2020 Season Preview
Hills East Poised For Bounceback Year
by Tony Genualdo Last season for Hills East was full of ups-and-downs. The team got some early success going, including four walk-off victories. But in the end, they dropped 5 out of their last 6 games and were unable to make a playoff push. Nine seniors left the team following the season, including two-time All-League player Nick Gavilla (now at Adelphi University) and All-County player John Son (now at Utica College). Coach Tim Belz is fortunate to have a deep team this year to cushion the loss of them. “We are deep at every position this year,” Belz said. “So, filling the spots will be easy and there are open positional battles for every spot this year.” He’s not wrong with the amount of talent on the team. Ten seniors return from last year. Among those players are Andrew Ferber and Jas...
Manhasset 2020 Season Preview
Manhasset head coach Mark Giardino is confident heading into the 2020 campaign, in large part because of the work ethic of his team. “Our goal is to get better every day,” he said. “This group is special. When they were on JV they were excellent. Every year they’ve shown more maturity. If we can get better each day – and I think we can – that should put us in contention for a championship. Success is a by-product of hard work and this group is extremely hard working,” he added. They finished 2019 with a record of 14-9, and lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual Class A Champions, Clarke Rams. The group did graduate ace Jay Schlaefer – now the No. 2 pitcher at Hamilton College, Joe LoCurto, Will Allen and Joe Brunetti. Fortunately, the team...
Plainedge Fueled by Last Season’s Postseason Exit
by Tony Genualdo Last season ended in heartbreaking fashion for Plainedge. Finishing the regular season 14-4-1, they lost to MacArthur in the first game of the Class A playoffs, then defeated No. 1 Garden City, and South Side to stay alive. They would face MacArthur again, and after having a 3-0 lead in the 7th inning, MacArthur came back and defeated Plainedge in the 13th inning 4-3. To improve for this upcoming season, Coach Colin Fratnik has had his team working hard in the last couple of months. “My assistant coach Ryan Crawford has had a good core of our athletes in the weight room 5 days a week after school,” Fratnik said. “We have our JV and Varsity team in to hit on Sunday mornings, and our pitchers have been throwing since December.” Fratnik says the team is very self-motivated. M...
Led by 10 Seniors, Holy Trinity Poised For Bounceback Season
by Zevan Shuster Despite excellent competition in the Catholic League, Holy Trinity has both the talent and the experience to compete with just about anybody. They are coming off a tough season, but they were able to win a first-round playoff game at Mitchel Field against St. Dominic before dropping their next two. “I’m really excited for the upcoming season. I think that, this being my third year now as the leader of the program, I think we’ve kind of built the culture of what it takes to win and what it takes to be successful, not just individually, but as a group,” head coach Dan Luisi said. In order for the culture to be where it needs to be, and for the team’s chemistry to come along with it, experience, and veteran leadership play a huge role. “One of our strengths is going to be o...
Calhoun 2020 Season Preview
by Tony Genualdo Last season, Calhoun found themselves in unfamiliar territory as they returned to Class A. But it did not slow down the success of year’s past as they won their conference. They finished with a record of 14-7-1 and lost to Bethpage in the postseason. Coach Art Canestro says his team’s plans are no different this upcoming season as they try to live up to their high expectations. “We continue to try to be successful by doing what we always do; working hard and paying attention to details,” Canestro said. The professional experience that Canestro and assistant coach Steve DiMarco helps lead the team through what they say are “professional-type practices. “We expect our kids to work hard and buy into the system, and they do,” said Canestro. As for the talent on the team this ...
Port Washington Looking To Build On Their Historic 2019
by Zevan Shuster Jackson Satttinger (2020) Singles to score Nick Esposito. The Walk-off closes out Oceanside 11-1 in Game 3, and sends Port Washington to the Nassau County Finals! @portbaseball @arjcinfo @axcessbaseball @Nassau_Baseball @TeamSteelNY @BPM_Tweets @MattSoren4 @JaxSattinger21 pic.twitter.com/G0Ap1Ob3D4 — Dave Sattinger (@DaveSattinger) May 27, 2019 Results from a previous season may not carry over, but the memories and the work ethic instilled from it certainly can. “We are hungry to get back there again,” Phil Spotteck, assistant coach of the team, said in regards to their incredible run through Nassau County Class AA. They pulled off an upset of Oceanside in the semifinals before losing to Massapequa in the County Finals at SUNY Old Westbury. They finished with 20 wins and ...
Eastport-South Manor Hoping Last Year’s Experience Equals Turnaround Season
In a little over one year, Eastport–South Manor went from the Class AA Finals to a 3-12 season. Graduating eight seniors from 2018 certainly did not help–including Axcess League 5 MVP Ryan Foran. There was a huge amount of roster turnover and the year did not go so well for them as they dropped to last place. Coach Jim McGowan has made some big changes this offseason, though, to make sure that the events of last year never happen again. “With 12 returning players, we put a team in a summer league where we were able to play the equivalent of a high school regular season,” McGowan said. “We also played a fall tournament together and have changed some of how we run our winter workouts.” Pitching was a big question mark heading into last season, but now McGowan says that the depth of arm...
St. John The Baptist Looking To Continue Success Into 2020
by Joseph Langan Since the hire of Coach Casey McKay in 2016 St. John the Baptist High School has found themselves to be one of the top competitors in the CHSAA league. Since that time they’ve found themselves making back-to-back championship appearances, in which they hoisted the title in 2018. SJB fought hard in 2019 to try and make it back to the CHSAA title game for the third straight year, but fell short in the semi finals to St. Anthony’s High School. As the 2020 season rapidly approaches, SJB is hungry to avenge their semifinal loss and hold up the championship trophy once again. Coach McKay and his team will be challenged more than ever before during that endeavor with new addition of the Brooklyn/Queens Catholic schools to the league. Instead of looking at it as negative Co...
Smithtown East Looking To Break Down The Barrier
By Joseph Langan Over the past five seasons, there hasn’t been a team more successful during the regular season than Smithtown East. Unfortunately, they have been unable to get over-the-hump in the postseason and capture that elusive county championship. As they prepare to hit the field for their 2020 season, coach Ken Klee and his team “prepare to be successful every game.” Coming off a 17-5 season, Coach Klee is no stranger to regular season success, but when it comes to the playoffs, things haven’t gone as smooth. With Coach Klee well aware of his team’s talented roster and championship potential he “expects to win a championship” adding “there is no backup plan.” With that, he is also well aware of his teams past shortcomings, explaining that “the last two years we did not ...
Plainview JFK Ready To Bounce Back in 2020
After winning back-to-back Conference titles, Plainview JFK took a step back in 2019 in large part to fielding a very young team after a huge graduating class the prior season. Plainview finished 5-12 and missed the playoffs. Coach John Givargidze explains what he thinks went wrong last season. “Everyone didn’t pull their weight, and when that happens, it doesn’t matter how talented of a group you are, winning and being successful won’t happen,” Givargidze said. “Our program philosophy is to be proud of the uniform you wear, work hard, be a family, and be accountable… we believe in working hard and competing every day in practice and games. We got away from that last year, and we are not going to let that happen again.” Givargidze does not see last year as a total failure. He found some po...
Oceanside Enters 2020 in Unfamiliar Territory
by Tony Genualdo For the last three seasons, Oceanside has knocked on the door of being championship contenders. Last season was no different. After finishing the regular season with a 13-5 record, their playoff run started off strong with a playoff series win against Farmingdale 2-1. But their run ended at the hands of Port Washington in the semifinals. They lost in 3 games and finished with an overall record of 16-8. Head Coach Mike Postillo knew that once October came around, it was time to get back to work. “For the months of October, November, and December, we focused on muscle building,” said Postillo. “For January and February, we do core circuit training. Beginning in December, we also begin skill practices on Wednesday nights, where pitchers begin to throw, and fielding and hitti...
Matt Prokopowicz Excited For First Season With St. Dominic
Carlos Hidalgo gets the start for St. Dominic. The reigning CHSAA Pitcher of the Year pic.twitter.com/AltFcIrILU — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 28, 2019 Matt Prokopowicz knows exactly what it takes to be a successful player on Long Island. He was a part of the Massapequa‘s famed undefeated season in 2006 culminating in capturing the Class AA New York State Championship. He went on to have an illustrious career at Hofstra University in which he batted .376 and compiling 271 hits and garnering Baseball America All-American status. Now he’s the head coach of St. Dominic High School, becoming their third skipper in three seasons. They are looking to bounce back after an early postseason exit in May. The prior year, they made it to the Championship game but lost to St....
