Billy Steele
Shoreham-Wading River Prepared to Continue Success
by Andy Smith Postgame interview with Shoreham-Wading River RHP Billy Steele who fired 6 no-hit innings in a 4-1 win pic.twitter.com/dzwO45Ztze — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 4, 2022 Shoreham-Wading River had a very successful season last spring. The Wildcats qualified for the playoffs once again, a feat they have continued to accomplish for 36 straight seasons and finished the regular season with a 17-2 record. They were upset by Bayport-Blue Point in the postseason. Head Coach Kevin Willi is entering his ninth season as the skipper. Willi may sound familiar to fans of Stony Brook University, as he was both a pitcher and outfielder for the Seawolves. Willi credited his mentor, Sal Mignano, as a major catalyst to his success. Mignano, a member of the Suffolk County Sports ...
Recap of 2022 Suffolk All-County Award Banquet
The annual Suffolk County Awards Banquet returned for the first time since 2019 at Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook after a two-year hiatus due to covid. It was attended by roughly 700 people and featured the best players and coaches in our region. The highest honor of the night went to Pat-Med junior Josh Knoth who was the 54th annual recipient of the Carl Yastrzemski Award. The award is given to the top player in Suffolk County and the previous winners are littered with players that enjoyed successful professional – and in some cases big league – careers. Knoth was the runaway winner. He set a school record with 107 strikeouts and during the regular season and a ridiculous K/BB ratio of 93/4 with only 10 hits allowed and 0.86 ERA. If you watched him pitch, it’s more ...
Chris Batuyios Goes the Distance, Outduels Billy Steele
By Blake Buscemi Batuyios goes the distance, Mount Sinai takes the win. Final: Mount Sinai 6, SWR 2 pic.twitter.com/O0eywBOZHR — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 18, 2022 It was a battle of two aces as Chris Batuyios took on Billy Steele in Suffolk Class A Conference IV pool play at Shoreham Wading River High School this afternoon. Both are highly regarded arms in the conversation to win the Paul Gibson Award, so this was expected to be a low-scoring game before it started. Steele, who committed to West Point last year, had yet to give up a run going into this start and has consistently been sitting over 90 MPH with his fastball. Batuyios, a St. John’s commit, is an arm who consistently fills up the zone with strikes while also striking out twice as many hitters as he has innings p...
Biggest Surprises in the 2022 Season So Far
College baseball is seven weeks in, while high school baseball is about one week in. Plenty of storylines have evolved already and it’s never too early to dive into them. Here’s what has jumped out at me so far: D1 Shakeup For the past decade, it’s been St. John’s and Stony Brook atop the local “power rankings”. Not that it’s official, but those teams had clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack. With Ed Blankmeyer at the helm for the Johnnies and Matt Senk for the Seawolves, they were competing for the top players in the area and also bringing in the occasional out-of-state superstar that would get drafted. Through the early going in 2022, are we seeing maybe a changing of the guards? Both teams got off to sluggish starts this season...
Ken Kortright State Farm Game of the Week: Billy Steele Fires 6 No-Hit Innings in 4-1 Win
Postgame interview with Shoreham-Wading River RHP Billy Steele who fired 6 no-hit innings in a 4-1 win pic.twitter.com/dzwO45Ztze — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 4, 2022 Shoreham-Wading River has grown accustomed to no-hitters over the past several years. Between Brian Morrell‘s record-setting six no-hitters in 2016-’17 and then Aidan Crowley‘s back-to-back-to-back no-hitters in 2019, maybe there isn’t the same allure there once was. Billy Steele, their 2022 version of those aforementioned pitchers took a no-hitter through six innings, but was lifted in favor of LHP Nick Stella. He was one strike away from finishing it off, before Bayport-Blue Point ruined the bid and got on the board on an RBI double, briefly putting a scare into the hometown faithful....
What Are the Best Tools on the Island?
Baseball loves to talk about “toolsy” players. What does this mean? Well the five-tools are to hit, hit with power, run, field and throw. Players that have all five are said to be “five-tool players”. Very few of these exist in the game of baseball let alone on Long Island. So rather than trying to make a phony list of five-pool players on Long Island, let’s break the tools down. And we can even add pitchers for fun. Here’s what I got. This is based off my observations. Best Fastball (Top 6) Jake Moss (Manhasset 2022) commits to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania pic.twitter.com/OX8nlGl8P2 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 28, 2020 Jake Moss (Manhasset 2022) Sean Hamilton (Rocky Point 2022) Billy Steele (Shoreham-Wading River ...
Stock Watch: Which Players Rose Their Stock the Most During the Season?
2021 has basically been the year of the retail investor. We’re all familiar with AMC and $dogecoin but you’re not going to find stock advice in this article. But similar to stocks, some players experienced a meteoric rise during the high school season. This isn’t about which players simply performed the best – this is about who performed the best relative to what the expectations were this year. Here’s a breakdown from my vantage point – and I’ve seen (almost) all these players in person. 2021s Coltrane Calloway, Bay Shore The Seton Hall-commit was outstanding all season in leading Bay Shore to the Suffolk II title game against Huntington. He was named Conference II MVP and had a strong case for the Carl Yastrzemski Award. At the plate, he batted a...
Shoreham-Wading River Counting on a Talent But Inexperienced Core
by Chris Sacchi Kevin WIlli and the Shoreham-Wading River baseball team have made the postseason 34 straight seasons and 36 of the past 37 seasons. Yet, even coach Willi’s program is entering 2021 lacking in experience. “We have an interesting situation where we have pretty much three, I’d say four players, who’ve ever touched the varsity field,” coach said. “I think a lot of teams are in that situation where you miss a year like that, all that senior knowledge that last year, we had a really heavy senior class last year, you know, with Aidan Crowley, Cullen SantaMaria. “A lot guys, a lot of experience, and we weren’t able to really give them much of a chance to pass that knowledge on. So, we’re looking for some of these guys to step up, especially the guys that h...
