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Photo is credited to Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke In one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, Ward Melville’s ace Anthony Kay tossed the first no-hitter in school history since 1991. Four years ago, two aces matched up against each other in arguably the most anticipated high school baseball game in Long Island history. Steve Matz and Marcus Stroman were clearly the two best pitchers that season. Every Major League club had a representative in attendance. The pitchers did not disappoint as the game finished 1-0 in favor of Ward Melville on an RBI groundout in the seventh. Both pitchers recorded double-digit strikeouts. Today the same two teams matched up and sent pitchers to the hill who have already committed to well-respected Division-I schools. Matt Vogel of Pat-Med has comm...

Photo is credited to AUPanthers.com The Adelphi Panthers won a hard-fought game 1-0 over the Owls of Southern Connecticut State. Senior Jimmy Milani made the most of his first start of the season by tossing 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits, although he did not factor in the decision. Unfortunately, the Panthers offense was unable to scrape across a run to get Milani the victory. Chris Pabisch came in to relieve him, as he threw 1.2 scoreless innings. In the bottom of the seventh, shortstop Brandon Stahl hit an RBI groundout to drive in the lone run of the game. Head Coach Dom Scala chose to use closer Dillon McNamara in the eighth inning. The decision paid off as the 6’5″ closer retired all five batters he faced to record his fourth save of the young season. With t...

Stony Brook: The Seawolves took on St. John’s at Citi Field and it was a fantastic game through 11 innings. The score was deadlocked at 1-1. Unfortunately a hit by pitch with the bases loaded followed by a three-run double broke the game open as St. John’s scored six in the 12th to win 7-1. It was the first time Stony Brook played a game at Citi Field. Adelphi: Freshman Jonathon Mulford continued his terrific beginning to his collegiate career by tossing eight shutout innings allowing only three hits against Dominican as the Panthers won by a score of 7-0. Mulford moves to 2-0 on the season. The offense was led by Brandon Stahl who stayed hot and added two hits hits and two RBI from the leadoff spot. Nick Zito, Vincent Sharkey and Donato Signore all added RBI hits as the Panthe...

Photo is credited to dowlingathletics.com

Photo is credited to Farmingdalesports.com One of the more underrated players on Long Island the past four seasons has been David Zilnicki of Farmingdale State. The 22-year-old outfielder has quietly been the catalyst on four-straight conference winning clubs. I had the chance to play with him in 2010-’11 and he is a hard-working individual and a pesky hitter atop the order. He is already the program leader in stolen bases, and ranks in the top-10 in AVG, OBP, runs, hits, triples, RBI, total bases, walks and HBP. That is not even including his .426 beginning to the season thus far with 20 hits already. Here is a conversation I had with him regarding some aspects of the game.  1) Is there any pressure to win one more Skyline title to finish what you started? Theres always going to be ...

Sunday featured some huge match ups for Long Island teams. Here is everything that happened. Farmingdale vs Old Westbury: Two bitter rivals matched up in a Skyline Conference double header which was a rematch of the 2012 conference finals. The Rams won the first game by the score of 8-4. Mike Dolce was the winning pitcher as he improves his record to 2-0 on the season. He relieved Anthony Eilers who labored through 1.2 innings allowing 2 ER on 4 hits and 2 walks. The remainder of the game was controlled by Farmingdale who scored three runs in the second and fifth innings. Tom Rydzewski recorded three hits and scored three times. In Game 2, the Panthers obliterated the Rams pitching as they built up a 13-0 lead through five innings. They ultimately added six more as they captured the second...

Adelphi: In their first conference games of the season, the Panthers were swept by St. Thomas Acquinas. In Game 1, despite issuing 12 walks the Panthers came back from a 7-5 deficit thanks to a home run from Anthony Zarrella. Unfortunately in extra innings they allowed two runs to score on wild pitches which was the difference. In Game 2, sophomore Mike Cranston (5-0 in 2012) had a rough day allowed 9 ER in 3.1 innings. The Panthers fought back and took a 4-3 lead but gave it back. They were defeated 9-6 and move to 7-7-1 on the season. St. Joseph’s: The Golden Eagles got on the right track as they won both games against Mt. St. Mary’s by scores of 15-6 and 9-4. An oddity occurred as Kenny Willms was hit by a pitch on five different at bats which appears to be a record. Beekman...

Photo is credited to DowlingAthletics.com Dowling fell to St. Thomas Aquinas (STAC) in their conference opener by a score of 6-4. The loss drops the Golden Lions to an overall record of 4-9. In the fourth, Dowling took a 2-1 lead thanks to an RBI hit by junior Andrew Abreu. Unfortunately, Tyler Badamo was unable to hold the fort as he surrendered three runs to STAC on an RBI double and single.  Dowling temporarily got the game to within a run on a suicide squeeze by Kyle Demeo. That was as close as it got, STAC opened the game up with a two-run single by Stanley Susa in the seventh inning. Badamo suffered the luck and falls to 1-2 on the season. For Dowling, the bright spots were JC Brandmaier recording a four hit day and Ryan Aloise throwing two shutout innings while striking out three. T...

Photo is credited to AUPanthers.com The Panthers of Adelphi have turned around their season since their 23-2 thrashing at the hands of Barry University in Miami. They have now won four games in a row with their most recent win coming against Concordia by the score of 7-6. Freshman pitcher Jonathon Mulford threw 6.1 innings allowing three earned runs and was in line for the win when Vincent Caputo came on and allowed the game-tieing sacrifice fly. In the bottom half, sophomore Vinny Sharkey came through with a two-out RBI hit to break the tie. The Panthers added on two more thanks to another hit by Donato Signore and a bases-loaded walk by Anthony Zarrella. After two unearned scored in the ninth to cut the lead to 7-6, fireman Dillon McNamara came on to strike out the final batter to earn h...

There were no games yesterday due to the inclement weather. Today Adelphi, Dowling and Molloy will be in action. Tomorrow and Sunday virtually every team will be playing and we will have the recap of each game with links to the box scores. Stay tuned.

Photo is credited to sportsreelboston.com Long Island has its fair share of players in professional baseball. Here on Baseball on the Island, we will take a look at how the careers have progressed of past Long Island greats. Up first is Joe Nathan, formerly a member of the Stony Brook Seawolves. Background: Joe Nathan was actually a shortstop for the Seawolves when they were a Division-III team in the early ’90s. Despite not playing against the best competition in the nation, scouts were unable to ignore the talent of the 6’4″ right-hander. He eventually moved to the mound where he was drafted in the sixth round of the MLB draft in 1995 by the San Francisco Giants. Pro Career: Nathan was called up in 1999, but treaded water in his Major League career until 2003 when he re...

Photo is credited to AUPanther.com Nick Zito of Adelphi University smacks a double in the Panther’s 12-2 win over Felician.