Chaminade
Chaminade LHP John Downing Fires Gem To Advance to CHSAA Finals
Chaminade LHP John Downing on his complete game gem to send Chaminade in the Championship series pic.twitter.com/Q4XMnYbwWg — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021 Pitching and defense is the name of the game in the CHSAA and Chaminade has always thrived in that category. In the ultra-competitive Catholic League, the difference between a win and a loss is sometimes a defensive miscue or failed bunt attempt. That was the case as No. 2 Chaminade edged No. 3 St. John the Baptist, 2-1, to advance to the CHSAA Championship Series against Kellenberg on Wednesday. Chaminade knew they had a tall order in facing St. John the Baptist ace RHP Kyle Chase (St. John’s-commit) who has the ability to shut down any opponent. What he can’t control, though, is what happens once the ba...
Phil Schurr’s 5th Inning HR Propels Kellenberg to Securing No. 1 Seed
Final: Kellenberg 3, Chaminade 2 WP: Andrew Koshy S: Brendan McCann Phil Schurr go-ahead solo HR and Kellenberg locks up the No. 1 seed for the postseason pic.twitter.com/FwhMqRO936 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2021 When longtime Kellenberg head coach Chris Alfalla stepped down prior to the season, there was only one person that was best-suited to take over for the program and not have them skip a beat. That person is Pat Miles, who was currently coaching at the JV level for the program and was familiar with every varsity player on the roster. That provided Kellenberg with the unique advantage that very few teams on Long Island had – a head coach with knowledge of his players. With the cancelation of the 2020 season, most varsity coaches only had minimal interaction...
Vin Roman’s RBI Single Delivers 2-1 Win For Chaminade
Final (8 innings): Chaminade 2, St. Anthony’s 1 WP: Andrew Heiderstadt Vin Roman go-ahead hit to score Anthony Lods pic.twitter.com/7wqqhZAOgZ — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 30, 2021 When you hear about the CHSAA being the most competitive league on Long Island, it’s because of the parity. This week was an excellent example in the series between Chaminade and St. Anthony’s. In the rematch of the 2019 championship series, the teams exchanged victories on Tuesday and Wednesday in the first two games of the series setting the stage for today. Chaminade was able to come away with the 2-1 victory, with the go-ahead run scoring in the top of the 8th inning on an RBI single by Vin Roman to score Anthony Lods – who led off the inning with a walk. As is usually...
Chaminade Starts Title Defense With 11-5 Win at St. Anthony’s
Final: Chaminade 11, St. Anthony’s 5 WP: John Downing pic.twitter.com/xoWMAPcczU — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 28, 2021 It turns out the demise of Chaminade was greatly exaggerated. The reigning champs went out on opening day at St. Anthony’s and handed it to the Friars with an 11-5 victory. Both teams are fielding inexperienced rosters in terms of their varsity experience, but Chaminade is certainly not lacking in their star power and that was evident today. Head Coach Mike Pientkos who has led the Flyers to over 600 wins spoke to me last week about the uncertainty of his roster and their lack of experience at this level. He did note, however, that they have a lot of players that can really play the game and will be impact players for them. From my vantage point...
Chaminade Prepares for a Title Defense Season Unlike Any Other
The Chaminade Flyers are the 2019 NSCHSAA Champions with a 3-1 victory over St. Anthony’s pic.twitter.com/czHcPb827e — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2019 Mike Pienkos is entering his 39th season as Chaminade‘s head coach. He has won over 600 games and guided the Flyers to yet another NSCHSAA title in 2019 – the 16th in program history. This year will probably be his biggest challenge, though, as he will tell you. The program has been built up to the point where he knew there would be a tremendous pool of talent to select from on the first day of tryouts. In a normal year, that wouldn’t be the slightest issue as he would take the next three weeks to narrow down the roster and then use the scrimmages to find the right lineup and pitching staff. In a COV...
Reasons To Be Excited For 2021
Last year at this time, everyone was full steam aheads towards another baseball season. We had no idea what was going on literally on the other side of the world. I don’t read the Wall Street Journal enough to know what’s going on in China so I had every reason to believe we would be on the verge of a normal year. I’m sure I was not the only one that was blind-sided by the cancellation of the 2020 high school and collegiate baseball season. It was awful news for everyone involved. We had already posted 65 high school season previews, hosted two college showcases and began covering college games over the course of the first two weeks of the year when the plug was pulled. Fortunately, we did have a semblance of a season in the form of summer and fall baseball. Everyone owes...
Nick Ungania Commits to SUNY Binghamton
Nick Ungania (Chaminade 2022) pic.twitter.com/91vb7zALKH — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 3, 2020 When the news was released last year that a Long Island-native gifted SUNY Binghamton baseball with a $60 million donation – the largest in university history – it had a few tangible effects. Besides bringing some additional credibility to northeast baseball, it also immediately became a destination for high-end players. Getting recruited by Binghamton had gotten a little more competitive. The school is already ranked No. 88 in the U.S and now they are about to have arguably the second best baseball complex in the nation. Justin Rosner is a 2020 Farmingdale graduate that is currently at Binghamton, and he will be getting joined by another Long Islander in the fall o...
Who Was The Best Team of The 2010s?
When it comes to being considered the best–the bar is set high. Over the course of the past 10 seasons, there have been undefeated seasons, there have been back-to-back state champs, there have been pitching staffs loaded with Division-I talent and pro pitchers. But there can only be one team considered the best. I have watched a lot of baseball, but I didn’t trust my own instinct so I solicited the help of some trusted sources to put together my definitive list of the best teams of the decade. To make it a bit easier, we narrowed it down to teams that have won a Long Island Championship, because plenty of talented teams have made it to the finish line only to come up short. We also did not list any school more than once on purpose because many of the back-to-back champions featured the sa...
OTD: Chaminade Captures 2019 NSCHSAA Championship
The Chaminade Flyers are the 2019 NSCHSAA Champions with a 3-1 victory over St. Anthony’s pic.twitter.com/czHcPb827e — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2019 As soon as tryouts started, Logan Koester knew this team would be special. Scratch that, since the end of last season he knew. The George Washington-commit that mowed through the entire Catholic League, put an exclamation point on an outstanding season with 7.2 innings in the Championship Game against St. Anthony’s which enabled the Flyers to capture their 17th NSCHSAA Title and first since 2015. Early on, it appeared that this game would have a different outcome, though. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Marco Ali started the inning off with a double to left field. After a lineout to Sawyer Duarte for the first out...
OTD: Bobby Dahl Pitches Chaminade Within One Game of Title
Aidan Larkin broke the game open with a two-run single in Chaminade’s 6-4 victory over St. Anthony’s. He’s our @BsbLifestyle101 Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/5U9A8TTeMG — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2019 No. 1 seed Chaminade held off a seventh inning rally by No. 5 St. Anthony’s to win 6-4 and put themselves one win away from capturing the 2019 NSCHSAA Championship. Having not played since Wednesday, the Flyers were tasked with holding down a red-hot Friars offense that put up 20 runs in the previous 2 games. The Friars took an early 2-0 lead on an RBI single by Jack Calla and an RBI double by Cameron Leary in the bottom of the second inning, but senior RHP Bobby Dahl settled in after that. The Flyers offense answered right back in the bottom of the ...
OTD: Mike Pienkos Notches Career Win No. 600
Mike Pienkos discusses his 600th career victory pic.twitter.com/ENhFXi5hvD — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2019 Chaminade Head Coach Mike Pienkos entered elite company with his 600th career victory on Monday night. The No. 1 seed Flyers weathered a seventh inning rally over No. 6 Holy Trinity with a 6-2 victory. Starting pitcher Bobby Dahl went the complete game, he brought a two-hit shutout into the seventh before he ran into a bit of trouble but recorded the final out on a soft line drive to Aidan Larkin at short. Nick Hagstrom got the start for the Titans. They were coming off an upset win over No. 3 St. Dominic last Wednesday night. Hagstrom worked around a two-out single by Larkin in the first inning to put up a zero, but the high-powered lineup of the Flyers could not ...
