FEATURES
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 ...
Jade Maldonado: Getting Her Shot
Jade Maldonado is just like every other 16-year-old girl, except that she plays on the Pierson/Bridgehampton JV Baseball Team. While this may seem strange, it’s all Maldonado knows. She played t-ball and little league baseball growing up and switching to softball wasn’t on option for her. Maldonado grew up surrounded by baseball. Her father and grandfather had both played when they were younger and the Yankees were always on TV or the center of the conversation. From an early age she looked up to Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in the MLB, because of their similar stories. She noted how they share the story of breaking boundaries in baseball. Like Robinson, Maldonado’s road hasn’t been easy. There has been road block after road block. She found that she didn’t have support...
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...
Nick Fanti on His Experience in the World Baseball Classic
by Nick Fanti My experience in the world baseball classic is something that I can’t stop talking about. A moment I want to talk about is the first game vs Mexico. I will never say the Italian team was an underdog in this bracket because we were not. We belonged there because we knew what kind of team we had and we showed that we belonged in that game We were down four going into the bottom of the ninth and we were actually the home team against the host Mexico with one of the best closers in baseball on the mound in Roberto Osuna. We came back to score five runs without Mexico recording a single out. We dog piled, and I got some tv time. You will never see a stadium flip from loud to silent like that stadium did that night. But the significance of this game to me was crazy and differ...
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...
Longwood Developing Reputation for Producing College-Ready Players
Typically graduating 14 seniors would be a crushing hit for a high school team. In the case of Longwood, it’s business as usual. They have an influx of talented underclassmen and a number of upperclassmen that second year Head Coach Ryan McSherry is high on, thanks to an emphasis on the fundamentals of the game. “Teams that grasp the basics of the game are always competitive,” said McSherry. “We are always looking for diamonds in the rough. Fortunately, we have a big pool to choose from at Longwood so it’s easy to get lost. It’s a good place to coach because we have a lot of hard-nosed players. We have a David Eckstein-type of team” he added. They graduated all three of their starters last year, who went on to play college ball. The trio of Tr...
Pat-Med Looking to Make a Deep Playoff Run
Anytime you can break a record set by Marcus Stroman, you’re doing something right. Pat-Med SS and Albany-commit Brad Malm set the program-record for assists in a single-season last year, according to Head Coach Anthony Frascogna, breaking the previous record held by the Blue Jays ace pitcher. He also recorded a hit in every game (35 total), hit .393, scored 24 runs and drove in 14 runs. One issue he’ll have to deal with is how patient he is at the plate now that he’s no longer a secret. “He’s gotta be selective,” said Frascogna. “Teams are not going to want him to beat them.” This will be a big factor in how far Pat-Med goes this year, coming off a 13-10 season in which they had several first-time varsity players out there. Frascogna was ver...
Smithtown East Loaded With Div-I Talent
You can typically look at a team’s JV record and get an idea of how the varsity team will fare the next season. If that’s the case, Smithtown East could be in store for a special season in 2017. Their JV team compiled a 17-1 record last year, and Head Coach Ken Klee will have no shortage of arms to throw out this year. “This is by far the most pitching depth we’ve ever had,” he said. “The sophomores alone may have seven Div-I players,” he added. Many of those are pitchers. Doug Goodwin (4-1, All-League as a freshman on varsity last year), Nick Harvey, Michael Storms and William Kennedy are four high-end arms from the sophomore class alone. They all played for Gregg Sarra’s vaunted HDMH team. And then there’s the upperclassmen. Lead...
