2021 Season Previews
Island Trees Leaning On Strong Junior Class
2021 Robert Stephens (Island Trees); lean 6-foot-3 175 pounds with some arm side life at 80-82, T 83 MPH. Showed a slider like CB at 64-65 MPH with some fade to the CH at 72-73 MPH. @DanCevette pic.twitter.com/aGRefmGbMf — PBR New York (@PBRNewYork) February 20, 2020 If you’re going to choose one position to have your most experienced player, you might as well have it be your ace pitcher. That’s the case for Island Trees entering 2021 after graduating eight seniors last year. Robby Stephens, who is committed to D’Youville College, can run it up to 86 MPH and put together a great sophomore season in 2019. He compiled a record of 2-1, with a superb 1.73 ERA. He allowed 26 hits over 33 IP with close to a strikeout per inning. “We are counting on him,” said Head C...
Oceanside Building the Foundation of their Next Contender
Seattle Mariners RHP Justin Dunn throwing a bullpen to Oceanside catcher Zachary Horowitz pic.twitter.com/Rxws00VAdm — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 23, 2020 A perfect example of the state of college baseball recruiting is that Oceanside has four college commits on their roster yet none of them have appeared in a varsity game yet. For the first time ever, colleges were forced to rely on something other than varsity baseball to determine who was capable of playing at the next level. Oceanside HC Mike Postillo, now entering his ninth season noted how truly unique this situation has been. “I was talking with Frank (Tassielli), the Farmingdale coach, and joking that the last game I coached was the exceptional senior game in June 2019 and those kids are in their second yea...
Wantagh Taking On a New Look in 2021
From 2016-2018, Wantagh was the epitome of a team. Each year they went into the postseason with detractors, and each time they came out as the last team standing – not just in the loaded Nassau Class A, but on Long Island. They even captured the State Championship in 2016. Things didn’t go that way in 2019 – after they graduated five All-State players in a three-year span, they featured a much less experienced roster and it showed in the first-round of the playoffs in a 3-2 loss to Mepham. They entered 2020 with a chip on their shoulder and Sachs described it as a “loaded team” with nine players that are now playing in college with three Division-II players in Nick O’Connor (St. Thomas Aquinas), JJ Devito (Anderson) and Matt Saborio (Molloy). With the season cancelled, Sa...
Sachem North Leaning on Leadership To Prepare for Upcoming Season
Brandon O’Neill (Sachem North 2023) with a max exit velo of 86.3 pic.twitter.com/9cvT7uFRfK — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) November 8, 2020 We’ve looked at many unique storylines for this upcoming season such as teams with no returning varsity experience, or teams that haven’t been able to gather in-person yet and even teams that are missing half their players to other sports. Sachem North is the first team we’ve previewed that is running into the issue of their coaching staff being multi-sport coaches. Of the four coaches at the varsity level, all are still in their Spring I seasons – including head coach Tom Gambino who is an assistant for the varsity football team. This has certainly impacted the amount of preparation that they have been able to put...
St. Anthony’s Hoping Strong Defense Up the Middle is The Winning Formula
One of the most critical aspects of a team is defense up the middle. Solidifying those portions of the field will often go a long way in run prevention and, ultimately, turning close games into wins. St. Anthony’s Head Coach Paul Parsolano, entering his second full season, sees this as his team’s strength citing his two senior catchers, Eddie Lippert & Anthony Capogna, as well as the double play duo of Jack Vallario & Alex Celeiro and CF Mike DeSantis. He stated that DeSantis may be their most talented defensive player on the team and will cover the most important position in the outfield. Vallario has already proven his mettle at the varsity level. Parsolano noted before he was called up, the team was treading water. “Once he got called up against Holy Trinity, h...
Farmingdale Enters 2021 With Strong Crop of 6 Players With Varsity Experience
by Chris Sacchi Like so many teams across the country, Frank Tassielli and his Farmingdale squad are tasked with building chemistry in a short amount of time. With less varsity experience than usual, overlap between multiple school sports in the preseason, and only eight to ten days to officially practice before game one, coach has a lot on his plate. Yet, one goal remains at the focus. “It might be a little frantic, 10 days or so before a game, you got to go through the whole process of setting up your defense. We’re going to do a lot of inner squad games,” coach Tassielli said. But listen, the bottom line is we’re going to have some fun.” “We have to get out there, have some fun with these guys, get used to each other, and become a team instead of just a group of guys throwing a ball aro...
Led by Two Bucknell-Commits, Mepham Looking to Build off 2019
Gianni Macchio walks it off with a 2RBI double and Mepham eliminates Wantagh!!!!!! FINAL: Mepham 3 Wantagh 2 WP: Tyler O’Neill (CG) Gianni Macchio: Walk off pic.twitter.com/KWbKBq1QJ9 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 14, 2019 Knocking off the three-time defending Class A Long Island Champions is no small task. Mepham was able to accomplish that back in 2019 in large part to sophomore starting pitcher Tyler O’Neill. Head Coach Eric Passman was optimistic that 2020 would be a great year for his team, as they were set to return their entire infield, 2/3 of their outfield and their entire pitching staff. That plan, of course, was thwarted with the cancellation of the season. “We were going to have a real solid team top-to-bottom,” said Passman, who is entering his f...
Led by One of the Top Arms in The County, MacArthur Ready To Make Another Playoff Run
Simply put, Steve Costello has been one of the most successful coaches in Long Island history. He’s won 512 games, 5 Long Island Championships – including the historic undefeated season in 1994, which was his second season with the team. They were in the County Finals each year from 2006-’08 and again from 2010-’13. Additionally, he has 8 players that have won the coveted Diamond Award – most recently in 2018 with Brandon Buchan. There is a chance they add to that list this year with the presence of RHP JT Raab atop the rotation. The 6’5 230 lb pitcher is committed to Stony Brook and is a physical specimen. He was All-County in 2019 and even defeated Clarke in the semifinals of the Nassau County playoffs. He was slated to be their ace last season as well...
After Figuring Out Suffolk’s Return-To-Play Plan, Frascogna Now Focuses On Returning Pat-Med to Playoffs
by Chris Sacchi Anthony Frascogna is entering his 21st season as head coach of Patchogue-Medford high school. He also serves as President of the Suffolk Baseball Coaches Association, which has become a whole new role during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was a little bit of work, and I’m thankful that people were receptive to the suggestions we put out there, because sometimes, it’s hard to get people to change their minds,” Frascogna said. “I’m proud of what we were able to do as far as maximizing the number of games in a safe way, with the time allotment, and not really altering the big things.” “I mean, it’s going to be a lot different than we’ve had in the past, but I think we made the most of what we have.” Changes for this season, among others, include playi...
Eastport-South Manor One of the Few Teams With Chemistry Amidst the Pandemic
by Ben Diamond With the new season right around the corner, Eastport-South Manor has been making sure they are ready to go. Eastport-South Manor’s head coach Jim McGowin has had his team participate in tournaments to help make sure his team is ready to go before the season starts. Unlike other coaches who have been unable to see the level of talent and preparedness from their team due to the pandemic, McGowin has been able to see which players on his squad are prepared, and what the level of skill is. “We’ve been very fortunate, we’ve been able to play in a bunch of tournaments, we played 18 games together in the fall,” McGowin said. “A lot of the guys are playing together, and we’ve been able to take advantage of the time we got and get some of the young guys some work, and allow them to ...
Smithtown East Entering Uncharted Territory
50 wins over the previous three seasons. That’s what Smithtown East was able to accomplish thanks to a seemingly never-ending pipeline of pitching talent coming through the system that has extended back into the middle of the decade. While they weren’t ultimately able to get over the hump and capture a County Championship they were firmly in the mix in each year under Head Coach Ken Klee. They were eliminated by Longwood in 2019, Connetquot in 2018 and Ward Melville in 2017. The core of those teams were pitching – specifically upperclassmen. The 2020 team was going to be built similarly as Klee noted he had 15 seniors on the team last year. Four of them are currently playing in college and they are Mike Ciminiello (Seton Hall), Nick Dagnello (Charleston), Ryan Klee (Ander...
Lynbrook Hopes To Return to Postseason For First Time Since 2017
‘21 RHP John Carver (Lynbrook) has a prototypical build at 6-2 / 190 lbs & possesses an intimidating presence on the bump. Holding 83-85 out of H 3/4 T86 w/ this two seam FB for the K 🥊 ⬇️. Landed a few tight 71-72 mph SL for strikes as well. #NYStateGames pic.twitter.com/H92OhvMP4X — Ted Williams (@T_Wills1) July 8, 2020 Lynbrook will be playing in a competitive league in 2021 which will feature perennial powerhouse Wantagh, rising programs like Bethpage, North Shore, Plainedge as well as Valley Stream North, Valley Stream South, Floral Park and Mineola. Longtime head coach Al Marrazzo said “it’s a very good league, but we expect to be competitive.” Last year, their league was set to feature Division as well, but they were switched into another league. Lynbrook’...
