeling, however, considering the Seawolves will be fighting for their playoff lives. They sit 1.5 games ahead of Hartford, which means it would take a sweep to fall behind. They entered the year as the overwhelming favorites due to their recent run of success. The roster from the previous year’s College World Series run had been gutted, however, leaving Head Coach Matt Senk to rely on a number of inexperienced players. After a dreadful 0-9 start, they have recovered commendably, and went 22-21 the rest of the way to finish with a respectable record. There was a lot to maturation on the roster. Frankie Vanderka has emerged as a staff ace, hold...

In a rather surprising turn of events, Molloy upset Dowling with a 6-0 shutout, eliminating the Golden Lions from the ECC playoffs in the first round. Dowling, who struggled offensively all season but had terrific pitching, was held to seven hits and their ace, Tyler Badamo, yielded six runs in five innings to drop to 7-4 on the season. Max Schonfeld tossed the complete game shutout, walked none and struck out four to improve his record to 5-4 and advance Molloy. In the first, John Galanoudis hit a two-run home run to Schonfeld all the runs he would need. They tacked on one in the third, on a wild pitch, and three in the fifth on a bases-clearing double by Erik Pyle. Andrew Abreu was the lone hitter with two hits for Dowling, as they quietly exit the playoffs and finish 22-20-1.

Two years ago the Adelphi Panthers were on the brink of the Divison-II College World Series, before dropping a pair to Southern Connecticut in the Regionals to have their dreams thwarted. Since then, they have played sub .500 ball. Most recently, they had their 2013 season ended in the first-round of the playoffs by No. 1 ranked New Haven (30-13) by the score of 5-0. The Panthers were held to three hits by the New Haven staff. Pat Simone (6-1) tossed the first six innings, allowing only two hits and three walks (his eighth of the season) while fanning three. John Melville and Peter Jay closed out the Panthers. Their offense was led by Andrew Johnson who finished 1-for-3 with three RBI on the day. He drove in runs on a sacrifice fly and a two-run single. For the Panthers, Steven Bove tossed...

Although it hasn’t been the walk in the park that 2012 was, the Dowling Golden Lions enter the ECC playoffs with a chance to bring home the conference championship for a consecutive season. They were awarded the No. 2 seed in the tournament with a 15-9 conference record, and will take on No. 3 ranked Molloy who finished 14-10. Dowling struggled offensively this year, compiling a .238 cumulative average and 3.3 runs per game which was less than their opponents averaged. They will be relying on Andrew Abreu to return to 2012 form (61 hits, .326 AVG) and JC Brandmeier (.339 AVG, 19 RBI, .934 OPS in 2013) to drive in runs. The pitching was certainly the lynchpin. They had a team ERA of 2.81, led by their trio of aces Adam Brown (1.47 ERA), Tyler Badamo (2.08 ERA) and Tom Bammann (2.37 ER...

The Adelphi Panthers enter the Northeast-10 playoffs as the No. 4 seed and will look for redemption against No. 1 ranked New Haven tomorrow at 2 p.m. New Haven enters the playoffs with an overall record of 29-13 and having just won two of three from the Panthers. Despite their underwhelming .267 team average, they have two standout hitters. Chris Demorais is batting .375 and Brendan O’Reilly at .301. Both could pose problems. They also like to run, having stolen 113 bases as team. Their true strength is on the mound, however. They have five starting pitchers that amassed three or more wins, led by Pat Simone who had a 5-1 record with a 1.64 ERA, and a ridiculous 45/5 K:BB ratio. The Panthers, who finished the regular season at 23-24-1 have been inconsistent all year but have the prow...