Bellport
Bellport Looks To Succeed With Young Roster In 2024
by Mike Merolle (Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.) Final: Bellport 7, Newfield 0 WP: Danny Rubin (CG shutout, 6 Ks) pic.twitter.com/aRKqeZR4bN — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 13, 2023 The Bellport Clippers once again finished with 10 wins (10-10 record) in their schedule last season. However, head coach Joe Murphy’s team this year has an entirely different look than last year’s. Bellport will play with zero seniors in 2024. “It will be a very challenging year in the sense that we don’t have any seniors on the squad. I only have two returning players from last year’s squad that are going to be juniors. The rest of the squad will have to come from juniors, sophomores, and freshmen, they will be very young ...
GAME RECAP: Bellport LHP Dan Rubin Fires Two-Hit Shutout Over Newfield
Final: Bellport 7, Newfield 0 WP: Danny Rubin (CG shutout, 6 Ks) pic.twitter.com/aRKqeZR4bN — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 13, 2023 When these two teams squared off a couple weeks ago, it was Newfield that came away with the victory. As fate would have it, the same two pitchers squared off – and that was freshman Brandon Seddio for Newfield and senior Dan Rubin of Bellport. When asked if that familiarity provided a competitive advantage, Dan Rubin did not hesitate to say yes it did. He worked quickly and efficiently and he fired a two-hit shutout with 6 strikeouts over the 2021 Long Island Champs. Rubin only really got into one jam and that was in the top of the sixth inning when he allowed a hit to Scott Whitbeck and walked Matt Hesselbirg and Dylan Alberto to loa the ...
Bellport Returns 9 Seniors From Playoff Team
Bellport coach Joe Murphy was the recipient of the Man of the Year which is presented to the coach that displays professionalism on-and-off the field and sportsmanship towards opponents and umpires pic.twitter.com/NzQaprO25F — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 14, 2022 Bellport proved they could play with anyone in 2022 as they finished the regular season with a record of 10-8 before losing to Connetquot and Smithtown West in the playoffs. In their first round loss, they led Connetquot 7-2 before losing to 8-7. “We had a bittersweet ending,” said third year Head Coach Joe Murphy, who was the longtime assistant under legendary coach Bill Batewell. “We let Connetquot come back and lost a tough one to Smithtown West. If we win that one, who knows what happens,”...
Luke Russo’s Arm, Marc Promutico’s Bat Leads Bellport to 10-3 Win
Final: Bellport 10, Smithtown West 3 WP: Luke Russo (6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 8 Ks) Marc Promutico: 2 hits, 4 RBIs Bellport gets even in the standings with Smithtown West heading into rubber match of series pic.twitter.com/4Srl8cr3QA — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 12, 2022 (Photo Credit: Adam Rubin/ Smithtown CSD) Following their loss on Monday to league rival Smithtown West, Bellport‘s head coach Joe Murphy told his team that the measure of a good team is how they bounce back from a loss. “We talk about the three E’s; energy, emotion and execution – and we did it. They really buy-in, they’re a great group of kids and they responded,” he added. They came away with a 10-3 victory on the road in a game that was mostly decided by the second inning. Th...
Bellport Returning Huge Group After Missing Postseason by 1 Game
by Thomas Cregan Sophomore Jake Russo’s walk-off double to deliver a 4-3 win for Bellport over Hauppauge pic.twitter.com/rJY31AFnPN — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 11, 2021 In his second year as head coach, Joe Murphy of Bellport has faith in his group of mostly returning players to build off the experience gained from the previous year. In his first year of being head coach of Bellport following the passing of legendary longtime coach Bill Batewell the team only missed the playoffs by 1 game. Though many could see this as disappointing, Murphy says the experience the young players on his team gained will benefit them going forward. Many of those young players will be returning this year in 2022 and he hopes to see his players continue to grow through that experience. ...
Bellport Takes The Field With Heavy Hearts in 2021
There hasn’t been many coaches as successful as Bill Batewell and the list of people that are as respected as him is even shorter. The legendary coached passed away in January. He won over 500 game during his storied career and led Sachem to County Titles in 1979 and 1987. Over 20 of his former players went on to become head coaches. His longtime assistant, Joe Murphy, is now the head coach of Bellport, the position Batewell held since 2008. Murphy noted that when Sachem chose to go in another direction in 2005, Batewell wasn’t ready to give up coaching and decided to take over the Bellport program since he lived in the area and wanted to take on the challenge of turning around a program that had one six games in four years. “Out of all the great coaches, there’s ve...
Legendary Coach Bill Batewell Passes Away At Age 79
(Photo Credit: The Sachem Report) When a legendary member of the Long Island baseball community bases, we mourn together. One of the most successful and longest-tenured coaches on Long Island, Bill Batewell, passed away this week at the age of 79. He was currently the head coach of Bellport HS, but made his impact on the Sachem community. He began his career as a JV coach in 1970 and became the varsity coach in 1975 and held that position until 2004. During that time, he led Sachem to 452 wins and county titles in 1979 and 1987, which remained the only two in school history until 2011. During his tenure with Sachem, Neal Heaton and Mike Parisi went on to become big leaguers. Additionally, more than 20 of his former players went on to become head coaches. This may be even more impressive th...
Bellport Looks To Build For Future
It was a tumultuous 2019 season for Bellport. They fell to 4-11 in league play and were without legendary head coach Bill Batewell, who was on medical leave. In his absence, longtime assistant Joe Murphy was at the helm. He has been with Batewell for 41 seasons beginning in 1979 as a volunteer coach on JV level at Sachem, then as the 8th grade coach in 1980, freshman team in 1981 and 1982, JV for 15 years and then varsity assistant since then. He noted that they had some bad luck, losing three one-run ballgames including two to League Champ West Islip by the scores of 1-0. “We were in a lot of games, we pitched well we just did not hit well,” he said, adding that the team batting average was under .200. They had one All-County player and that was Andrew Veit, who is currently p...
Neal’s Knowledge: The Season Is Over — Now What?
(Editor’s Note: Neal Heaton spent 12 seasons in the Major Leagues as a LHP for several teams. He was named to the National League All-Star Team in 1990 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1979 MLB Draft out of Sachem HS. He opted to attend college at the University of Miami, where he set several program records and was named to their Hall of Fame in 1993. He is now a Pitching Instructor at 365 Athletics in Bellport, if you’d like to book a pitching lesson with him you can call 631-848-3824 Now that the 2019 season has come to an end. Now what should you do? Now is the time to give your body a much-needed break. When I was in the big leagues, I always took a two-week break after the season to let my body recover. After a long season, your body is feeling drained...
A Young Bellport Team Takes the Field Without Coach Batewell in 2019
Here’s the first of two grand slams by Bellport senior Anthony Jacabacci today pic.twitter.com/QYOBiWbesj — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 4, 2018 When Bill Batewell took over as Head Coach of Bellport 11 years ago, he was stepping into a program that had not done much winning. Known for their powerhouse football program that has won several Long Island Championship teams, the baseball team often had 11 or 12 players try out for the team. It took a few years, but he led them to their first League 5 title in 51 years in 2017. “There’s not many people that would’ve had the patience to turn around this program,” said his long-time assistant Joe Murphy, who has been with him since 1978. Murphy is now the interim coach after Coach Batewell was forced to t...
Up Next: Evan Virno
2018 got off to an ominous start for Bellport’s varsity team. Just one year after being crowned co-champs with West Islip and Deer Park in League 4 for the first time in their 50+ year history, they were at risk of missing the postseason late in the season. They needed to win all three to qualify for a postseason berth. Miraculously, they won all three, including a walk-off victory over Hills West on a hit by Brennan Beatrice. Despite losing in the first round against Bay Shore, the next few years should be rather prosperous for Bellport. With several returning players and a strong JV team, they could make some noise once again this season. One player that is perhaps a year away from contributing on varsity but is in the pipeline is Evan Virno. The ninth grader is coming off an outst...
Andrew Veit: Why I Chose Saint Peter’s
Great arm action from Bellport Andrew Veit pic.twitter.com/TE3GNqFtvJ — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 20, 2017 (Editor’s Note: Andrew is a 2019 graduate of Bellport HS. He is the younger brother of Michael, who is an outfielder at Farleigh-Dickinson University. He is a middle infielder that helped Bellport make a postseason appearance in 2018. He announced his commitment to Division-I Saint Peter’s in New Jersey. The following words are his own.) The recruiting process is not an easy process, it takes a lot of time and effort to attend as many tournaments and showcases as possible. Making sure you’re working to your full potential while at the tournaments is necessary because you never know which college coaches are there watching. It’s important to pick the ...
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