NEWS
Kellenberg Fueled by Making History
Sometimes it’s tough to stay motivated when you’ve already reached the mountain top, but according to Kellenberg‘s Head Coach Chris Alfalla, his team is motivated by making school history and becoming the first back-to-back CHSAA league champs. “These guys are hungry,” said Alfalla. Even though they won last year, they are not satisfied,” he added. Last year’s squad was dynamic–compiling a record of 19-5– thanks in large part to a phenomenal offensive season by Robert Weissheier (now at Hofstra), who could be tough to replace. Alfalla noted that it will take a team effort to not only replace his level of production but also his leadership ability. “He was basically an extension of the coaching staff. He was a great team leader,...
Power Rankings Volume 3
It was another abbreviated week of college baseball due to the inclement weather. Some of the teams were fortunate enough to be down south and get their games in. Nassau CC is the only local team that hasn’t began their season yet. Aside from a select few, it’s been a rough start for the locals but we’ll rank the teams based upon their current record and momentum. St. John’s (Record: 12-2, Stock EVEN) The nationally ranked Johnnies have what every team is after–a team firing on all cylinders. They just won two of three against Liberty this weekend. John Valente is making a case to win the Golden Spikes Award–he’s hitting .533 (32-for-60, .575 OBP, .600 SLG). Jamie Galazin (.351) and Jesse Berardi (.327) are doing some heavy lifting as well, a big r...
aXcess Baseball Weekly Episode 3
In this episode, we had host Vinny Messana and analyst Mike Guido with special guest Russ Taveras, co-owner of Infiniti Performance, discuss the proper off-season and in-season training for baseball players.
Why Pitch Counts in Youth and High School Baseball Are Important
By Luga Podesta, MD Podesta was the team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1990-’06) and Los Angeles Angels (2010-’13). He is currently the Director of Sports Medicine at St. Charles Orthopedics and he is our Injury Prevention Expert. It’s March and another baseball season has come. The difference this year however is that the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and specifically, New York State’s (NYSPHSAA) new pitch restriction rules for the spring 2017 baseball season take effect. Each member state association has been required to develop their own policy on pitching restrictions based on the number of pitches a player can throw during a game and the rest required after pitching. These new pitch restriction rules are designed to provide players’ ...
St. Anthony’s Ready to Take the Next Step
Head Coach John Phelan told his team before the season last year, “We’ve finally arrived.” They backed up the bravado by winning 14 games and coming within a run of forcing a game three against Kellenberg. “We finished the season knowing with could compete against anyone,” said Phelan. “We caught up to these other teams.” Additionally, he feels the team matured by facing high-end pitcher such as Chris Cappas and Noah Lorenzo. That team did graduate the CHSAA MVP in Matt Martino, who won six games on the hill and also smacked three home runs. They also graduated Connor Levchuk, who hit .340 last year. Both of them are currently playing ball at Vassar College. “Those are two big bats we lost, but fortunately Cameron Tomaiko came into his own.&#...
March 11 Game Recaps
Another wave of snow has officially hit the surface of Long Island leaving none of our home turf available for battle. However, six teams were on the road on Saturday for a combined 11 games given that five of those teams played doubleheaders. It was a rough day for the hometown groups as they combined for only three wins in a possible 11. Even with the warmer weather down south, these teams still struggled to heat up. St. John’s splits with Liberty in Lynchburg In game one of this doubleheader, St. John’s was able to pull out their 11th win of the season with a 4-2 victory. Eight of the team’s ten hits came off the bats of Robbie Knightes, Gui Gingras, and the red-hot John Valente. Josh Shaw and Troy Dixon both also had a hit each. The Red Storm scored the first runs in the game in the to...
Will You Finish This Season As Strong As You Started It?
(Disclaimer: Infiniti Performance is a sponsor of aXcess Baseball) By: Derek Squires, CSCS –Performance Coach/Infiniti Performance Main Points: in just three months, while playing a sport, you can lose more than 50% of your off-season strength and power gains in-season strength training prevents this loss of strength and power the volume of intense training reduces and recovery time increases during in-season training sessions more focus is placed on rebalancing the muscular imbalances created by the unilateral movements of baseball during an in-season training program professional and college athletes train throughout their seasons, why are you any different? As the high school baseball season comes marching in, we receive many questions from parents, players, and coaches with a large deg...
March 10 Game Recaps: Dramatic Wins for Adelphi & St. John’s
Not baseballs, but snowballs would be more likely to come to mind when looking outside today. However, several teams have traveled south, as the players hope that the weather, not their bats, are all the cooled down. Division I St. John’s wins in dramatic fashion: 5-4 Tied up at four No. 9 St. John’s was heading to extra innings against Liberty University. In the tenth Gui Gingras became the day’s MVP, after entering the game as a pinch hitter in the sixth he went three for three with three RBIs, a home run and the game winning single. However, Gingras was only able to come through because of the base running of Michael Donadio. Donadio was two for five on the day, with his second hit leading off in the tenth. After an infield single he stole second, then after Gingras dr...
Hauppauge Eagles Quietly Becoming One of Suffolk’s Elite
The Hauppauge Eagles have quietly gone about their business and compiled a record of 36-10 over the past two years. After graduating the 2015 Carl Yastrzemski Award winner in Nick Fanti, they equaled their win total in 2016 and sent five players to play college ball (Tyler Sanderson, Mike Lazos, Tim Woodford, Bily Huber and Kyle Wood). “We’ve been really fortunate to have this run of guys,” said Head Coach Josh Gutes. “They’re really into it. That could easily change. We’ve been lucky more than anything.” They will enter the 2017 season with another quality team headlined by some high-end talent. They will be counting on Molloy-commit Matt Overton to do some damage in the middle-of-the-order and play right field and first base. He hit .314 last yea...
Bay Shore Looking to Build Off Best Season in Program History
In many ways, 2016 was a banner year for the Bay Shore Marauders. They won the most games in program history (20) and also had the best record in Suffolk County. They won two playoff games, including a 13-0 shutout of Connetquot. That team lost a handful of impact players, including the League II MVP in Brian Weissert–who is now at Fordham University–but seventh year Head Coach Mike Herbst is confident that the returning players will be able to build off that success. “Fortunately the returning guys were there for the ride and learned how to win last year,” he said. Their biggest impact player should be catcher/closer Hermes Abreu. The Concordia-commit was named All-County last year, and he also was a reliable pitcher in the late innings. Herbst noted that they are ...
Stony Brook Takes Two in Dramatic Doubleheader
It was a dramatic couple of games for the Stony Brook Seawolves on Thursday as they took both games in a doubleheader against LIU-Brooklyn by the scores of 15-11 and 1-0. “I’ll take two wins any day,” Assistant Coach Joe Pennucci said. “The team did well in being resilient coming back scoring runs when we needed too, second game played good defense and pitched well.” The first game was a back-and-forth slug fest and the second game was the ultimate pitcher’s duel. Stony Brook was able to improve their record to 4-9 on the season as they attempt to get back on track after a rough start. Game one consisted of lackluster defense and stellar offense. With the score being 15-11, you can say that it was not a great day to be a pitcher. Bret Clarke had a rough outing surrendering eight runs...
Nassau County Class A Preview
With opening day less than a month a month away, baseball fans and players alike are beginning to get excited about the start of the season. With tons of talent across the board in 2017, it should be an extremely exciting season to watch. With that being said, here’s a preview of what to expect in the upcoming season. Conference A1 Conference Champs – Garden City (10-5) 2nd Place – MacArthur (10-5) 3rd Place – Mepham (9-5) Conference MVP – Jason Coules (Bellmore JFK) Cy Young – Bobby Lewis (MacArthur) Coming off of a stellar postseason run in which they knocked off the defending county champion Division Blue Dragons, the Trojans enter the 2017 season with plenty of experience under their belt and a real shot at a county championship. The Garden City roster has...
