Chaminade
Chaminade to Receive Axcess Team of the Year Award
John Downing fires a complete game and Chaminade captures the first ever CHSAA NYS Championship pic.twitter.com/0zCtFUooL1 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 12, 2022 2022 was a dream season for the Chaminade Flyers and they are set to be rewarded for it. The Flyers compiled a record of 25-2 – and captured the first ever New York State CHSAA Championship with two hard fought victories in the tournament. Additionally, both of their losses on the season were by one-run. It was perhaps the greatest group of talent a Long Island team has put together this century. They had double-digit Division-I commits on the roster (that number will continue to climb as more of the underclassmen commit), and their entire 2022 class of 15 are all now on college rosters. The stats are remarkabl...
Ken Kortright State Farm Game of the Week: Chaminade Defeats Kellenberg, 5-1, in Game 3 of NSCHSAA Championship
“It was always the Flyers” That was the popular rallying cry that was seen on social media recently as Chaminade attempted to run it back and win their third consecutive NSCHSAA championship. For the seniors, however, it was really their second title since Chaminade does not typically call up underclassmen to varsity and their 2020 season was wiped out due to the pandemic. With the most talented team that Long Island has seen in decades, the Flyers rolled through the league and won their first two playoff games to qualify for the championship series against Kellenberg. After surprisingly losing the first game of the series, 4-3, they came roaring back to win Game 2, 8-1, and then held off a resilient Kellenberg team today, 5-1, to earn a three-peat. Playing in 94 degree tempera...
Chaminade and St. Anthony’s Advance With Sunday Evening Victories
By Blake Buscemi Downing goes the distance for a complete game shutout. Absolutely dominant performance with 10 Ks. pic.twitter.com/QOvLmIgSf0 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2022 There were a pair of Catholic League games played today at St. Joseph’s College, both of which had one thing in common; they were pitcher’s duels. That was to be expected with the quality of pitching that was lined up for the day. Game one started off with a bang when Chaminade centerfielder and Binghamton-commit Nick Ungania smoked a triple into the right-center field gap. Marist-commit Brady Steinert drove him in with a single later in the inning to give Chaminade a 1-0 after an inning. Things got very quiet after this as both starting pitchers, Kyle Chase of St. John the Baptist and John Downin...
Observations from Chaminade vs Kennedy Catholic
Gary Gill-Hill was impressive today for Kennedy Catholic. Tremendously high ceiling pic.twitter.com/Jy3TTmpGLy — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 24, 2022 Yesterday was a non-league matchup between the reigning CHSAA Champs, Chaminade, and Kennedy Catholic which is in Somers, NY. It was a particularly exciting matchup on paper being that Chaminade is probably the 1st or 2nd most talented team in NY (Poly Prep is right up there) and they were squaring off against one of the best pitchers in NY, Gary Gill-Hill. Scouts were lined up behind home plate to watch Gill-Hill, who was mainly sitting 90 in the first inning. He did allow a run, as he walked Binghamton-commit Nick Ungania to leadoff the game and he came around to score on a bloop single by Towson-commit Brian Heckelman. He se...
Chaminade Enters Title Defense With 15 College-Committed Seniors
Chaminade has captured the 2021 CHSAA Championship with a 4-1 win over Kellenberg ! pic.twitter.com/jmozQfolci — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 10, 2021 Before Chaminade even takes the field for their title defense in 2022, first they have to finalize their roster. That may seem like a formality for a team returning 15 college-committed players. But it isn’t – in fact they had 51 players try out for the varsity team. That’s an incredible number in this era. “The competition at our tryouts is intense,” said head coach Mike Pienkos, who is entering his 40th season at the helm. They just captured their 17th CHSAA title in program history over Kellenberg. “I am blessed with a talented class, I mean the class is just loaded,” he added. Loaded...
What is the Best School to Recruit from on Long Island?
This idea originally came to me about five years ago when I was covering a Shoreham-Wading River practice before the season. Looking around, it appeared they had more talent some many college teams and I remember thinking that a college coach could’ve done most of their recruiting just from that team. They wound up winning 20 consecutive games and capturing the Class A Suffolk County Championship that season. That was in 2017 and since then a lot has changed. But at the same time, the cream always rises to the top and many of the best programs on Long Island have been the best programs for several decades. Some have their peaks and valleys, but this list will focus on the best of the best – the ones you can always count on will be there come playoff time, the ones that produce ...
Up Next Powered by the Yard Sports Academy: Mikey Cervoni
This is the ninth installment of the popular series “Up Next” Powered by the Yard Sports Academy in which we highlight the top underclassmen on Long Island. Previously, we featured Centereach OF Logan Norman, Garden City LHP Gabe Beschloss , Connetquot INF Ryan Kiendle, Clarke MIF Nick Berasti, Miller Place SS Alex Strickland, Pat-Med OF Robbie Melo, Holy Trinity 1B Kyle Kozlowski, and West Babylon 1B Jace Alvino. Make sure to check out the Yard Sports Academy here. Chaminade has proven to be a fertile ground for high school baseball players over its history but especially over the past handful of years. The class of 2022 is no exception as all 15 players are committed to a college. That is just a prelude to the next few graduating classes as both 2023 and 2024 are stocked with high-end pl...
JJ Gatti Commits to the University of Dayton
JJ Gatti capped a great 2021 season with his recent college commitment to the University of Dayton. The college, which is located in Ohio, competes in the Atlantic-10 conference and reached the conference championship this past season and also the last full season in 2019. Gatti is a a talented RHP that helped lead Chaminade to the CHSAA Championship this season in a sweep over Kellenberg. He will enter the season as one of the favorites to capture the Pitcher of the Year. I had a chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say… Can you talk about your experience with the college recruiting process and why you chose Dayton? My college recruiting process was filled with many ups and downs as I’m sure goes for most people. I had went from being on nobody’s rada...
John Downing Commits to Seton Hall
Final: Chaminade 2, SJB 1 WP: John Downing (CG, 4 H, 1 R, 7 K) pic.twitter.com/2MsfbAhgkf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021 Entering the 2021 season, there was reason to question whether Chaminade could successfully defend their crown in the Catholic League. The biggest reason is that although they possessed a world of talent, they had no players with varsity experience. It seemed like it could present an issue come playoff time when the chips are on the table. In typical Flyers fashion, though, they were able to lean on their coaching staff, pitching, defense and depth to dig deep and sweep Kellenberg in the CHSAA Finals. One of their major contributors all season was junior ace LHP John Downing. The southpaw went 5-0 with a 1.33 ERA. Over 38.2 IP, he struck out 39 and a...
Chaminade Captures 19th NSCHSAA Championship
Chaminade has captured the 2021 CHSAA Championship with a 4-1 win over Kellenberg ! pic.twitter.com/jmozQfolci — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 10, 2021 Under normal circumstances, you would get anxious when the potential tying run steps to the plate in Game 2 of the CHSAA Finals but with a team like Chaminade that lives and dies with pitching and defense, somehow the base runners just don’t feel that likely to score. The Chaminade Flyers defeated Kellenberg, 4-1, to capture the 19th championship in program history. They outscored the Firebirds 14-2 over the two game series and won four of five games against them this season. And this was with a team that was considered inexperienced by coach preseason and vulnerable by many. This game did have a much different vibe than G...
Chaminade Barreling Towards Another CHSAA Championship
If you thought this was the year that Chaminade was going to be vulnerable – you were sorely mistaken. After capturing the CHSAA in 2019 and graduating that entire team in ’19 and ’20, they are now one game away from repeating as champs. They briefly struggled earlier this season as they stumbled out of the gate with a 3-3 record but now they have found their cruising altitude at the right time. The Flyers defeated Kellenberg in Game 1 of the NSCHSAA Championship Series by the score of 10-1 behind an all-around team effort and dominant pitching – which has been the hallmark for the program for decades. Coach Mike Pientkos’ squad excelled not only on the mound, but also in the field and on the base paths today; outplaying Kellenberg in every regard. They even g...
