aXcess Top 30
Q & A With Seaford Head Coach Michael Milano
(Photo Credit: Michael Tito and Joe Ippoliti) Entering his 15th season as Head Coach, Michael Milano has built Seaford into one of the elite programs in Nassau County, having won 48 games over the previous three seasons. This year, they will be returning a number of impact players such as Vinny Pecora, Nick Calandra, Zach Grof, Andrew Chico and John Leonardi. I had a chance to speak with him on their upcoming season and recapping their 2017 season and here’s what he had to say… It was another strong season for you guys in 2017, what were your overall takeaways? In 2017 we were 17-2 in the regular season and entered the tournament as the #1 seed. All teams then had over a week off. Some teams could get it going offensively, after that break, but we just could not for whatever re...
The Reliever’s Walk Up Song: Why Is It So Important?
(Photo Credit: Vincent Dusovic) by Julian Guevara Over the past decade the “nail down” reliever has become one of the most important positions in baseball. This is due in part to the plethora of incredible relief pitching and closers that emerged from the late 1990s-2010. Every ballplayer in the United States knows that the last thing you want to hear at Yankee Stadium in the top of the ninth is Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. Of course, Mariano Rivera’s cutter is what the hitters really feared; however the song plays a huge role in getting the fans involved. My favorite example is the 2012 Oakland Athletics and their closer, Grant Balfour. Balfour, a genius in my opinion, did everything he could to get all 60,000 fans at the Oakland Coliseum involved. His chosen song is also a Metallica hit,...
Details For the Awards Banquet
Tomorrow will be our third annual Awards Banquet. It will be held at Villa Lombardi’s beginning at 7pm. Doors will open at 6:45pm. Here are some details regarding the event. Attire is business casual. The event will conclude at 11pm. First course, entree and dessert will be included. A cash bar will be available to guests ages 21+ Awards will begin around 8:30pm and conclude around 10:30pm. We will be honoring the 35 players named to the college All-Long Island team. Each of their respective coaches will be speaking at the podium for a few minutes. We will also be honoring several other awards such as Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and many more. Guests are encouraged to take photos and pose in front of our 8×10 custom Step & Repeat banner. If you have n...
Q & A With Nassau County Reporter Mike Connors
We had some difficult with the audio in the podcast, so here is a transcript of the audio between Vinny Messana and Nassau reporter Mike Connors. You’ll be releasing your Top-15 players in Nassau County this week, when is that coming out? I’m shooting for Saturday or Sunday this week, but first I will be beginning our third Face of Nassau challenge. It’s a great way to start of the new year. Yep, people want their baseball information– That’s what it’s all about. So let’s talk about some of the top guys. Our list won’t be released until March, but there’s a couple of guys that are no secret in terms of being the top player. Let’s talk first about Wantagh’s Anthony Fontana. What can you tell us about him? Not only does he hav...
Cy Young Finalists Announced
We will be hosting our third annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, January 6 at Villa Lombardi’s. Among the several awards we will be handing out will be the Cy Young Award for college pitchers. The four finalists are: T.J. Santiago (Adelphi): 8-3 record, 1.51 ERA, 77.2 IP, 56 H, 81 K, 7 BB, 3 CG Matt Seelinger (Farmingdale): 4-1 record, 1 Save, 1.39 ERA, 51.2 IP, 28 H, 69 K, 16 BB, 1 CG Jake DeCarli (LIU Post): 9-1 record, 2.22 ERA, 101.1 IP, 91 H, 78 K, 21 BB, 6 CG Josh Outsen (St. Joseph’s): 7-0 record, 1.99 ERA, 54.1 IP, 40 H, 54 K, 11 BB, 5 CG We will announce the winner at the podium on the evening of the event. **Tickets available by clicking here **
Q & A with Joey Ricciardi
When you play for MacArthur, playoff berths are par for the course. The General are coming off a 16-win season, but they had their season cut-short by rival Division in the second round of the postseason. They will be looking to avenge that loss this season. One of the players they will be counting on is left-handed hitting senior outfielder Joey Ricciardi. He announced his commitment to play at York College of Pennsylvania a couple days ago. Prior to that, he put on an impressive performance at the charity Home Run Derby at Calhoun last month. He spoke with Vinny Messana about a variety of things, and here’s what he had to say… Talk a little bit about the college recruiting process and how you made your decision? The recruiting process was very stressful. I attended a lot of c...
Matt Pelcher Commits to Hofstra
The trend continues of Hofstra University becoming a hot-spot for elite prospects on Long Island. Catcher Matt Pelcher (Calhoun 2020) announced his verbal commitment to the Pride, joining fellow LI top players such as Jimmy Joyce, Anthony D’Onofrio, Mark Faello, Brad Camarda, James Cardinale and William Kennedy. He becomes the fourth 2020 graduate on the island to announce his verbal commitments (Joe Wozny; UCONN, Travis Honeyman; Boston College, Johnny Castagnozzi; North Carolina). Pelcher has been in the limelight since eighth grade, when he was called up to varsity to be the starting catcher for Calhoun. He did a commendable job, batting .286 and handling a very talented pitching staff led by Dylan Hughes and Jake Garguilo. We wrote a feature story on him directly following the se...
Commack Wins First County Championship Since 1997
Commack does it!! They are the 2017 Suffolk Class AA Champions ! Commack 8, West Islip 6 WP: Jake Krzemienski pic.twitter.com/00g1i7pt9V aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2017 One week before the season, the Commack baseball team didn’t know who their Head Coach would be. This was a team coming off a 14-win season and a playoff run with arguably the best staff on Long Island. Three months later they are celebrating their first Suffolk County Class AA championship since 1997 after their 8-6 back-and-forth victory over the reigning Long Island Champion West Islip Lions. Senior Pete Theodorellis, who tied the game up at 6-6 in the sixth inning with a double off the fence–and fired 8.2 IP yesterday–never wavered in his optimism with this team. Even during that ...
