NEWS
Brian Morrell Wins the Carl Yastrzemski Award
by Vinny Messana Speaking in front of a crowd of 900 people was an environment that Brian Morrell was not completely comfortable in. Maybe it would’ve helped if the camera man was holding a baseball from 60’6″ away, though, because that is one setting that did not faze the junior from Shoreham-Wading River one bit this season. In fact, he smacked a 420 ft HR in the Class A semifinals against Rocky Point that hasn’t landed yet in front of a crowd much larger than that. The University of Notre Dame-commit was awarded the coveted Carl Yastrzemski Award tonight at Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook, NY–becoming the third winner from his high school, behind his mentor Keith Osik in 1987 and 2016 MLB Draft pick Mike O’Reilly in 2012. The junior terrorized pitc...
Complete List of Long Islanders Selected in MLB Draft
There has been no shortage of Long Island talent represented in the MLB Draft over the past few seasons. Ever since the now-famous 2009 draft featuring Steven Matz and Marcus Stroman, the level of top-tier talent has been vindicated by the players selected in the MLB Draft. This year was no different with two Long Islanders selected in the FIRST round and 14 players overall. If anything, I was a bit shocked that players like Straton Podaras, Nick Girardi, Thomas Roulis, Anthony Gatto, etc didn’t get selected. Here’s the complete list: Round 1: Pick 19: Justin Dunn, Boston College (Freeport) Round 1: Pick 31: Anthony Kay, UCONN (Ward Melville HS) Round 4: Pick 123: Thomas Hackimer, St. John’s (Floral Park) Round 8: Pick 245: Stephen Woods, Albany (Half Hollow Hills East HS...
Wantagh Wins the Class A NYS Championship
by Vinny Messana Being the No. 7 seed entering the postseason? No problem. Not having a two-time All-State pitcher available in the postseason? No problem. Facing an undefeated Queensbury team in the NYS title game? Psh. The Wantagh Warriors defeated Williamsville East to capture their first Class A NYS title since 1998. Starting pitcher Bobby Hegarty, who fired a one-hitter against Mount Sinai to capture the Long Island Championship went the distance, although he did struggle in the early going putting the Warriors in a 5-1 hole. They clawed back with a three-spot in the fourth inning and tied the ballgame in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Fontana that scored Jimmy Joyce. The game was tied going to the ninth inning when Joyce smacked the go-ahead home run to left field that put ...
Thomas Hackimer’s Path from Walk-On to Fourth Round Pick is a “One in a Billion”
(Photo Credit: St. John’s University Athletics) by Vinny Messana, Editor-In-Chief Now in his 21st season as the Head Coach at St. John’s University, Ed Blankmeyer has seen a lot. Whatever he hasn’t seen there, he probably saw while coaching Team USA. He has coached more than 80 players who have gone on to play professional baseball–most notably Mo Vaughn and Craig Biggio while at Seton Hall. Still, he was almost at a loss for words when discussing the journey of his star reliever, Floral Park native Thomas Hackimer. “Thomas is quite a story,” he said. “To go from a walk-on to a fourth round pick is one-in-a-billion,” he added. Hackimer chose to attend St. John’s because of the academic scholarship he received. He chose to major in physi...
Mets Select Freeport Native Justin Dunn No. 19 Overall
(Photo is courtesy of Boston College Athletics) Freeport native, Justin Dunn, was selected with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft by the New York Mets. He is in the midst of a tremendous junior season at Boston College, in which they will open up the super regionals against Miami on Friday. Dunn is a 6’2″ 180 lb RHP that is 4-1 with a 1.49 era over 60.1 IP. He has struck out 66 against only 16 walks while allowing 49 hits. His stock shot through the roof after fanning 11 against Tulane in the regionals while allowing two ER. It actually rose his ERA from 1.35 to 1.49. He was named to Baseball America’s All-America third team. Despite growing up in Freeport, N.Y., he attended Gunnery HS in Connecticut. While it may not be the same as Steven Matz being selected ...
West Islip Prepares for “Business Trip”
by Vinny Messana Some teams go decades between winning county championships. Some have never won at all. For West Islip, it’s been just two years. Still, they were fueled by the fire of losing in the first round of the playoffs last season and it propelled them to winning it all again. With the New York State Class AA tournament just three days away, they are in position to go where no baseball team in program history has gone before–winning the NYS title. “I think we all knew going in that this is the potential that we had,” said catcher Nick Valenti–who is hitting a cool .546 with 38 RBI this season. “I don’t think we’re going to waste our opportunity going up there. No matter what happens, it’s still a successful season but we’...
Suffolk Tops Nassau, 5-0, in the Inaugural Battle of the Border
by Vinny Messana After seven months of planning, the inaugural Battle of the Border finally went down. I’ll get to the timeline of how it came about and all the difficulty that went into planning it shortly–but first, here’s how the game went. Suffolk won 5-0 behind the stellar pitching of Matt Kostalos (ECC Pitcher of the Year from St. Thomas Aquinas), Nick Girardi (St. Joseph’s), Dylan Mouzakes (Pace), Kevin Martinez (Farmingdale), Matt Leach (St. Joseph’s) and Peter Vath (Molloy). They allowed only three hits as a staff. The game was scoreless until the fifth when Suffolk broke through with RBI hits by Nicholas Gargan (St. Thomas Aquinas) and Joe Calabrese (St. Joseph’s). They added a run on a wild pitch. T.J. Riccio (New Haven) added an RBI single in...
West Islip Cruises to Its Second Long Island Class AA Title in Three Years
By Nakeem Grant If there was any doubt that there would be a letdown after their tooth-and-nail series victory over Northport, that was put to rest right away. West Islip dominated in the Class AA Long Island Championship– defeating East Meadow 16-0 at Farmingdale State College. West Islip’s offense and pitching left the game in no doubt as they kept their foot on the pedal throughout the game. Twelve of West Islip’s 16 runs came in the first three innings of the ballgame with most of the damage coming from the core of their lineup. Jake Guercio, James Kory, and Jimmy Mattera each had multi-RBI games and as a team, they racked up 12 hits. According to today’s winning pitcher, Ray Weber, this is another typical game for their offense. “All year we’ve been great on offense putt...
Bobby Hegarty Throws a Gem in Class A Long Island Championship
by Vinny Messana Being a sophomore, Anthony Fontana hasn’t faced too many pro-caliber pitchers yet. It took him just one at bat to adjust to Sam Kessler‘s stuff and he laced an RBI single to right field in the third inning which extended Wantagh‘s lead to 2-0 at the time, and proved to be the game-winning run that delivered their first Long Island Championship since 2010. “OH MY GOD–An experience I’ll never forget,” said the sophomore first baseman. Both teams went quietly offensively through the first two innings. Sam Kessler, who entered with eight wins, and will be headed to West Virginia this summer–if he does not get drafted next week–got the start for the Mustangs. He pumped fastballs in the high 80s and mixed it with a hellacious...
Wantagh Wins Class A County Finals on Walk-Off Single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rqVci8Boeg by Vinny Messana Not even Martin Scorsese himself could script a more fitting end to a County Championship game. Bases loaded, two-out, bottom of the ninth inning with the clean up hitter up after Bellmore JFK manager intentionally walked two batters to load the bases and set up a force at any bases. On a 2-2 count with score knotted at 2-2, DH Will O’Brien laced the walk-off single to right field to score Charlie Interrante in front of an electric crowd and give Wantagh their first Nassau County Class A title since 2010. “It’s a feeling I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” said O’Brien. “All I wanted to do was get the ball on the bat and score the winning run and that’s what happened. Best ...
Dowling Shuts Its Doors
In an email sent to its students, Dowling announced that the school would cease all operations as of June 3rd, 2016. The news comes after months of speculation regarding financial troubles. The enrollment had plummeted 50 percent since 2009, according to Newsday. They had been seeking outside investment and appeared to have a suitor in March, but talks did not materialize. The school is more than $54 million in debt and were forced to close after 48 years–nearly cancelling their 2016 graduation. The news comes at an inopportune time to us as Baseball on the Island. Our Battle of the Border was among the several sporting events planned at the campus this summer that needed to be cancelled, in addition to the Long Island Championship for girl’s lacrosse. We will have a new venue ...
