Game Recaps
LI Road Warriors Take Home HCBL Championship In Inaugural Season
The Neal Heaton-led LI Road Warriors entered tonight’s Hamptons League championship game needing one win to take home the title against the Westhampton Aviators. The Road Warriors took care of business wrapping up the title with a 5-3 victory. LI jumped out to a lead again early, this time in the third inning. Yesterday’s hero would deliver once again for the Road Warriors. Jordan Folgers would come up with one out in the third, after Garrett Heaton and Sean Rausch would get a base hit and a double back-to-back. Folgers found another fastball right in his wheelhouse and knocked a towering shot to left center giving his team a 3-0 lead with one out. “I keep telling people, we have great ball players on Long Island,” said Head Coach Heaton. “We have five D-1 guys, they have, I think, f...
LI Road Warriors Overcome Six-Run Deficit To Take Game One of the HCBL Championship Series, 11-8
Folgers gets it done for LI!! A grand slam in the ninth!!! Road Warriors lead, 11-8, with 2 outs now. pic.twitter.com/WMYvoEH1fT aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) July 31, 2017 The Road Warriors showed up to Aviator Field hungry for a win. The game was started with a first pitch lead off homer for Nick Grande (Smithtown West ’16, Stony Brook). The middle infielder would have himself a monster day at the plate leaving the park twice with two dingers. He finished his day 3-for-5 with two HR and four RBI; his third hit of the day started the Road Warriors ninth inning rally. I think our lineup had a great day overall top to bottom, said Stony Brook sophomore Grande. The goal was to come out here and set the tone, we fell behind but showed a lot of resiliency wh...
LI Legends Best LI Titans Giaco, 4-2, With Impressive Outing From John Holmstock
The big Longwood class of ’18 lefty used all his pitches to dominate his opponents by way of the strikeout. Holmstock would strike out 14 Titans in his six innings of work in Boys of Summer 17u American. He would earn the win after his team would give him a 4-0 lead in the second inning. “My main goal is to keep every one of my pitches down in the zone,” said Holmstock. “And get productive outs.” The dominant LHP frustrated the Titans all game, as he only allowed three hits and two walks giving way to only six base runners over six innings (dropped third strike error was the sixth base runner). He would, however, run into trouble in the sixth inning after walking the nine-hitter to start the inning. This set the table for Tony Figliarulo to knock a fly ball double to center field. The next...
Riverhead Tomcats Sweep DH in Westhampton to Clinch Playoff Spot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5yVp_42nMk Aviator Field was scheduled to host a double header on Monday afternoon. The rain had other plans. Instead, the two games between the Westhampton Aviators and the Riverhead Tomcats were set to take place on Tuesday afternoon, one of two on the day. The other was the North Fork Ospreys and the Sag Harbor Whalers, two sets of games proving to be vital to determining the playoff picture. @jonahkarp82 interviews the @HamptonsLeague @RHTomcats star Jackson Olson after a double-header sweep in Westhampton pic.twitter.com/68j2xQsQ0R aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) July 26, 2017 Entering the first game in Westhampton Beach, the narrative was simple for the Tomcats: win one game and youre in. With the Aviators and the Long Island Road Warri...
NSBA Blue Devils Defeat LI Nationals, 5-0, Behind Strong Performance From Nick Jack
Hard-throwing St. John The Baptist ’17 RHP Nick Jack dominated in a complete game shutout in Town of Brookhaven Summer Varsity. He worked through the Nationals lineup only allowing two hits in seven strong innings striking out eight and only walking one. “Being smart when I pitch, knowing what pitches to throw and when to change up my looks and change speeds with different counts.” said Jack, who will be playing at John Jay next spring. His strong performance was rewarded with a win thanks to his heavy-hitting lineup that manufactured runs with smart at-bats. The scoring started for the Blue Devils in the second inning. Their only walk at the plate would come from Jack with the bases loaded to bring in their first run. The walk would come with two outs after Nationals’ LHP Dennis Bly...
Three-Run Third Propels Body Armor to 4-2 Win over Titans-Parso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbifqwX4G7M&t=1s In a battle filled with current and future Div-I prospects, it was a third inning rally that enabled the Body Armor Titans to come out victorious in a friendly rivalry. In what was dubbed “McGregor vs Mayweather“, Titans-Parso took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the second on a two-run double by Nick Ungar (Connetquot ’18) on a well-struck ball off James Cardinale (Commack ’18) into left center field to score Will Feil (Wheatley ’18) and Chris Peralta (Valley Stream South ’18). That was all the offense they would muster up on this day against a loaded pitching staff. Kyle Johnson (Newfield ’18) came on in relief in the third inning and worked around a walk and a single to Mike Handal (Garden Cit...
LI Patriots Come From Behind to Beat LI Black Diamonds, 5-3
Switch-hitting cleanup hitter Angelo Veltri stepped in to the left handed batters box with one out in the seventh trailing by two runs with two runners on. This came as a shock because Veltri batted from the right side in his previous three at bats. After starting his day 0-for-3 he would tie the game on a towering fly ball ground-rule double, completely changing his day at the plate. “I’ve been switch hitting for a couple years now in games and you just have to keep your confidence up,” said Veltri. “I feel like I play better with more pressure on me.” The pressure was immense as the Patriots’ rally came after scoring just one run through the first six innings, due in part to strong Black Diamond pitching from Anthony Ippolito and Jordan Piht. Black Diamonds just got too comfortable and a...
Elite Takes First Place From Grit Baseball in Dominant Win
Grit Baseball went into this matchup with Elite up one point in the Town of Brookhaven Summer Varsity Gold division standings. The two strong teams went head-to-head calling upon two hard-throwing lefties to make the start. Elite’s LHP, Jaryd Amy of Westhampton Beach, would earn the win in a game that only went six innings due to time limit. Elite would win by a score of, 10-2, after going up, 5-0, in the third. The class of 2018 LHP would prove to be a strikeout machine, striking out 11 batters in his four and two thirds innings of work. He would allow only one earned run walking six and allowing three hits. Amy considers himself a strikeout pitcher, but he is aware of the pitch count issues that come with primarily being a strikeout guy. “It’s definitely a blessing and a curse because I ...
Eric Callahan Lifts the Aviators Over the Road Warriors in Extras
Jonah Karp interviewing the two heroes from West Hampton’s 10-8 victory over the Road Warriors pic.twitter.com/Z2kFMloYPH aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) July 19, 2017 Fireworks were still going off two weeks after Independence Day. Didnt hear them? Well then you werent in Westhampton Beach Tuesday afternoon. Eight balls were hit over the fence at Aviator Field, six of them by way of Aviators. Those six home runs set a new single-game record for the Westhampton Aviators, breaking the five home runs they hit on June 30 against the North Fork Ospreys last season. But the discrepancy in home runs does not tell the story of the game. As a matter of fact, the Long Island Road Warriors were an out away from winning the game. Let me take you to that moment It...
LI Expos Edge LI Nationals, 1-0, in Pitchers Duel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5yVp_42nMk Alex Schweitzer (Sachem North ’17) dominated on the mound for the LI Expos, tossing a complete game shutout. Over his seven innings of work the lanky RHP struck out ten batters and only walked one. Schweitzer dominated through out, relying predominantly on his curveball to frustrate the Nationals hitters. Coach has been really helping me out with my curveball, said Schweitzer. During the school ball season it was on and off, but since my change up wasnt working today I had to rely on my curveball more to keep hitters off balance. Expos open up a 1-0 lead after Greg Sanderson hit a 2-out triple Dan Oster drove him in with a single. 1-0 after 3 full innings. pic.twitter.com/rtxQABS8Hg ...
The Westhampton Aviators Defeat the North Fork Ospreys 9-7
The rain came down hard at Aviator Field Wednesday night. Grey-laden skies portended an ominous sign of things to come, and the question quickly became: will the game go nine innings? The answer: no…but not because of rain. The light grey skies grew darker, and the issue turned to the darkness of the field. The two umpires, Mike Bitetto and Tom Major, converged to the right of the mound after the eighth to decide whether to continue. They figured with three outs to go they may as well give it a shot. Westhampton right-hander Nathaniel Rhodes was on the mound ready to close it out for the Aviators. The score was 9-7 and the left fielder Mike Sciorra was walking into the box. The first pitch from Rhodes caught Sciorra on the left wrist. The Osprey dropped his bat and held his wrist in the le...
LI Titans Giaco Come Out On Top In Pitchers Duel, 1-0, Over Team Reyes
An extremely even pitching/defense match up made for an intense seventh inning in Boys of Summer 17u American division play. The Titans would score a go-ahead run off a double from incoming senior outfielder, Tony Figliarulo. The go-ahead run would come after a leadoff single from leadoff hitter, Marc Birbiglia, would be extinguished by a double play with a bang-bang play at first going in Team Reyes’ favor. A two-out walk from their three-hitter, Steve Pantano, kept the inning alive and a pinch runner stole second to set the table for Figliarulo. The Titans were able to collect leadoff hits in three of the seven innings, but the strong Reyes defense was able to hold the Titans in check extinguishing every leadoff single. “My approach stayed the same, just waiting for the fastball,” said F...
