Archive

Despite losing two of their top arms prior to the 2015 season, Bellmore-JFK was still able to scratch out 14 wins, tie for first in the conference with Carey and win a playoff game against Lynbrook. The fact is that they simply couldn’t withstand the loss of two top pitchers and make a deep postseason run, 17th year Head Coach Eric Passman noted. “We kind of just ran out of pitching against Division,” he said. They will have the benefit of LHP Michael Schwartz coming back. The UCONN commit has a rocket left arm, regularly hitting in the upper 80s with the heater. His presence will make a tremendous difference. Additionally, he will be joined by Eric Gossert. Passman noted he had a “sensational” 10th grade season but was injured last year.He’s had several...

by Vinny Messana Losing the ace and the lead off guy in the order is never ideal for a team with playoff hopes, but that does not curtail the optimism of Plainview-JFK heading into 2016, according to third year Head Coach Jon Givargidze. Michael O’Brien, now at Concordia, won five of their seven games last year. Leadoff man Jake Saltzman, now at Molloy, was an All-Conference outfielder. David Glass, another talented pitcher with a high 80s fastball, is now at Johns Hopkins University.   This year’s team, however, will be very senior-laden, with 12 graduates of 2016 hungry to go out with a bang. They will be counting on last year’s leading HR hitter, Bryan Safer, to lead the offensive attack. Safer smacked five HRs as a junior and will be looking to build on that succ...

While large schools like Massapequa and Connetquot get most of the attention for their ability to consistently win, there’s a school that should be getting more press. Bayport-Blue Point has won three consecutive Class A Suffolk County championships, with two LI Championships among those. They have not missed the playoffs since 1997–before this senior class was born. Additionally, they have won 43 consecutive home games, with three neutral-site playoff wins sprinkled in. Despite losing to Division in the LIC last season, they are well-positioned for another title run. They will be looking to replace the production of All-State pitcher P.J. Weeks. Head Coach James Moccio, now in his 17th year at the helm, spoke glowingly of the southpaw. He noted that he was a perfect 6-0 in his...

by Vinny Messana Injuries are something almost every team needs to deal with. When the injuries pile up, however, it hits a point when it’s simply too much to deal with. That was North Babylon last season. After starting the season 4-2, they lost some key seniors and it led to a very difficult second half of the season. Head Coach Steve Corrado knows this year bodes different for his squad. “We have 13 seniors on this team,” he said. “Much more experience than you’d expect. The best part about this team is the TEAM, the camaraderie–the way they get along. You can see they are more like a family. We hope that leads to more wins on the field,” he added. Of those 13 seniors, they have two extremely talented pitchers–Pat McCabe and Steven Burke. ...

Every so often a coach will have a player that comes along that is really special. This type of player can hide the team’s deficiencies and perhaps win some games single-handedly. If the coach is lucky, this player will come along every 10 years or so. If he’s really lucky, he’ll have one every five years. But what Half Hollow Hills East Head Coach Tim Belz has is potentially three of these game-changers. Matt Hogan, Mike Palazzolo and Patch Dooley are all Div-I players. They have all shown that they are capable of carrying their team and they all play for the same team–that could spell trouble for League III. Hogan, a CF and pitcher, created tons of buzz this summer when he committed to national powerhouse Vanderbilt–as a freshman. “Hogan is a special p...

Photo Credit: Daniel De Mato Like the old cliche goes, “sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward.” Tyler Osik, son of 10-year Major League veteran Keith Osik, may have taken the road less traveled but he certainly appears to have made the correct decision by attending Chipola Community College. The 2014 graduate of Shoreham-Wading River is off to a .311/.429/.489 start to the season with two HR and nine RBI through 45 at bats. While it may not be first on many people’s list of colleges to attend, the little-known Community College located in Marianna, Fla, has produced Major League manager Buck Showalter, as well as Jose Bautista, Russell Martin, Matt Gamel and Adam Loewen. “I really like it,” said the third baseman. “The coaching staff is gr...

Playing in League-I is no easy task. For Longwood, the opportunity to compete with the likes of Ward Melville and Pat-Med might not come around every year. When they do have the talent, it’s crucial that they capitalize. Having three senior pitchers that have all committed to play in college is a huge benefit. Throw in a Div-I bound catcher that happens to be one of the best athletes in the country doesn’t hurt either. Head Coach Ryan McSherry is confident that he has the right pieces in place for a huge turnaround from last year’s four-win team. “Overall, we can sum up our team as, ‘solid’. Defensively, offensively, and pitching is all- around good. We will be highly competitive and the expectation is to always win the League 1 title,” he added. T...

We have a very busy week on tap with all the NCAA-affiliated college teams having officially started. Here’s what is going on this week… Division-I: Stony Brook will look to bounce back from a rough weekend at Baylor University. They will host NYIT on Tuesday at 3pm, before traveling to North Carolina this weekend to take on Appalachian State on Friday, Elon on Saturday and Bowling Green on Sunday. All games will begin at 12:30pm. NYIT will play at Stony Brook on Tuesday at 3pm, before hosting Albany in a four-game set this weekend. They will play a DH on Friday at 1pm and 4pm and Saturday at 12pm and 3pm. Hofstra will look to get their first W on the board this weekend when they head to Coppin State in Baltimore, Md. They will play a DH on Saturday beginning at 12pm and they&#...

It was an abbreviated month of baseball, but it was still baseball nevertheless. Each school will have a player represented in the voting. Here’s the case for each player: Jeremy Giles- Stony Brook 8-for-21 (.381), 7 R, 3 RBI, 2 doubles Brad Witkowski- Hofstra 9-for-24, (.375), 1 R, 4 RBI, 2 doubles Joe Daru-NYIT 11-for-14 (.786), 7 R, 3 RBI, 2 doubles, 1 triple Robert Vani-Adelphi 6-for-18  (.333), 5 R, 2 RBI, 4 BB Thomas Asbaty-LIU Post 7-for-20 (.350), 3 R, 1 double, 1 HR, 2 RBI Angelo Navetto-Molloy 8-for-17(.471), 4 R, 2 RBI, 1 double, 4 BB Jeremy Charles-Old Westbury 1-0, 0.69 ERA, 13.0 IP, 18 K, 6 H, 2 BB Nick Girardi-St Joseph’s  4-for-7 (.571), 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 doubles, 1 SB 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 IP, 8 Ks, 3 BB Domenic Palumbo-Farmingdale State 3-for-7 (.429), 1 R, 1 BB