Chris Sacchi
Coming Off 6-0 Town of Brookhaven Tournament in 2020, Miller Place Focusing on Themselves
by Chris Sacchi Miller Place defeats Hauppauge, 4-3, to capture the Class A Town of Brookhaven Varsity Wood Bat tournament Kai Loftin recorded the victory. Miller Place went 6-0 in the tournament pic.twitter.com/xs3AKAkQyf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 13, 2020 Miller Place baseball and head coach Ricky Caputo have enjoyed a fascinating past couple of seasons. Coming off a 16-4 record in 2019, Caputo’s squad earned a promotion from league VII to League VI in 2020, ready to capitalize on the momentum and further vault the program. “Last year was crazy. We had 18 seniors,” coach said. “We had guys who had multiple years of varsity experience. We were set to have an incredible year.” “This year is way different.” Despite the decline in the number of experienced seniors, coach C...
Farmingdale Enters 2021 With Strong Crop of 6 Players With Varsity Experience
by Chris Sacchi Like so many teams across the country, Frank Tassielli and his Farmingdale squad are tasked with building chemistry in a short amount of time. With less varsity experience than usual, overlap between multiple school sports in the preseason, and only eight to ten days to officially practice before game one, coach has a lot on his plate. Yet, one goal remains at the focus. “It might be a little frantic, 10 days or so before a game, you got to go through the whole process of setting up your defense. We’re going to do a lot of inner squad games,” coach Tassielli said. But listen, the bottom line is we’re going to have some fun.” “We have to get out there, have some fun with these guys, get used to each other, and become a team instead of just a group of guys throwing a ball aro...
After Figuring Out Suffolk’s Return-To-Play Plan, Frascogna Now Focuses On Returning Pat-Med to Playoffs
by Chris Sacchi Anthony Frascogna is entering his 21st season as head coach of Patchogue-Medford high school. He also serves as President of the Suffolk Baseball Coaches Association, which has become a whole new role during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was a little bit of work, and I’m thankful that people were receptive to the suggestions we put out there, because sometimes, it’s hard to get people to change their minds,” Frascogna said. “I’m proud of what we were able to do as far as maximizing the number of games in a safe way, with the time allotment, and not really altering the big things.” “I mean, it’s going to be a lot different than we’ve had in the past, but I think we made the most of what we have.” Changes for this season, among others, include playi...
Sachem East Ready To Get off the Races
by Chris Sacchi After a 2019 that saw Sachem East lose to the eventual champion Connetquot, head coach Kevin Schnupp and company were looking forward to a big 2020 season. Instead, just like many coaches across the country, Schnupp is hoping the impact of his 2020 seniors can still be felt, even though they never played their final high school games. “We had a lot of really talented kids that laid the foundation for this group this year,” Schnupp said. “Don Wille, one of our catchers, he went off to Monroe, you have Ryan Micheli, who went off to Stony Brook, another catcher. You have Max Weinstein playing at Mount St. Vincent’s, and you have a lot of other guys that were returning starters. We had 12 seniors on that team.” Despite losing them for the season, Schnupp was able to coach...
John Glenn Returning Six Players With Varsity Experience, Led by 2 Preseason All-Long Island Players
by Chris Sacchi The COVID-19 canceled 2020 high school season was a huge loss for seniors across the country. Many players had their final organized baseball game taken away from them. While this is a sad reality for thousands of young men, John Glenn head coach Matt Rocchio is doing a great job of finding the positive. He tell his guys, “give everything you got like it’s your last game. Those seniors last year never got their last game. We had really great senior leadership last year,” coach Rocchio said. “Losing them for their senior year really hurt, but they left a lasting effect.” The 2020 senior class was led by current college ballplayers Dan Brown, at Pace, Aidan Desmond at Gettysburg and Matt Polestino at New Paltz. Coach says that group really got after it in the weight room hea...
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...
Led By a Deep Pitching Staff, Newfield Excited for a Run in 2021
by Chris Sacchi Dylan Johnson delivers ! The sophomore rips an RBI hit and gets himself a 1-0 in a classic pitcher’s duel ! pic.twitter.com/jJEi1gFUYf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 18, 2019 Head coach Eric Joyner and his Newfield squad are more than ready to start this 2021 season, for a variety of reasons. The first can be said of so many teams across the country; they are ready to make up for lost time after a canceled 2020 season. “We’re fired up. The boys are chomping at the bit,” Newfield said. “They’re definitely hungry. The workouts have been intense.” Also part of the equation is Newfield’s desire to bounce back from what Joyner called a “rebuild” year in 2019 (7-11 record.) “We felt last year that we were poised to do some things,” coach said. “We felt a...
Plainview JFK Hopeful To Return to Winning Ways of 2017-’18
by Chris Sacchi John Givargidze‘s Plainview JFK baseball team, just like many across the island, is heading into the 2021 season with new challenges. Yet, while Plainview has the talent to overcome, they will have to adapt to a couple of unique circumstances. First, during preseason preparation, Givardgize says his team had seven practice/workout sessions cancelled due to COVID-19 issues. “The offseason has been kind of weird,”Givardgize said. “A lot of guesswork on a lot of it.” Yet, coach is choosing to look on the bright (and sunny) side. “I’m trying to see a bright spot in all this. Usually our preseason stuff is done in January, February, in the gym,” coach said. “So we’ve been lucky enough to be able to get outside, on the baseball field, and do a lot of our workout...
Kellenberg Begins New Era With Pat Miles at the Helm
by Chris Sacchi After 22 years of coaching at Kellenberg Memorial High School, Chris Alfalla has handed down the reins to a former player of his, who is ready to continue the legacy. “It’s a dream come true,” said Kellenburg head coach Pat Miles. “As a 14-year-old kid going to baseball camp at Kellenberg, as an incoming freshman going into the year 2001, now coming full circle,” Miles said. “Being such a big part of my life, it’s certainly something that I want to continue with his philosophies and his connection to his players.” After playing for Alfalla on the varsity level, Miles moved on to play college ball at Molloy following the 2005 season. Miles says he came on board to coach at Kellenberg “pretty much right away” after college, and the relationship has continued during the ...
St. John the Baptist Enters 2021 With a Formidable Roster
by Chris Sacchi Casey McKay’s St. John the Baptist baseball team has been a consistent contender for the CHSAA title since he took over in 2016. With one title, another title appearance, and most recently a semi-finals loss to St. Anthony’s in 2019, McKay has coached a lot of great players. So how does he feel about this year’s squad, ahead of a unique 2021 season? “This is probably the most talented team we’ve had,” McKay said. “I would almost say since the team’s been nationally ranked in the early 2000’s. It’s more talented than the team we had when we won in 2018.” “They’re ready to play, they’re hungry to play. We have a lot of college baseball players on this team that are really, really excited for this year to see what they’re able to do and pu...
Hauppauge Prepares for ‘Biggest Challenge’
by Chris Sacchi After the 2019 season, Hauppauge head coach Josh Gutes already had a clear idea of how the team would stack up the following year, ready to defend a league title. “I pretty much had opening day’s lineups written at the end of the 2019 season.” For a program that has won 4 league titles of the last 5 seasons, that makes sense. Yet heading into 2021, Gutes has a team that is filled with positional battles, and the lineup is much less of a sure thing thanks to graduating 7 seniors following 2020. “I probably have seven different lineups that are written out already, with as many as 15,16 kids mixed in there.” This has made preseason that much more important, and coach Gutes embraces the new feeling in Hauppauge. “Every second of practice matters. I think this is going to be a ...
Matt Prokopowicz Eager To Start Coaching Career With St. Dominic’s
by Chris Sacchi Matt Prokopowicz is in his second year as head coach of the St. Dominic’s baseball team. Yet, he’s still waiting to manage his first game. “Getting to go now, I’m a little kid in a candy store. I’m all smiles ear to ear and I can’t wait, I need to get that baseball fix in… it’s starting to hit home that we’re going to be starting very very soon.” Coach has a lot to look forward to. As a former All-American at Hofstra, and a member of Massepequa’s 2006 Class AA State Championship team, coach brings great experience from his playing days to foster what he feels like is a fantastic team environment. “Being a team and having success, you’ve got to trust every single person… And those kids get it. They understand it and they’re buying in. And if you come ...
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