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Wantagh Wins Class A County Finals on Walk-Off Single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rqVci8Boeg by Vinny Messana Not even Martin Scorsese himself could script a more fitting end to a County Championship game. Bases loaded, two-out, bottom of the ninth inning with the clean up hitter up after Bellmore JFK manager intentionally walked two batters to load the bases and set up a force at any bases. On a 2-2 count with score knotted at 2-2, DH Will O’Brien laced the walk-off single to right field to score Charlie Interrante in front of an electric crowd and give Wantagh their first Nassau County Class A title since 2010. “It’s a feeling I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” said O’Brien. “All I wanted to do was get the ball on the bat and score the winning run and that’s what happened. Best ...
Dowling Shuts Its Doors
In an email sent to its students, Dowling announced that the school would cease all operations as of June 3rd, 2016. The news comes after months of speculation regarding financial troubles. The enrollment had plummeted 50 percent since 2009, according to Newsday. They had been seeking outside investment and appeared to have a suitor in March, but talks did not materialize. The school is more than $54 million in debt and were forced to close after 48 years–nearly cancelling their 2016 graduation. The news comes at an inopportune time to us as Baseball on the Island. Our Battle of the Border was among the several sporting events planned at the campus this summer that needed to be cancelled, in addition to the Long Island Championship for girl’s lacrosse. We will have a new venue ...
Northport Takes Advantage of West Islip’s Miscues, Forces Do-Or-Die Game Three
by Vinny Messana When the West Islip bus showed up at 3:45pm, or about an hour later than planned, it was a good omen for Northport. The Northport Tigers (20-7) took advantage of five errors by the Lions and were led by Nicholas Palmerini‘s complete game to force a do-or-die Game Three tomorrow at West Islip. They are looking for their first Suffolk County championship since 1983. “The energy from the crowd helps, and with my team behind me, I can throw whatever I want and feel confident,” said Palmerini. The crowd was highly energized and chanting on the Tigers at every opportunity and it certainly was a factor in this game. After the Lions took an early 2-0 lead from a wild pitch that scored Lou Antos and an RBI single by Nick Valenti that scored Ray Weber, Palmerini se...
Jimmy Joyce Does It With The Bat and On the Hill In Wantagh’s Game One Win
by Vinny Messana As Wantagh’s Head Coach Keith Sachs noted “this ain’t the pros,” so when his ace, Jimmy Joyce, is struggling with his command during the seventh inning of Game One of the Nassau County Class A Finals, you let him figure it out. “I couldn’t find the strike zone,” said Joyce, who experienced a brief bout with Steve Blass Disease after retiring the first two hitters in the seventh inning–one out away from a CG shutout of Bellmore JFK. He allowed a two-out double to catcher Reid Oreste and an infield single to Pete Cuttita before walking Frank Bruno to load the bases. UConn-bound Mikey Schwartz drew a bases-loaded walk to end the shutout and cut the deficit to 3-1. That brought up Jason Coules–the sophomore who started and ...
Kessler’s Complete Game Sends Mt. Sinai to Their First Long Island Championship
By Chris Amato All season, Mount Sinai knew they held the upper hand when Sam Kessler went to the mound. In front of a capacity crowd at home, the West Virginia-bound ace fired a complete game against Rocky Point in a 4-1 win to crown the Mustangs as Suffolk County Class A champs for the first time in their program history. Coming off his previous win against Miller Place, Kessler took to the mound on 4 days rest looking to shut the door on his crosstown rivals. The righty was dominant throughout, only allowing 1 run that came off of a throwing error in the first inning. Kessler did not give any breathing room after that. The Eagles were able to gather just two hits and two walks off of him. Having a clear game plan and more than enough preparation was major factor in Kessler’s win. ...
Bobby Honeyman Hits Walk-Off On His Birthday in Stony Brook’s 1-0 Win
by Vinny Messana Bobby Honeyman picked a great time to hit his first career college home run. It came on his 20th birthday to give No. 3 seed Stony Brook a 1-0 victory over the University of Maine in the America East playoffs. It was a classic pitcher’s duel. Sea Wolves ace, Chad Lee, fired seven shutout innings, allowing just five hits, he struck out five and walked two. He certainly deserved the victory, but the Sea Wolves offense could not muster anything against Maine’s staff. Their starter, Logan Fullmer, lasted just 4.1 innings, but Jake Marks and Connor Johnson combined to throw 1.2 shutout innings. Lee gave way to Teddy Rodliff who tossed two shutout innings to give the Sea Wolves a chance for the walk-off victory. After David Real lined out and Casey Baker grounded out...
Jimmy Mattera Throws Out Runner At Plate to Send West Islip to Class AA Finals
by Vinny Messana What. A. Finish. With West Islip clinging to a 3-2 lead, Smithtown East’s leading hitter, John Marti, came to the plate with the tying run on second base. West Islip had their ace, Albany-bound RHP Ray Weber, on the hill looking to send the Lions into the Suffolk County Class AA Finals. With first base open, they opted to pitch to Marti and he lined a single to left. The left fielder, Jimmy Mattera–who had pitched the first six innings–charged the ball and fired a strike to catcher Nick Valenti, who applied the tag for the final out and send the Lions into a frenzy. “I just got the ball and let it fly,” said Mattera, who recorded the victory in the clinching game. “I just came off the mound, so my arm was all warmed up so I knew if I had...
Chris Cappas Pitches Kellenberg into CHSAA Finals
by Vinny Messana At this stage of the season, all the teams in the CHSAA are very familiar with each other. For that reason, when tasked with facing a pitcher (Jimmy Conway) that shut them out earlier in the season, there was no reason to think gloom-and-doom. Kellenberg (17-5) defeated St. Dominic’s (16-9) by the score of 5-3 to advance to the CHSAA finals against the winner of St. Anthony’s-St. John the Baptist. “It’s been like this all year,” said Head Coach Chris Alfalla. “Every game is the same. Every team is tough. We’ve faced this guy before–he blanked us–so we knew we were gonna be in for it. He did a good job, but we did a little better job,” he added. Their junior southpaw, Chris Cappas, won his sixth game of the season ...
Vote for MVP of May Presented by Motus Baseball
Last month featured a new BOTI-record 32,000 votes, in which Jeremy Dalimonte of Walt Whitman HS was voted Most Valuable Player of April. This vote will be a combination of high school and college players and will be open until Friday May 27. *UPDATE* May 27* Congratulations to Mike Lazos of Hauppauge, who was selected by his peers as the MVP of May with 34.4% of the 13,000 votes.
Chris Casswell’s RBI Single in 12th Inning Propels Rocky Point Into Class A Final
by Vinny Messana When James Weisman closed the door in Rocky Point’s epic 7-3 victory in 12 innings over Shoreham-Wading River, it felt more like Rocky Balboa’s epic 15-round fight over Ivan Drago. “It was not easy–it was a dogfight,” said Rocky Point’s Head Coach Andrew Aschettino. “It was two phenomenal teams playing their brains out,” he added. The Eagles knew they had a daunting task going against Notre Dame-bound Brian Morrell–our No. 3 ranked prospect on Long Island. They defeated him last week, but Aschettino noted they had a different game plan today. “Today we changed the approach,” he said. “We knew he would go to the offspeed early. We wanted to drive the pitch count up, last week we tried to jump on ...
Power Rankings Volume 10
by Vinny Messana This week was very eventful as St. Joseph’s, Molloy and Dowling were all in the NCAA Regionals. Despite having their seasons cut short, all three teams have a lot to be proud of and all represented themselves very well–which bodes well for their future in terms of locking down the top local talent. There are only two local teams still playing–Suffolk CC in the College World Series and Stony Brook will open up the America East tournament this Wednesday against Maine. Here’s our modified Power Rankings. As we did last week, it will be limited to the top 5. 1.Suffolk CC Record: 25-6 (Stock UP) As we have mentioned as nauseum, their offense has been historically good. Nicholas VonOhlen was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Combined with h...
Introducing the No. 1 Prospect on Long Island
by Vinny Messana Every great player needs a defining moment. For Matt Hogan that came on April 29 against Smithtown West. With his team, Half Hollow Hills East, trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the seventh, the sophomore stepped up to plate with his buddy, Mike Palazzolo, on second base. He smacked a walk-off two-run shot to center field to give the Thunderbirds the 8-7 victory and hand Smithtown West one of their three losses this season. “I just happened to be the guy to get up at the plate and swing the bat,” said the uber-polite sophomore. While it’s true that he was the one with the bat in his hand, not many hitters in the northeast region–let alone League III in Suffolk County–can match what he can do at the plate. On his April 20 home run against Smithtown...
