Rob Weissheier CRUSHES a go-ahead 2-R HR to left and Hofstra takes a 3-2 lead in the seventh pic.twitter.com/yCH76mkziI — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 21, 2021 When I saw Hofstra‘s schedule updated to include a season opening DH against Seton Hall on 2/21, I immediately changed my plans. Nevermind that it was a 2 hr, 15 minute drive to the game and the weather was flirting with below freezing. So with a 12pm start in South Orange, NJ I hopped in the car and made the drive and arrived just after first pitch. Game 1 Hofstra came out of the gates firing, scoring two runs in the top of the first on a wild pitch that scored Austin Gauthier, who led off the game with a double, and on a sac fly from Brian Goulard that scored Anthony D’Onofrio. It appeared the Pride wo...
The Colonial Athletic Association released its Preseason All-CAA team this week, and it included three Hofstra players – CF Anthony D’Onofrio (Wantagh 2018), 1B Robert Weissheier (Kellenberg 2016) and SS Austin Gauthier. While Hofstra was off to a poor 4-10 record to begin the 2020 season, it was not due to their offense. They hit .302 as a team, which was 27th in the nation. If not for three one-run losses against New Mexico, the record would’ve looked a whole lot different. The offense is reason for optimism yet again. Gauthier was off to an amazing start with a .411 average, 6 doubles, one triple, three HRs, 11 RBI and 20 runs scored. More impressively, he led the league with a .515 OBP and .714 SLG. The senior has a legitimate chance to play professional baseball afte...
Long Island has had many great ballplayers through out history – but people forget how rich the recent history has been. Several players that graduated over the past decade have gone on to great college careers and even reached Major League Baseball. We even did a mock draft back in June covering this topic. Here are the results of yesterday’s mock draft. Players selected played on Long Island between the years 2010-2020 pic.twitter.com/UV4LWlU9gb — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 10, 2020 But what if we made it even more exclusive? Instead of fielding an entire team, it was just a pitcher and a position player. Who would you pick then? I know who I would pick – but I solicited the help of some of the most well-respected coaches on Long Island to fill in my blin...
Special thanks to East Coast Strength & Performance for sponsoring this year’s Fall Ball Series. Make sure to check out their website by clicking here. Hard throwing RHP John Mikolaicyk transferred from Herkimer CC sitting 90-92 up to 94 with a sharp slider pic.twitter.com/S5LWjYgsRa — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 9, 2020 There is a direct correlation between continuity and winning baseball games at the collegiate level. Teams that return their impact players from the previous years typically improve on their success. Additionally, in this environment of advanced stats and OPS (on-base + slugging percentage), teams that outslug their opponents will typically perform well in the aggregate over a long season. Small samples sizes can cause some turbulent results but ...
Final: Wantagh 4, Plainedge 1 WP: Anthony Fontana S: Mason McLane pic.twitter.com/pyGUi3N7Of — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 23, 2018 Anthony Fontana has made a habit of coming up big in his career. Whether it be at the plate in the Long Island Championship against the Paul Gibson Award winning RHP Sam Kessler or last season on the mound in an emergency start against Carl Yastrzemski Award Winning RHP Brian Morrell, the southpaw is always calm and in control on the mound. And he always seems to win. He performed like a seasoned veteran today, pitching out of a couple of jams to lead Wantagh to a 4-1 victory over a dangerous Plainedge team that entered with a record of 9-2-1. We practice every single day and we really work hard for these big games and I think we executed really...
The first word that comes to mind when discussing Wantagh is dynasty. As everyone should know, Wantagh has won three consecutive Class A Long Island Championships. They not only demoralized every one of their opponent’s dreams in the making, but now go down in Long Island history as one of the most dominant teams to ever do it. Aside from the 2016 State Championship and the three Long Island Championships, Wantagh portrays an incomparable resume among that three year period. The core of these championship teams were made up of star ballplayers who went on to play baseball at the next level. Winning the most prestigious award in Nassau County is just one of the awards they took home in back-to-back seasons. In 2017, Jimmy Joyce (Hofstra) won the Diamond Award for best hitter, batting ...
Nobody knows how to win championships better than Wantagh. On Sunday, the Wantagh Warriors defeated the Rocky Point Eagles by a score of 4-2 to capture their third consecutive Class A Long Island Championship. The highly anticipated pitching matchup between Joe Grillo and Anthony Fontana was everything that was expected, as both starters produced for their team. However, Fontana got the best of the Rocky Point lineup. He went the distance, allowing no earned runs on four hits. “This is incredible, three years in a row I could cry right now this is one of the greatest moments of my life, we work so hard for these moments and I’m really excited to go upstate,” said Fontana. “We’re going to work hard in practice this week, we have to sit through school this week ...
THREEE PEEEAT!!! Wantagh has done it, they are the back-to-back-to-back Nassau County Class A Champions! FINAL: Wantagh 14 Division 3 pic.twitter.com/RaMeHbraeR — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2018 Stop me if you’ve heard this before; the Wantagh Warriors are Nassau County Class A Champs. On Memorial Day afternoon, Wantagh proved they were worthy of completing the three-peat as they defeated the Division Blue Dragons by a score of 14-3, highlighted by a nine-run 7th inning. Although the Warriors won their third consecutive championship, this year was much different than the last two. In many ways, this game was over before it started. In 2016 and 2017, Wantagh needed three games to be crowned county champions. This year, they posted a clean sweep over Division, proving...
Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Anthony Fontana who fired a complete game allowing two runs and working out of a couple jams in Wantagh’s 5-2 victory over Division in Game 1 of the Nassau Class A Finals pic.twitter.com/HT0UZH7lsc — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2018 It starts with pitching and defense and for the past 12 games, that has been the recipe for the Wantagh Warriors (22-2). They have not lost since April 26 and remarkably haven’t yielded more than three runs during that period. Their ace, Anthony Fontana, fired another CG in the Warriors’ 5-2 victory over Division (20-5). He is now 9-1 o the season and 22-1 in his varsity career. He was backed by an offense that scored four runs in the first inning of Post-commit Nick Fressle; although it ...
Patrick Willix with the big fly for Wantagh! Wantagh takes a 5-3 lead in the top of the 8th off a 2-run blast to right center by Willix. pic.twitter.com/AiYdqGhXp7 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 23, 2018 The Wantagh Warriors entered enemy lines Wednesday looking to continue their historic run and with one swing of the bat off Patrick Willix, they are headed to their third consecutive Nassau County Class A Final. They did not get off to the start they were hoping for. Garden City starting pitcher Billy Duff was in a groove early getting through three innings while only allowing one hit. Wantagh starting pitcher Patrick Willix did not get off to as smooth of a start. In the first inning, he got into early trouble but escaped stranding runners on first and second. In the second in...
Wantagh’s Head Coach Keith Sachs on the 8-1 victory. The 2-time Class A Champs advance with their victory over North Shore pic.twitter.com/W0ZZtIZKx3 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 16, 2018 The No. 1 Wantagh Warriors topped the No. 5 North Shore Vikings 8-1, playing most of the game at Wantagh High school on Tuesday, before finishing up at Molloy College’s Mitchel Field on Wednesday due to a rain delay. The two-time defending Long Island Class A champs came out firing early and never took their foot off the gas as they come one step closer on their quest for a three-peat. “We’ve been winning games but not always putting it together,” Wantagh head coach Keith Sachs said. “We hit the ball well, threw the ball well, made some clutch defensive plays…really I think we pl...