2021 Season Previews
Hills West Led by 9 Seniors and Talented Sophomore Class
Hills West captured a share of the League V title in 2019 with Hauppauge as they both finished with a record of 11-4. They went on to lost two playoff games to Shoreham-Wading River by the scores of 9-7 and 4-3. That year’s team was led by the Silver Slugger Award winner of Suffolk County, infielder Mike Draskin who is now at Adelphi University. Another key contributor was Aidan Tornquist, who is now at Fordham University. This year’s team will have a big senior class. The seniors include; Alex Au, Brian Bentz, Ryan Connelly, Mike Freda, Joe Genzardi, Jordan Goldstein, Jack Rovner, Aaron Rubin and Josh Waldman. Michael Freda (Hills West 2021) with a max exit velocity of 92.1 pic.twitter.com/ZaGDPOX3HN — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) November 8, 2020 Head Coach Tom Miglio...
Massapequa’s Quest for a 4th Consecutive Championship
MASSAPEQUA HAS DONE IT! They are the back-to-back-to-back Nassau County Class AA Champs!!! FINAL: Massapequa 8 Port Washington 6 pic.twitter.com/vCR8ZkeiCe — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2019 How unique is 2021? Massapequa – the three-time reigning Long Island Champs open up their season tomorrow against Port Washington and they don’t even have their final cuts made. That’s right, the team coached by one of the greatest coaches in Long Island history will take the field on Tuesday but won’t have their final roster until Thursday. And it’s totally plausible. Championships are the norm at Massapequa. They captured the previous three Class AA Long Island Championships before the shutdown in 2020 and Coach Tom Sheedy said 2020 was the best team of ...
Led by Preseason Pitcher of the Year, Longwood is Ready to Compete
Final: Longwood 1, Connetquot 0 WP: Danny Gargano S: Tommy Ventimiglia Sac fly Vicidomini in the second. Game 3 tomorrow pic.twitter.com/DZxXwSfXXv — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 29, 2019 In 2019, Longwood took Connetquot to the brink in the Suffolk Class AA semifinals. The teams traded wins in the first two games before Connetquot captured the decisive Game 3 by the score of 2-0 to move to the Finals while Longwood had their season end with a record of 18-8. Heading into last year, they appeared to be in great shape once again. They were going to be led by a strong group of seniors which included: Kyle Allen (New Haven), Justin Classie, Nick Classie (Ulster), Derek Hardison, Ryan Kilcarr, Brian Monahan, James Myler (Bryant), Ty Orologio (Ulster), Ryan Owens, Brayden Pollock, D...
Ward Melville Excited to Start the Season and Debut New Field
On Monday, Steven Matz will start for the Toronto Blue Jays and on Tuesday, Anthony Kay will start for them. While they are four years apart and never actually pitched on the same team, the two southpaws graduating from Ward Melville HS and winding up on the same pitching staff is an incredible story. Additionally, Ben Brown – four years younger than Kay – has been steadily rising up the minor league ranks in the Phillies minor league system and has a shot to be the third Patriots to be in the big leagues at once. While he will tell you otherwise, Ward Melville HC Lou Petrucci is a big reason for that success. The Patriots head coach is as passionate and knowledgeable about the game as there is and the players gravitate towards it. And with a third former player on the cusp of ...
Connetquot Ready To Protect Their Crown
Entering the 2019 season, Connetquot was my pick to capture the Suffolk Class AA Title. Having watched them in the previous two years, it was just very clear that they had the high-end talent and the necessary experience to win the title. It took three games against a perennial playoff team in Ward Melville, but ultimately the T-Birds proved me right with a convincing win in Game 3. They had their season ended in a thrilling Long Island Championship game against Massapequa in which they lost 7-6 with the winning run coming on a sixth inning HR by Nick Schwartz. They made it interesting in the seventh as the T-Birds loaded up the bases with two outs and the count ran to 3-2, but Massapequa’s RHP Kenny Galvin induced a fly out to right to end the game. Nevertheless it was a tremendous ...
North Shore Counting on Executing Fundamentals For a Successful Season
by Ben Diamond After the cancellation of last year’s season, head coach of the North Shore baseball team Scott Lineman lost a few important players from his roster. Players like Will Scarola who now plays at Hofstra, Andrew Jarkow who pitches for SUNY Cobleskill, and Danny Pepe who pitches at Montclair. According to Lineman, these guys would have played a significant role on his team last year had the season not been cancelled. They leave a hole that Lineman hopes his players this year can fill. “Will [Scarola] was a three year starter for us, he would have been hitting in the middle of our order. He would get 20 stolen bases a year.” Lineman said. “He would have made a huge impact on helping us score runs that’s for sure.” “Danny [Pepe] and Andrew [Jarkow] would have been the two ...
Coming Off Best Season in Program History, Sayville Motivated to Stay on Top
No town has been flying as high as Sayville since November 2019 when they captured the Suffolk County Class III championship with a 28-10 victory over East Islip. The football team followed that up by winning another title last week – this time against Westhampton Beach, 32-7. Sandwiched between those was the first Long Island Championship in school history on the diamond with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Clarke. By now, you’ve surely seen the video that has gone viral. Brock Murtha’s no-hitter sends Sayville to the N.Y. state championship for the first time in program history! pic.twitter.com/HOYA7iindr — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 9, 2019 Looking back on that historic game, Sayville coach Joe Esposito knew Murtha was on his game. “I knew one run was all h...
Coming Off 6-0 Town of Brookhaven Tournament in 2020, Miller Place Focusing on Themselves
by Chris Sacchi Miller Place defeats Hauppauge, 4-3, to capture the Class A Town of Brookhaven Varsity Wood Bat tournament Kai Loftin recorded the victory. Miller Place went 6-0 in the tournament pic.twitter.com/xs3AKAkQyf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 13, 2020 Miller Place baseball and head coach Ricky Caputo have enjoyed a fascinating past couple of seasons. Coming off a 16-4 record in 2019, Caputo’s squad earned a promotion from league VII to League VI in 2020, ready to capitalize on the momentum and further vault the program. “Last year was crazy. We had 18 seniors,” coach said. “We had guys who had multiple years of varsity experience. We were set to have an incredible year.” “This year is way different.” Despite the decline in the number of experienced seniors, coach C...
After Graduating 15 Seniors in 2020, Seaford Hopeful to Stay Competitive Once Again
Michael Milano is entering his 17th season as head coach of Seaford and he’s excited to watch his team play baseball again, but it’s what did not happen last year that still bothers him. “A lot of guys have emptiness in their hearts about last year,” he said in regards to losing out on the 2020 season. “We really invested a lot in those guys, we took our lumps with them and we were going to be very tough to beat,” he added. Milano noted that he had 15 seniors in the ’20 class. Of those, seven were everyday players and his top two starters, Frank Cozzolino and Chris Pupa were co-aces since their sophomore seasons. They were both All-County pitchers in 2019 and their catcher, Nick Barreiros, was a standout player that is now at Queens College. “...
Clarke Looks To Defend Their Crown Led by Preseason Player of the Year
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2013, THE CLARKE RAMS ARE COUNTY CHAMPIONS!!!! FINAL: Clarke 7 Division 0 pic.twitter.com/pWdOtzXJB7 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 3, 2019 Despite consistently having the lowest number of students of all the Nassau Class A schools, Clarke has consistently won championships. Since the time head coach Tom Abruscato took over in 1999, the Rams captured County Championships in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013 and most recently, 2019. Additionally, they captured the New York State Championships in 2002 and 2005. During the years 2007-2009, they made it to the County Finals but were knocked out the first two years. No matter how you slice it, the Rams have been one of the premier programs on Long Island for the past two decades. In 2019, they defeated Division ...
Cold Spring Harbor Returns Three Players From Championship Team
It was a phenomenal season in 2019 for Cold Spring Harbor as they captured the Nassau County Class B Championship over No. 1 seed East Rockaway. They ultimately had their season end in the Long Island Championship against Center Moriches – who wound up capturing the New York State title. That year’s team featured some outstanding performances from their seniors – RHP Theo Farynick, C Kyle Jaspers and RHP Jon Cosmai. In-game interview with Theo Farynick who fired three shutout innings pic.twitter.com/iQfveU1LYu — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 26, 2018 Farynick was second team All-Long Island after compiling a 1.20 ERA, striking out two batters per inning and throwing a no-hitter against Malverne. Jaspers was also named second-team All-Long Island, leading the c...
Northport Hungry to Get a Taste of the Postseason
Northport was a team that was chomping at the bit to start the 2020 season considering how strong their roster was. With a rotation and offense led by Charleston-commit Larry Citrola, the Shashaty twins atop the lineup, Queens-commit Danny Deutsch plus a great group of juniors, “we thought it could be a special group,” according to head coach Sean Lynch. Once the season was on pause, he said they were intently following along every update from the governor and Section XI, hoping they could at least play a condensed season knowing they had a chance to make a run. When it was canceled, “it was a very tough pill to swallow,” said Lynch. “It would’ve really been nice to play, between our senior leadership and seniors bats plus our junior pitchers, we thought...
