Archive
Hofstra’s Bats Explode for 14 Runs, Defeat Army 14-8
by Vinny Messana After falling behind 3-0 after one inning, the Hofstra bats came to life early and often against the Army pitching staff, and they came away with their fourth consecutive victory by the score of 14-8. Mat Annunziata went 2-for-4 with six RBI including a three-run home run in the second inning that tied the game at three. Nick Bottari went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and a mammoth two-run shot in the ninth inning to blow the game open at 14-7. “I thought they stayed patient in the zone,” said Head Coach John Russo. “We took a lot of walks and put a lot of guys on and when we had a chance to capitalize, we had a lot of big swings,” he added. The team drew 13 walks as well, with Vito Friscia and Ryan Karl each accounting for four of those. Friscia is ...
Four-Run Seventh Inning Leads William Paterson to 11-7 Victory over Farmingdale
by Vinny Messana They made a furious comeback to erase an early 5-0 deficit, but it was a four-run seventh inning that was the undoing for the Farmingdale Rams in their 11-6 loss to William Paterson. The Rams fell behind 5-0 before they came to the plate. Reliever David Otero did a terrific job to put out the fire for five innings while his offense scratched and clawed their way back. They tied it up in the sixth inning with four runs thanks to a two-run double by right fielder Brandon Ernest to score Christopher Reilly and Ryan Osburne. The Pioneers bats went to work in the seventh inning, though, and put up a four-spot off Chris Keithline, who was tagged with the loss, and Matthew Constantine. There were three separate RBI singles and a sac fly to open the game up. The Rams went down qui...
Dennis Buckstein Fires Gem, Vinny Orlando’s Triple Leads Dowling to 5-2 Win
by Vinny Messana With one-out in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the score tied at 1-1, Vinny Orlando smacked a triple to deep right center field to score Rob Costanzo and put the Dowling Golden Lions ahead 2-1. The following batter, Tyler Piccolo, ripped a single to left field to score Orlando and increase the lead to 3-1. Andrew Sesto came on for the save, and was lifted after allowing two walks and a double. Billy Goncalves came in relief and promptly eluded further damage by inducing a fly ball and an infield pop up to secure the 5-2 victory. Starting pitcher Dennis Buckstein was tremendous, throwing six innings, allowing only two hits, while striking out seven. He used a quick tempto, great two-seam fastball and mixed in a curveball and change up to keep the Dolphins of LeMoyne of...
Connetquot Looks to Protect the Crown
by Vinny Messana They weathered the storm of fierce competition on the field and they overcame the trauma of losing two beloved members of their community off the field. It takes a lot to wow a Head Coach who has won 582 games over 31 years, but that’s exactly what the Connetquot Thunderbirds did by winning their fourth Long Island Championship last season. “It was a tough situation for everyone,” said Bob Ambrosini. “It’s something that never really happens in life–maybe once,” he said in regards to having to deal with the loss of teammate’s family members. “The kids really rallied around each other,” he added. In regards to John Hengge pitching in the Suffolk County Championship he said, “Credit to him and his family. With...
St. Anthony’s Prepared to Make a Run at the Top Spot
Having been with the program as an assistant coach prior to taking over as the Head Coach five years ago, John Phelan knew this day would come. “It’s taken a while,” he said. “But it’s developed into something special,” he added. Coming off a 12-8 season is nothing to scoff at while playing in the very competitive CHSAA. Phelan knows they had a chance to be even better. They lost four one-run games, not including their first two losses of the year to St. John the Baptist that came by a total of four runs. They will be returning some of the top players in the Catholic League. Leading the way is University of Michigan commit Cameron Tomaiko. He is a left-handed hitting outfielder with a smooth swing and possesses great speed. “He has the potential to...
Jake DeCarli Returns to Form, Strikes Out 12 in 4-1 Victory over Nyack
After two consecutive poor outings to begin his post Cy Young campaign, LIU Post’s Jake DeCarli spun a gem today against Nyack in Florida. He fired a CG, allowing one run, struck out 12, against one walk in a 4-1 win. “Just kept it simple today,” said the junior from Connecticut. “Tried to get ahead a lot and use my slider to put guys away,” he added. That slider has sent many batters back in fits over his 2+ year career. Today he lowered his ERA from 7.91 to 3.94 with the gem. The offense backed him early with a two-run shot by the red-hot Thomas Asbaty. He now has two home runs in the early going to go along with a healthy .607 slugging percentage. That was all the support DeCarli needed, but they did add a run on an RBI single by John Bellock in the bo...
Shoreham-Wading River Hungry to Take the Next Step
by Vinny Messana Following a terrific playoff run that included knocking off Glenn–a team that previously had swept them in the regular season–the Shoreham-Wading River squad is hungry to emerge from the pack as the class of Class A Suffolk County. They lost a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to P.J. Weeks and the Bayport-Blue Point team that has run Class A for much of the past three year. “It was a rough game to lose,” said the audibly disappointed third-year Head Coach Kevin Willi. “We had a leadoff double. The next guy guy got a hit but the run didn’t score–he got a poor read on the hit. We had bases loaded and 0 out with guys up that we had confidence in,” said Willi. It was a battle of the wits between the coaches, knowing that both of our t...
What’s On Tap for This Week
by BOTI Staff *underline denotes we will have coverage of the game Not only will every NCAA-affiliated team be in action this week, but we’ll have two newcomers to the party. Suffolk CC and Nassau CC will be opening up their seasons as well. Here’s what’s going on during the week of March 7… Division-I: Stony Brook will host St. Peter’s on Friday at 3pm, Villanova on Saturday at 12pm and will travel to Fordham on Sunday at 1pm. Hofstra will travel to Army on Wednesday at 3pm, they will head down to Virginia this weekend to face Longwood University in a DH on Saturday at 12pm and 3pm and finish the series on Sunday at 1pm. NYIT will host Manhattan on Wednesday at 3pm. They will travel down to Richmond, Va. next weekend to face Penn State on Friday at 1pm, Rich...
Hofstra’s Bats Come to Life in Three-Game Thrashing of Coppin State
After seven straight incredibly challenging match ups against the best of the SEC, Hofstra had a weekend to bulk up the stats against an inferior opponent. They defeated Coppin State by the scores of 17-4, 17-0 and 15-0. It was a nice weekend for the Pride. In the first game, Chris Weiss recorded the victory. He went 5.0 innings, allowed four ER while striking out three. Andrew Mundy flaunted the stuff that made him a highly-touted recruit out of St. John the Baptist by throwing three shutout innings with three Ks. Teddy Cilis fired a shutout inning. The offense was backed by breakout performances for several players. David Leiderman hit his first HR of the season. He had three hits, scored three runs and drove in three runs. Mat Anunziata smacked four hits, drove in t...
Adelphi Rallies to Defeat Conference Rival Southern Connecticut
by Vinny Amodeo With the game tied 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth, junior captain Eric Hassell drove in the go-ahead run with a double over the left fielder’s head. Freshman Michael Cattani added insurance as he drove a single to right field, scoring Hassell. This lead would prove to hold as Michael Tarpey nailed down the save with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Tarpey put together a perfect ninth inning, striking out two of the three batters that he faced. This win didn’t come as easily or comfortably as the Panthers may have liked it to. After a close to perfect pair of opening innings for starting pitcher. John Thompson. of Adelphi, the third and fourth didn’t go as smoothly. Three straight bunts led to a fielding and throwing error committed by Thompson. This would help the Owls secure the fir...
Ithaca Sweeps DH From St. Joseph’s
by Vinny Messana You don’t need to tell Ithaca’s Hall of Fame Head Coach, George Valesente, in his 37th year at the helm for the Bombers, how baseball can be a crazy game. Just one week after getting routed by Christopher Newport 17-2, it was the Bombers who were on the right side of a blowout, defeating St. Joseph’s 18-2 in the second game of today’s non-conference DH. They defeated them in the first game as well, by the score of 4-1–in a highly competitive and entertaining two hour and 19 minute game. “We have not been hitting well,” said the skipper who has over 1,100 college coaching victories under his belt. “We played last week down in Virginia Beach and didn’t hit well at all. Actually, the first seven innings of the first game w...
Molloy tops Merrimack 2-0 Behind Kelly’s Six Shutout innings
By Nakeem Grant Pitching and defense were the key factors for the Molloy Lions in their 2-0 victory over the Merrimack Warriors in Game 2 of their afternoon doubleheader. The Lions’ home-opening doubleheader at Mitchell Field in Uniondale, NY was ignited by two masterful pitching performances: One from Ron Bauer in Game 1 and the other from Bobby Kelly. Kelly improved to 3-0 after putting up six scoreless innings against Merrimack. The left-handed junior silenced their bats all game, allowing only three hits and striking out four batters. Head coach, Joe Fucarino spoke on how well Kelly was able to throw quality pitches throughout the game. “He just pounded the strike zone,” said Coach Fucarino. “He pounded the strike zone and got his secondary pitches working. Strike one is the most impor...
