Archive
Recap of Week One of New York Baseball Academy at Hofstra
by Vinny Messana For 40 years, kids ages 5-15 have made their way to the New York Baseball Academy to develop their skills and learn from some of the brightest minds and most recognizable names in the Long Island baseball community. The director of the academy, legendary former NYIT coach Bob Hirschfield, has recently moved the camp to the beautiful campus of Hofstra University. The 240-acre campus is the perfect environment for young baseball players to hone their craft of the game they love. This week concluded week 1 of the academy, and it went as well as expected. There were special insructors; Matt Giuliano (Connetquot grad, Owner of Play Like a Pro, seven years Pro player), Eddie Waters (St. John’s University Hall of Fame, played professionally with New York Yankees, St. Thomas...
Assessing Each Recruiting Class
by Vinny Messana Div-I: NYIT- Brendan Dowd Brandon Fanizza Ryan Kuskowski Ben McNeill DJ Masuck Kevin Tabares Nick Vitale Zach White Analysis: This is another example of how the program is moving in the right direction. Dowd is a terrific backstop that can completely negate the running game and their opponents will find that out immediately. Vitale is a winning player out of Ward Melville–he won the Long Island Championship with them as a freshman. Players like him tend to overachieve in college because he has been playing top-tier talent for the past four years. Zach White is a big RHP from Shoreham-Wading River. He has been overshadowed on his own team by Brian Morrell, but he is every-bit the big-time pitcher. McNeill is a very smooth SS from Commack. He’s the type of player...
Anthony Gatto Signs With the Long Island Ducks
Smithtown West ’11 grad, Anthony Gatto, has signed to play with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. Gatto played his collegiate ball at UMBC–posting terrific numbers over his four years. He posted a .387 OBP over 493 at bats and was successful on 48-of-58 stolen base attempts. “It’s an unbelievable feeling and I could not be more excited,” said the Hauppauge native. He joins Bruce Kern (Bellport ’06),Anthony Vega (Pat-Med ’09) and James Lomangino (Connetquot ’09) as recent high school grads from Long Island to have the honor of playing in front of their friends and family. Gatto represented Suffolk in the Battle of the Border on June 6. He joined Jonathon Mulford as players that parlayed that into continuing their playing careers. H...
Baseball on the Island Weekly, Presented by SmartKage
In our latest episode, filmed at Lombardi’s on the Bay in Patchogue, we invited guests Sam Kessler (left), Brian Morrell (second from right) and Nick Grande (right) down to discuss their 2016 seasons and how they are preparing for the upcoming season. This episode was presented by SmartKage.
Who is Antonio Deodato?
by Vinny Messana During the prime years of the New York Yankees dynasty, they relied heavily on southpaw Andy Pettitte in Game 3’s of postseason series. Manager Joe Torre noted that this was almost always the most important game because the series was tied 1-1 often times, and this game was critical in determining the momentum of the series. Over the course of his young career, Antonio Deodato, has proven to be that caliber of pitcher–someone that the team has the utmost confidence to win crucial games. “I take a lot of pride in pitching must win games. It means that my coaches and teammates believe in me and are confident in me to get the job done and that’s getting us the win,” he said. Despite not getting some of the hoopla that the other stars of the 2017 ...
Q & A With P.J. Martino
(Photo Credit: Robert Armbruster) It’s hard to go through more as an individual than P.J. Martino has done already. By the time he was a sophomore at the University of Bridgeport, the Pat-Med grad had already dealt with Tommy John surgery as a junior in HS, the passing of his father just prior to his senior baseball season and then he tore his ACL and MCL last summer. Our reporter David Moskowitz had a chance to sit down with him, and here’s what he had to say. You had a great career at Pat Med, a powerhouse baseball program. What was it like to play there and for coach Frascogna? Playing at Pat Med was some of my best years of my baseball career. Those teams were the best teams that I have ever been a part of: it was a family more than it was a team and that is something spec...
Who are the Top Unsigned 2017 Graduates?
5. Nicholas Trabacchi, Smithtown West [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXM0fwzWjuU] Trabbachi had six wins this year and plays a smooth shortstop/second base while handling the bat well. He is a borderline Div-I player but in my opinion, he will be most successful at a high-end Div-II school. Towards the end of the season, many of the local schools were in attendance to watch him and I know for a fact they were all high on him. Adelphi is a good fit, and there appears to be mutual interest. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdBc737zuzA] To Continue Reading this Article, CLICK HERE!
Height Won’t Hold Back Peter Theodorellis
by Vinny Messana Until recently, many Div-I college coaches would’ve scoffed at any right-handed pitcher under 6’0″. Some teams still have a strict guideline they follow regarding the height of pitchers. Athletes like Peter Theodorellis, however, are proving that notion to be antiquated by dominating on the mound despite not possessing the height that scouts look for. “My size and other people’s opinions I can’t control,” said the 5’7″ RHP from Commack HS. “I can control how hard I work at making the most of my God-given abilities. My will and performance are my true measurements,” he added. Nobody can argue the results. Despite playing in the uber-competitive League I of Suffolk County, Theodorellis had a tremendous 2016 ca...
2016 College All-Long Island Team
We are pleased to announce the 2016 College All-Long Island team. Also, in this week’s edition of Baseball on the Island Weekly, we had special guest Kyle Young, St. Dominic HS grad and 22nd round draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in studio. Stony Brook: Chad Lee-6-4 record, 1.97 ERA, 82.1 IP, .225 AVG, 7.45 H/9, 2.3 BB/9 Casey Baker-.314 AVG, 59 H, 28 R, 31 RBI, 25 BB, 27 K, .392 OBP, 4-5 SB Hofstra: David Leiderman-.271 AVG, 26 R, 56 H, 3 3b, 7 HR, 35 RBI, 12 BB, 46 K, .454 SLG, 5-8 SB Matt Anunziata-.280 AVG, 25 R, 47 H, 9 HR, 39 RBI, 13 BB, 25 K, .512 SLG, 0-1 SB NYIT: Joe Daru-.365 AVG/.414 OBP/.603 SLG, 38 R, 57 H, 4 3b, 6 HR, 30 RBI, 11 BB, 24-27 SB Louis Mele-.313 AVG/ .357 OBP/.537 SLG, 19 R, 42 H, 5 HR, 28 RBI, 9 BB, 17 K, Adelphi: T.J. Santiago-6-2 record, 2.54 ERA, ...
Father’s Day Reminsicing
by Vinny Messana (This piece originally was published on June 15, 2014) One of the first things I remember is having a catch with my dad in the front of the house when I was about six years old. I recall that once I started getting better and was able to throw the ball further I would take a few steps back. “Don’t move too far back I can’t reach,” my dad said. It didn’t make sense to me. He was in better physical shape than most men in their late 30s and played baseball in his youth, how could he not reach? “I’m not a lefty,” he said. “I just wanted you to be able to get used to seeing it,” he added. That was my dad in a nutshell. He went out of his comfort zone to acclimate me to facing lefties. Bear in mind, I wouldn’t be ...
Brian Morrell Wins the Carl Yastrzemski Award
by Vinny Messana Speaking in front of a crowd of 900 people was an environment that Brian Morrell was not completely comfortable in. Maybe it would’ve helped if the camera man was holding a baseball from 60’6″ away, though, because that is one setting that did not faze the junior from Shoreham-Wading River one bit this season. In fact, he smacked a 420 ft HR in the Class A semifinals against Rocky Point that hasn’t landed yet in front of a crowd much larger than that. The University of Notre Dame-commit was awarded the coveted Carl Yastrzemski Award tonight at Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook, NY–becoming the third winner from his high school, behind his mentor Keith Osik in 1987 and 2016 MLB Draft pick Mike O’Reilly in 2012. The junior terrorized pitc...
Dylan Rooney Named MVP in 1-0 Victory for Suffolk
By Nakeem Grant The 12th annual Grand Slam Challenge between Nassau and Suffolk was a pitcher’s duel through-and-through as Suffolk defeated Nassau by a score of 1-0. Both teams made remarkable defensive plays, turning several double play balls, and flagging down pop-ups and fly balls in Farmingdale State College’s spacious foul grounds. Dylan Rooney was named the Rawlings MVP for the Grand Slam Challenge. He drove in the game’s only run with a sacrifice fly to left field in the top of the 6th after fighting off multiple curveballs from Nassau’s Joe Minucci. “He threw me three straight curveballs and I fouled them off,” Rooney said. “I said to myself that if he throws me one more, I’m going to sit back and try to get this run in and that’s exactly what I did.” Rooney, senior from Bayport-B...
