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Q & A With Mike DiFilippo
One of the hallmarks of a winning college program is player development. While any program would love to bring in the big-time recruit, it’s just not rational to expect that every player on your roster will be a PG All-American or an All-State player. There needs to be instances of players that come in and take a leap forward. During my time at Farmingdale State College, that would occur routinely. Players that were either overlooked in high school or simply took their game to another level once they stepped foot on campus. St. Joseph’s is the new king of the Skyline Conference – having won back-to-back-to-back championships including a thrilling walk-off win, 9-8, this year over those Farmingdale Rams in the winner-take-all finals. The Golden Eagles, who lost their first...
Conversation With Garrett Scavelli
We are in a new era of college baseball which includes the transfer portal acting as free agency for the big Division-I programs. The reality is that it benefits the Power 5 programs much more than our local teams. In certain cases, however, a program like St. John’s could utilize the transfer portal and upgrade their roster with a player that has excelled at the Division-II level. Garrett Scavelli, a player that thoroughly dominated at Molloy University on his way to being named the 2023 ECC Player of the Year, entered the transfer portal in that summer. Over his 3 year career, he slashed .357/.458/.562 with 121 runs scored, 92 RBIs and 60 extra-base hits. It was a major talking point from local coaches who obviously were interested in Scavelli’s services, but also in the situ...
Conversation With New York Mets 11th Round Draft Pick Nick Roselli
The game of baseball is littered with stories of players that peaked at a young age and gradually fizzled out as their peers caught up with their size and ultimately were never the same. It is a breath of fresh air when a player is the inverse of that, somebody that was constantly overlooked and always outworked the competition. Big Congratulations to 2021 Titan, Nick Roselli on being drafted in the 11th round by the New York Mets! Nick is a kid that never gets out worked. He truly deserved this! Go crush it at the Pro Level!! @nickroselli2021 @axcessbaseball #TitanNation pic.twitter.com/m2HrksJCsn — Titans (@TitansBsb) July 16, 2024 Enter Nick Roselli. I first watched him play at Sal Agostinelli’s Northeast Elite when he hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the 9th at Baseball Hea...
Rafe Schlesinger Selected by Cleveland in the 4th Round of 2024 MLB Draft
Rafe Schlesinger became the first Sachem East alum in their 20-year history to be selected in the MLB Draft. The 2021 grad was selected in the 4th round by the Cleveland Guardians following his three-year career at the University of Miami where he became one of the top southpaws in the nation. The last Sachem alum to get selected was Alec Sole in 2014 by Tampa Bay out of St. Louis University. Rafe has been a high-profile name in the Long Island baseball community for several years. We first profiled back in early 2019 before he stepped foot on a varsity field. His pitching coach at the time, Neal Heaton, stated that he was ahead of where Steven Matz was at the same age. Matz, of course, went on to get selected by the New York Mets in 2009 and has been in the big leagues since 2015. Schlesi...
Nick Frusco Commits to Clemson
Miller Place sophomore LHP Nick Frusco carried a perfect game into the sixth inning and struck out 15 in a 13-0 win over East Hampton pic.twitter.com/Ud2EPCfWSf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 30, 2023 Long Island has long been a hotspot for producing hard-throwing southpaws. This has been true dating back to the 1970s when Neal Heaton was the No. 1 overall pick in the country but chose to attend Miami. It seems every couple years there’s another young stud that garners interest from Power 5 conferences. Next up is Miller Place southpaw Nick Frusco. After initially committing to Rutgers, he de-committed and announced his commitment to Clemson this past week. Frusco has been up to 94 MPH with his fastball and sits in the low 90s. As a sophomore, he led Long Island pitcher...
Where Are They Now Powered by the BK7 Brand: Anthony Papa
When it comes to overused phrases, “he’s got that dog in ’em” is that at the top of the list. But Anthony Papa, a former Diamond Award winner, Long Island Champ and Skyline Conference champ, fits that mold to a t. Papa, who suffered a torn UCL during his senior year of high school and told nobody, wound up pitching a five-hit complete game in the Class A Long Island Championship in 2015. He was able to play through the pain during the season as a hitter and won the Diamond Award. Later in life, he tore his ACL during conditioning training on the beach. He was able to pitch through the pain as well and to this day never got the ACL repaired. Followers of Long Island baseball are familiar with Anthony Papa for his dominant days as a 1-2 punch atop the Division rotation with James Varela, but...
Q & A With Manhattan-commit Ivan Epps
LuHi has captured the PSAA Championship for the past three years. One of their main contributors this past season was infielder and pitcher Ivan Epps – who was named Playoff MVP this season and was also a starter last season. The hard-throwing righty recently announced his commitment to Manhattan College. I originally met Ivan back in 2016 while working at the New York Baseball Academy at Hofstra University. Epps was one of the most impressive players in attendance as a 9-year-old, and the staff was forced to make him play two years up because of his talent. Sometimes you just know when someone is destined to be a great player, and now here we are 7 years later and he’s throwing 90 MPH with a 100 MPH max exit velocity. How about the pop from 9-year-old Ivan Epps pic.twitter.com...
Q & A With US Naval Academy-Commit John Carroll
A playoff no-hitter ! Chaminade 1, St. Dominic 0 WP: John Carroll (6.2 IP, 0 H, 2 BB, 0 R) S: James D’Alessandro (.1 IP) Chaminade will face Holy Trinity tomorrow at 4pm in the winner’s bracket pic.twitter.com/93SKLSAU4r — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2023 When it comes to the hierarchy of baseball achievements – firing a no-hitter in the playoffs ranks right near the top. In Major League Baseball, only Don Larsen, Roy Halladay and the Houston Astros (combined no-hitter started by Cristian Javier) have accomplished the feats. While it certainly wasn’t a big league game, Chaminade junior southpaw John Carroll did his best impersonation of them on his May 30 start against St. Dominic. Since that time, Carroll has continued to excel. He pitched 32 innings during su...
Q & A With Michael Huber, MA, CMPC
The topic of the mental health in the game of baseball has gradually turned from taboo to widely accepted. Many players struggle with the mental side of the game to varying degrees. Fortunately, there are avenues to improve. People like Michael Huber offer their help to athletes as a means to improve and make the most out of their abilities. Michael grew up on Long Island and is the owner of Follow the Ball, LLC where he helps young athletes be ready for every next step in the game of life through teaching invaluable mental, emotional and interpersonal skills. I had a chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say… Could you tell our audience a little bit about what you do and how long you have been a Performance Coach? I am a Certified Mental Performance Consultant acc...
Steven Hardiman On Overcoming Adversity to Become a College Pitcher
Steven Hardiman (Kellenberg 2022) was recently named Hampton Collegiate Baseball League’s Pitcher of the Week. The Bentley southpaw went six innings for the Southampton Breakers, allowing two unearned runs, two hits and one walk with 8 strikeouts as his team clinched a playoff berth. For the season, he struck out 30 batters over 24.1 innings. While every athlete faces some type of adversity along the way, most of those hardships pale in comparison to what Hardiman faced. When he was just five years old, he had an ABC tumor in his right femur bone that caused a multitude of problems. He broke his femur bone three times, needed two rods, four screws and a plate put in his leg which necessitated five surgeries. The doctors told his family they didn’t know if he was going to be abl...
Q & A With Long Island University LHP Jack VanDoran
Most Division-I college baseball players have similar stories as to how they got recruited and chose the school. They follow a similar trend of first getting noticed at a showcase or travel ball event. If they play in a lot of Perfect Game events, typically several other schools will notice them. That player will mull their options over with their parents and ultimately make their decision towards the end of the summer or early fall entering their senior season. And then there’s Jack VanDoran. Jack received three offers during his high school career. None were of the Division-I variety. He turned them all down. It wasn’t until after he graduated high school did he make a decision and it was to attend a Division-II school and he wasn’t even guaranteed a spot on the varsity...
Q & A With Blue Chip Collegiate League Player of the Week Kenny Hirschfeld
Kellenberg has been a consistently strong program over the past several years. The highlight was certainly the back-to-back CHSAA Championships in 2016-2017 but they also made it to back-to-back finals in 2021 and 2022 where they ran into Chaminade both years. One of the man contributors on those teams was catcher Kenny Hirschfeld, who is now at New Haven. Kenny is playing in the Blue Chip Collegiate League where he was named Player of the Week after batting .500 with 2 doubles, one HR, 7 runs scored, 4 RBIs and he threw out 2 runners. I had a chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say… Can you discuss your decision to attend New Haven and how you’e enjoyed your time there? One of the reasons why I chose the University of New Haven was because I knew that the ...
