FEATURE STORIES
Puccio Brothers: The Story of Turning Tragedy to Triumph
“Are you sure you want to play today?” said Coach Pete Meehan. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” said junior James Puccio, who was enduring the tragedy of losing his mother to cancer just one week prior and was also dealing with a pulled hamstring. Despite entering the game winless, Hampton Bays took the field with heavy hearts against a very strong Babylon team. James’ older brother, Louis, took the mound with his mother looking down on him and he came up aces. He fired 6.2 IP, struck out 11 batters and allowed only one ER. “He was unspeakably amazing,” said James. In the sixth inning, James led off with a single that ultimately allowed Hampton Bays to mount a comeback and turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead and their first and only victory...
Brian McLaughlin Caps Decorated Career With a Legion of Awards
Coming out of St. John the Baptist, Brian McLaughlin was more than capable at playing at many major baseball programs. He spent four years playing under one of the brightest baseball minds on the island in John Habyan and had the type of power that coaches fawn over. He knew, however, that someday baseball might not always be there for him. He decided to go to the school that not only offered him the best chance to pursue a career in engineering, but where he could also play baseball so he chose SUNY Maritime. “I don’t regret a single day that I spent there,” he said in regards to his decision. “There was some good schools but Maritime represented something different. I knew it was the best option,” he added. He is coming off a decorated career in which he re-...
Tyler Badamo: My Message to MLB Draft Hopefuls
(Tyler Badamo is a 2014 graduate of Dowling College. He was selected by the New York Mets in the 24th round of the MLB Draft. He was named All-American for his tremendous season in which he compiled a stretch of 72.1 consecutive innings in which he did not allow an earned run. The following words are his own.) The biggest thing I think everyone needs to realize before I go into what I tried to focus on personally, is that the MLB draft is one of the biggest crap shoots in the world. There are thousands of potential prospects eligible for the draft each year and now only 40 rounds. You can do everything right 99% of the time and still not get drafted. There are plenty of outstanding college seniors every single year that don’t get the call to postpone the real world for a little while...
Charles Galiano: My Letter to the Game of Baseball
(Editor’s Note: Charles Galiano was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2012 MLB Draft out of Commack high school and again by the Milwaukee Brewers out of Fordham University. He recently announced his retirement from the game of baseball after two seasons in the minor leagues due to a persistent shoulder injury. The following words are his own, as he bids farewell to the game he loves) Dear Baseball, Sitting here on the plane right now back to New York thinking about what baseball has done for me, I have nothing but immense gratitude and love towards this game. This game has given me damn near everything since I picked up a ball and a bat heading to my first tee ball game at Commack South Little League. I remember sitting on the floor with my brother nervous as can be about ...
JJ McLaughlin Opens Up About Dealing With Life’s Unforeseen Tragedies
(Editor’s Note: JJ is a pitcher for Nassau Community College. He was forced to deal with the tragic loss of both his mother and father just over one year apart) by JJ McLaughlin Baseball has been my therapy through it all. I’ve been playing since I was little and I don’t know if I would be here without it being a major part of my life. I have gone through so much within such a short period of time and at such a young age, many people question how I am still in school and how I am even still playing baseball. I graduated high school in 2011 and went onto play at Monroe College for my freshman year. When I left for school everything was fine, but before I knew it, my whole world started to fall apart. My dad was diagnosed with Melanoma cancer in the fall of 2012. That was when I knew m...
Who Is Joe Wozny?
It’s easy to get overlooked playing in League 9 of Suffolk County. The overall level of competition is not on par with Class AA or A, so college coaches will have a hard time seeing the value in sitting through games in hopes of finding a diamond in the rough. Except sometimes there is that diamond out here. Enter Joe Wozny. The 15-year-old freshman at Stony Brook HS is turning heads with his 88-MPH fastball and 74 MPH curve. I watched him pitch in the Dominican Republic and he fired three shutout innings with 4 strikeouts against some of the most talented amateur baseball players in the world. His performance bypassed the “he’s good for his age” and went right into the category of “this is the real deal.” In his first start of the season yesterday, he ...
Half Hollow Hills Little League Providing Unparalleled Experience for Young Ballplayers
Over the years, many elite ballplayers have graduated from the Half Hollow Hills high schools. Some recognizable names are John Mincone, Alex Aurricchio, T.J. Pecoraro, Tommy D’Alessandro, Adam Brown and Stephen Woods. They all played in the Half Hollow Hills little league program at one point, according to the President of the league, Steven Muraco. The league has been home to a tremendous amount of kids in general–peaking at 1,700 in 2000, but has since leveled out around 1,000 since that time. They have spring, summer and fall leagues. Despite many kids playing other sports through out the season, they have been able to maintain their numbers in the fall when football and soccer are in-season. A big reason for this, according to Muraco, is the league’s reputation for ...
The Man Behind the ‘Boys of Summer’
The year was 2005. Myspace was dominating the social network landscape. Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat were not invented, “selfie” was not a part of normal lexicon and people did not get rich by posting photos with well-placed hashtags. Before the proliferation of social media, it was very difficult to build anything from the ground up. Besides a brilliant idea, it required a massive amount of word-of-mouth testimonials and plenty of hustle. The league we now know as the “Boys of Summer” didn’t even have a name. It was simply a league consisting of 14 travel teams primarily from eastern Suffolk County playing on a few of the local high school fields. Fast forward to 2016 and the league had exploded in size to 240 teams from all over Long Island–plus Que...
Babylon Motivated By Loss In Class B Final
It was a phenomenal coaching job by Head Coach Victor Manzella to guide the Panthers to the Class B Suffolk County Championship in a season in which he took over just two days prior to tryouts. He was led by a very strong season by senior Anthony Vano and juniors Shaun Kaminsky and Ken Gordon. Watch the video as Vinny Messana speaks with Manzella and Gordon about their 2017 season.
Glenn Well-Positioned For Bounce Back Year
Coming off a 17-2 record in 2015, Glenn stumbled out of the gate in ’16 primarily due to a wrath of injuries to key players. Their two top pitchers and starting catcher went down with injuries and they got off to a disastrous start to the season. They did respond well to adversity, winning four consecutive games in the middle of the season and ultimately finished with their pride in tact. This year, first year Head Coach Matthew Rocchio is fortunate to be inheriting a team that he is very familiar with–being that he was the JV coach for the previous two seasons and watched much of this group mature. The team will be counting on Adelphi-commit Jack Ryan to provide veteran leadership, stability behind the plate and offensive production. He will be handling a staff that has a very...
North Babylon Leaning on Talented Stable of Underclassmen
Coach Steve Corrado knows his team drew some tough luck when they were placed into a playoff bracket with Northport and Bay Shore. After losing the opening round playoff game to Northport, they had to face a hungry No. 1 seed in Bay Shore coming off a loss. They were defeated 7-3, but Corrado knows that shouldn’t take away from the success of the season. “Everything went great until the playoffs,” he said. “We were right there–we beat West Islip during the season and took them to extra innings in the third game. The team really bought in–that’s what happens when you have 13 seniors,” he added. It helped that the team had two seniors that hit .500 in Steven Burke (.500, 3 HR, 23 RBI, 29 runs scored, 37 hits) and Nick Balfe (.500, 5 HR, 37 RBI)...
Clarke Poised To Get Back to the Top
Most teams would be thrilled with winning 15 games and making it to the quarterfinals of the postseason. Then again, most teams haven’t won 16 conference titles in 18 years. Throughout the tenure of Head Coach Tom Abruscato, Clarke baseball has been a powerhouse in Nassau County Class A. They have won three Long Island Championships and two NYS crowns. It’s been an incredible run of success, but with that comes high expectations every year. You can hear it in his voice, he speaks not in measured tones but absolute terms. “It was the worst year for us,” Abruscato said. They suffered three injuries to key players (both catchers and starting SS) in the beginning of the season which posed a significant challenge for them to overcome. They still found their rhythm, won n...
