Chaminade
Things I Miss About the Baseball Season
It’s only been less than a month but somehow it feels much longer given how the carpet was ripped from beneath. With the weather warming up, it’s offering glimpses of what we are accustomed to recognize as ‘baseball season’. Honestly, the weather in 2020 was just about perfect. We haven’t been hit with any snowstorms and the temperatures have rarely been below 40 degrees since February 1. We’ve been hit pretty hard with bad spring weather every year since 2013 – and we can always count on one significant downfall of snow. In any event, I’m still missing my usual routine during the baseball season. Since the inception of Axcess Baseball, and Baseball on the Island before that, I’ve been used to heading out to a college game at 3 pm in Ma...
Chaminade Prepared To Defend Their Crown
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 During his 38 years as the skipper of Chaminade, Mike Pientkos has won over 600 games and has garnered the respect of the Long Island baseball community. He led the Flyers to another championship in 2019, as they defeated St. Anthony’s in the NSCHSAA Championship in two games. With a team featuring seven seniors in the starting lineup and two in the rotation, he knew it was going to be a special year. “Yeah I knew we had some pitchers – such as [Logan] Koester – who dominated all year and [Aidan] Larkin, who was a third-year SS for us,” said Pientkos. “But we also had some good surp...
Brooklyn/Queens Schools To Join NSCHSAA
In a move that has been in the makings for over two decades, Brooklyn/Queens schools will be added to the Nassau-Suffolk Catholic League–effective spring 2020. This is big news, as it adds more parity to a league that was already very balanced. Rather than three-game series, there will be two-game series for the Long Island schools and one-game against the Brooklyn/Queens schools. This will not include the playoffs–the existing format will remain, but their hope is to build towards an intersectional or state tournament like public schools do. Below is the letter that was sent out by Ralph Dalton, President of NSCHSAA. Since the inception of the current format, here are the championships by school: Chaminade – 16 St. John the Baptist – 12 Holy Trinity – 6 Kelle...
Q & A With Logan Koester
Logan Koester, a 2019 graduate of Chaminade HS, was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 32nd round of the 2019 draft. Just two weeks ago, he was leading the Flyers to their 17th NSCHSAA Championship at Hofstra University over St. Anthony’s. Logan is a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher that was named Pitcher of the Year and also hit four HR–which was tied for the conference lead. Here’s what he had to say… Can you describe day three of the MLB Draft–how nervous were you what the past couple days have been like? Day 3 was a nerve wracking day. Before day 3 it seemed almost impossible and it wasn’t really a reality. but after i heard my name get called it felt so surreal and the joy was overwhelming. 2019 has been an outstanding year for you. Are you sur...
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 fir...
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 o...
Aidan Larkin’s Two Run Hit, Logan Koester Sends Chaminade Into Championship
Final: Chaminade 3, St. John the Baptist 0 WP: Logan Koester (4-hit shutout) The Flyers advance to the Championship Round on Sunday at Hofstra pic.twitter.com/RCdplLqgxW — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2019 It was a battle of the present and future stars on display Tuesday night at St. Joseph’s College. For a while, it appeared the youngster would be the star of the evening but a two-run single by Aidan Larkin broke a scoreless tie and was the difference in Chaminade’s 3-0 victory over St. John the Baptist to send the Flyers into the championship at Hofstra. St. John the Baptist freshman Kyle Chase took the mound against Chaminade ace Logan Koester. Chase, the unflappable youngster, was perfect through four innings–showing his ability to keep his heart rate...
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 ...
Ryan Martin Dominates, Next Level Cruise Past Motus Academy 4-1
Next Level gets on the board first on an RBI single by Aidan Larkin pic.twitter.com/yVA7qqSTFU — Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 13, 2017 by Hailey Julian Tonight kicked off the 11th annual Antonia Agostinelli Memorial Tournament at Baseball Heaven. Next Level Baseball 2019 took on Motus Academy in a match up of two star-studded teams, but it was Next Level who came away with a 4-1 victory thanks to a three-run first. The first three batters reached base for Next Level and they cashed in when Aidan Larkin (Chaminade 2019) ripped an RBI single to left field. They added two more runs on a steal of home by Will Kennedy (Smithtown East 2019) and a sac fly by Roman Dorosh (Sachem East 2019) who just narrowly missed an opposite field grand slam. The offense was more than...
Recap of WWBA Underclass World Championship
This weekend I was in Fort Myers for the immensely-popular WWBA Underclass World Championship. There were five Long Island-based teams competing; Motus Academy, MVP Beast, Body Armor Titans, Next Level Baseball and the East Coast Lumberjacks. Here are some of my biggest takeaways from the weekend. With 202 teams in the tournament and college coaches from everywhere–including Power 5 conferences, this is a must-attend event. The facilities of the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins are absolutely gorgeous. If you love baseball as I do, it really reminded me of why I fell in love with the game. With no Major League game being played, I was able to walk around the ballpark and it made me appreciate the rudimentary aspects of the game such as that feeling when you walk through the rotunda...
Recapping the Top Players in ECR Showcase
Today we covered the Elite College Recruiting (ECR) Showcase at Baseball Heaven. There was a bevy of high-end players being analyzed and observed by coaches representing some of the best baseball programs in the country. Through out the afternoon, I took notes and videos on some of the players that stood out to me. Below you will find notes about the best of the bunch. Matt Brown-Eiring (RHP, Connetquot 2020) Matt Brown (Connetquot 2020) throwing 82-83 MPH, 71 MPH slider and 73 MPH change up. Command of all three, consistent delivery pic.twitter.com/q0oGkI4hf5 — Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) August 23, 2017 Wow. What a pitcher he can be. He checks off all the boxes. The first thing you notice is the compact, clean mechanics from the classic high 3/4 arm slot. He is not the tallest...
LI Road Warriors Take Home HCBL Championship In Inaugural Season
The Neal Heaton-led LI Road Warriors entered tonight’s Hamptons League championship game needing one win to take home the title against the Westhampton Aviators. The Road Warriors took care of business wrapping up the title with a 5-3 victory. LI jumped out to a lead again early, this time in the third inning. Yesterday’s hero would deliver once again for the Road Warriors. Jordan Folgers would come up with one out in the third, after Garrett Heaton and Sean Rausch would get a base hit and a double back-to-back. Folgers found another fastball right in his wheelhouse and knocked a towering shot to left center giving his team a 3-0 lead with one out. “I keep telling people, we have great ball players on Long Island,” said Head Coach Heaton. “We have five D-1 guys, they have, I think, f...
