NEWS
Marcos Perivolaris Following the Stroman Blueprint to Success
by Mike Connors Height doesn’t measure heart. That’s the motto for 5’6 Cortland sophomore Marcos Perivolaris. The saying “HDMH” was made famous by Pat-Med grad and Blue Jays star pitcher, Marcus Stroman. For Perivolaris, he lives by this motto not only on the field, but off the field as well. “It’s not about your physical appearance–it’s about your drive, work ethic, and your ability to compete,” says Perivolaris. The reason Cortland is such a great fit for Marcos is because everyone around him, including head coach Joe Brown, knows that your height doesn’t matter as long as you have the heart. You have to make up for your height in certain ways, and the ability to compete is just one of many. Ever since Perivolaris was youn...
Jimmy Joyce: The Cold-Blooded Warrior
(Photo Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy) Baseball can be a nerve-wracking game for players. There’s a lot of quick-twitch movements that can be effected by feeling pressure. Jimmy Joyce is not like those players. “I’ve always been the type to not get nervous,” said New York’s Class A Player of the Year, who guided the Wantagh Warriors to their first state championship since 1998 with a tremendous season. He batted .373 with 4 HR, 34 RBI at the plate and he went 9-1 with a 1.09 ERA with 73 strikeouts on the mound. “I always tell myself–nerves are fake. This always helps me on the field.” From the time Joyce was four years old, it was clear he was destined to be an elite athlete. He played soccer, football, basketball and baseball in his youth, but ...
ANNOUNCEMENT
aXcess Baseball is proud to announce that as of January 16, 12-year MLB veteran and former All-Star pitcher, Neal Heaton will be the Pitching Analyst for the 2017 season. In this role, the Long Island native will be providing a constant stream of how-to articles, individual rankings and pitching-drill videos for our Exclusive aXcess members. “I’m excited to be a part of this growing platform for baseball news,” said Heaton. “My goal is to lend my knowledge from playing Major League Baseball to the young arms across Long Island and to help them discover their full potential.” Neal is a 1978 graduate of Sachem HS, where he won the coveted Carl Yastrzemski Award playing under Head Coach Bill Batewell. He was selected by the New York Mets in the first round of the...
Which Players From Long Island Could Get Drafted This Year? Part 1
This is a year where there is a higher-than-normal amount of players with professional caliber playing on Long Island. There might not be a first-round pick, but there will be plenty of Day 3 guys. To discuss them all, it will be broken into a multi-part series. Here is the first group. Jesse Berardi (Commack ’14, St. John’s ’18) You won’t find anyone that says a bad word about Berardi. He won the Carl Yastrzemski Award in 2014 and was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. His makeup is off the charts and everyone adores how he respects the game and hustles at all times. He was regarded as the best defensive shortstop to come out of Long Island since Shawon Dunston. His bat has come along and all of a sudden he developed power which only enhances his value. Assuming...
St. Charles Sports Medicine Hosts “Injuries in Baseball” Symposium
Earlier today St. Charles Sports Medicine hosted their second annual “Injuries in Baseball” Symposium at Ward Melville HS. The event was a must-attend for all coaches, parents and athletes as Dr. Luga Podesta, former team doctor of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Los Angeles Dodgers, went into great detail on his research of how to prevent injuries in young pitchers. Also on the panel was former MLB catcher Tom Gregorio, current Philadelphia Phillies International Director of Scouting Sal Agostinelli, legendary Shoreham-Wading River Head Coach Sal Mignano. Dr. Gregory Mallo, Dr. Danielle DeGiogrio and Dr. Ray Mattfield also contributed their findings and opinions. They combined their decades of experience and provided insight that is critical for all members of the baseba...
Q & A With Paul Britt of St. Joseph’s
One of the benefits of being a successful program is having top-talent choose to transfer to you when things don’t work out where they started. This is becoming the case for St. Joseph’s, who has been able to snag some talented players–Nick Girardi, Ryan Aloise, P.J Martino, Lou Doria and now Paul Britt–who chose to come home and play for the Golden Eagles. Our reporter David Moskowitz had a chance to speak with him and here is the conversation…. You played high school baseball at St Anthony’s. What was it like to play there and play in the Catholic League? I loved every second of it. Coach Phelan, Amendola, and Gemma were all great to me. My personal opinion is that the Catholic league is one of the top leagues on the island. The quality of p...
Running For His Life: Why Matt Diaz’ Fastball Will Get You Paying Attention to NYIT
“If you don’t lose a lot of weight, you won’t be a part of this team.” This is what Matt Diaz was told by Coach Bob Malvagna when he showed up to school at 250 lbs despite getting rave reviews from his high school coach–Joe Cubas. After all, Cubas had a great reputation within the baseball community as the coach who discovered Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez and vouched for the Miami-native Diaz as a worthy athlete to pitch at NYIT. Upon hearing that, Diaz knew it was time to kick his workout regimen into high gear. Now a senior and in the best shape of his life at 205 lbs, Diaz is finally living up to the potential that he showed while pitching in Miami as a high school prospect. He was getting recruited by many schools; notably Florida Atlant...
Players Poised For a Bounceback Year
The beauty of college athletics is that you get four years to prove yourself. Sometimes it’s a blessing, sometimes it’s a curse and that’s entirely up to the athlete based on his worth ethic. There were a number of players who didn’t perform the way they were hoping to last year–but have committed themselves to proving that was an anomaly. In this article last year, we correctly identified T.J. Santiago, Ron Bauer and Matt Seelinger as player’s that could enjoy bounceback seasons. Here are the player’s poised for a bounce back season: Nick Bottari, Hofstra This is the first season he enters fully healthy since he was in eighth grade, when he drove in 40 runs on varsity at Shoreham-Wading River. He has suffered a myriad of injuries and has gone thro...
Who Is the Best Pitcher On Long Island?
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to watch many of the top arms on Long Island between games, showcases or even just a bullpen session. Here is my best effort at a list of the best of the best. We will go through them in alphabetical order. All pitchers will be assigned an “aXcess Grade” which is out of 10.0 and based upon a number of variations; i.e velocity, command, repertoire, age, projectability, body language. Ryan Aloise (St. Joseph’s ’17) aXcess Grade: 7.8 Aloise had a spectacular 2016 season, taking the role of ace for St. Joseph’s. He’s not a particularly hard thrower but he does generate lots of groundballs with his hard two seamer and gets swings and misses with his breaking ball. He was the winning pitcher against Johns Hopk...
Matt Reistetter On Handling Adversity
(Editor’s Note: Matt is a four-year member of the Washington Nationals minor league system. He is a 2010 graduate of Hauppauge HS and was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Hofstra University in 2013. He has compiled a .272 AVG through four seasons.) by Matt Reistetter When my father passed away when I was 14–baseball saved me. When my girlfriend passed away when I was 16–baseball saved me. My mind is the strongest tool I possess. I can handle adversity. I can handle the grind. A season in the minor leagues is a grind. Especially during August. Every aspect of your life is strictly regimented to a set of routines you’ve established since Spring Training. Except on that day you get the text from the trainer, “No BP, no early work. Report at 6. Show and Go.” These day...
Freshmen That Could Have an Immediate Impact
There was once a time when freshmen had no choice but to watch from the sidelines. It didn’t matter how talented they were, how quickly they retained information or how much leadership ability they possessed. In 1968–finally–the NCAA ruled that freshmen were now eligible to play. The NCAA still has bizarre rules and finds ways to hold people back from prospering, but at least they got this one right. Coaches these days do not care about anything aside from a player’s ability to help a team win ballgames. There’s no reason to discriminate on anything aside from talent. This year, there are a number of talented freshmen that will play crucial roles among the local teams. Here is a list of the top ones… Sean Hogan, Molloy He was named All-League at Holy Tri...
2016 Year in Review
It was a very enjoyable year covering the Long Island baseball scene. We began the year with 1,400 twitter followers and are now at 3,220 which means many of you missed out on some of the top stories from this year. In this post, I will take you through the highlights of the year: January: -Mike Scioscia and Dr. Luga Podesta host “Injuries in Baseball” Symposium at Ward Melville HS. February: -BOTI travels with Hofstra to cover their season-opening at No. 4 ranked Texas A&M Aggies. April: -First episode of BOTI Weekly airs. We ultimately had 7 episodes in 2016. You can watch them all here. May: -We completed the Top 10 Long Island prospect series with a feature story on Matt Hogan of Hills East. You can see the entire list here. -Game-ending throw by...
