Dylan Johnson
Newfield Looking to Reload on the Fly
Newfield defeats South Side, 3-1, to capture the Conference III Long Island Championship! pic.twitter.com/prhnKbfnT4 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2021 High school sports tend to be cyclical in nature. When you have a strong core, you want to capitalize and win a title. Newfield certainly did that in 2021 when they not only defeated West Islip to capture their first County Championship in program history, but they went on to defeat South Side to capture their first Long Island Championship. They had been knocking on the door for a few seasons dating back to 2018 when they broke their 13-year postseason drought. The stars aligned in 2021, led by Carl Yastrzemski Award winner Dylan Johnson who was also named the Axcess Man of the Year. Fast forward to 2022, Newfield had ano...
College Recruiting 101: Asking the Dads That Have Experienced It
The college recruiting process can be very overwhelming. To make matters more difficult, it’s constantly changing over the years. So if you played baseball and you think it’ll be easier for you to help navigate through your son’s process – think again, since the recruiting calendar and the entire landscape has likely completely changed since you went through it 25 years earlier. To make it easier, I reached out to some dads that I know would have great insight and advice on the process. They are: Brian Schlesinger, Christian Eiring, Eladio Exposito, Vito Friscia and Bob Johnson. All of these gentlemen have sons that recently played Division-I baseball and they know exactly what the process entails. I asked a series of questions and here’s what they had to say&...
With the Targets On Their Back, Newfield Prepares for New Set of Challenges
Newfield defeats South Side, 3-1, to capture the Conference III Long Island Championship! pic.twitter.com/prhnKbfnT4 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2021 2021 was a banner year in every sense of the word for the Newfield Wolverines. First, they captured their first Suffolk County Championship in program history over perennial powerhouse, West Islip. They didn’t settle for that – as they marched on to defeat South Side in the Long Island Championship by the score of 3-1. To put an icing on the cake, their ace, Dylan Johnson, captured the coveted Carl Yastrzemski Award – which is awarded to the top player in Suffolk County. For good measure, he also won the Axcess Man of the Year (top high school player on Long Island). “For years you work, and you won...
Who Are Some College Freshmen/Transfers That Can Have An Immediate Impact This Year?
With the 2022 season right around the corner it’s time to start digging into some story lines regarding the season. As I mentioned in the last column, the 2021 graduating class on Long Island featured several players who have since moved onto college off of Long Island where they should thrive, but that doesn’t include the players that stayed on LI and can have an impact on local colleges. So this article we will dive deeper on five players that will help their teams win games in 2022. John Rizzo, Adelphi RHP Can’t look much better as a freshman than John Rizzo. The East Islip grad sits 86-90 T91 and spots his fastball and slider routinely pic.twitter.com/rNMEm0z4W6 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 27, 2021 Rizzo was an absolute steal for Adelphi. It was jus...
Recap of the 2021 Axcess Baseball Awards Banquet
Oh what a night! It was an evening of celebrating the 2021 baseball season now that the book is officially closed on it. We had over 130 guests at the beautiful Hilton Long Island in Melville; which included honorary guests Ray Negron, executive for the New York Yankees, and Super Bowl Championship Gary Brown. Additionally, there was familiar faces from across the Long Island baseball scene. The night began with an inspirational keynote speech from Ray Negron who told his story of getting caught spraying graffiti at Yankee Stadium by then-Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. In a surprise turn of events, he offered him a job as a batboy. Negron worked his way up the organizational ranks and is now an executive with World Series rings, and he has also parlayed it into a successful career as a...
League MVPs Announced
It’s always an exciting day when the League/Conference MVPs are announced because after the Long Island Championships, you’re expecting a slow news day and then the list drops and it’s another hit of news. To be fair, the list didn’t actually drop but I was able to find out the winners and here they are. Quick note: Nassau opted to award a Most Valuable Position Player as well as Most Valuable Pitcher, whereas Suffolk just named one player. Naturally, many players in Suffolk will feel slighted if they felt they had a case to win. The next big announcement will be the two Diamond Award winners as well as the Carl Yastrzemski Award, Paul Gibson Award and Silver Slugger. Nassau County: I- Vin Mallon (Massapequa), Liam Carroll (Massapequa) II- Co-Winners: Patrick Sanche...
Newfield Captures First County Championship in Program History
Adelphi-commit Kendall Kendrick pitched the game of his life – 1 hit shutout with 10 strikeouts against perennial powerhouse West Islip to deliver Newfield their first county championship in program history. They will face South Side on Sunday in the LIC pic.twitter.com/DCGrDLMjTY — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 18, 2021 When Eric Joyner took over the Newfield varsity baseball program, he brought a winning pedigree from the football team that had won County Championships in 2011 and 2015. It was a much-needed facelift for a program that hadn’t reached the postseason since 2005. Problem was, they didn’t have quite enough talent or leadership in the program. In 2018, they finally broke the playoff drought but ran into two very tough teams (Connetquot and Smithto...
Ventimiglia, Johnson and Rizzo Throw Gems on Day 2
What a thrilling day of baseball on Saturday it was for Day 2 of the Coaches Memorial Weekend hosted by the Town of Brookhaven. I bounced around from field-to-field but was locked in on Sayville-Westhampton Beach at 2pm, Longwood,-William Floyd at 4, then Newfield-Smithtown West & East Islip-Hills West at 8pm. It was a sensory overload of baseball and during one stretch in the evening there was just screaming and pure jubilation from all four fields at Moriches Complex. Just a few thoughts from the day: Sayville defeated Westhampton Beach 7-0, with Felician-commit Jack Turner starting and getting the win for the Golden Flashes. He is their staff ace and looked every bit that part even against a really tough lineup which will score a lot of runs this year – led by Jack Halloran, F...
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...
Dylan Johnson: What Christmas Means to Me
(Editor’s Note: Dylan Johnson is a 2021 graduate of Newfield HS. He is committed to St. John’s University. He is expected to anchor the Wolverines rotation once again this season. He really came into his own in 2019 after Newfield lost their ace in the preseason which propelled him into the role of staff ace. He handled the challenge and he will be counted on to lead the charge in 2020.) The importance of Christmas to me is more than just presents and food. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. That is the reason of the season and I wouldn’t be where I am today without my faith. A tradition my family does is every Christmas Eve we go to my aunt’s house on my dad’s side of the family and celebrate. On Christmas day first thing we do is wake up and go to church and then ...
Who Are The Top Pitchers in the 2021 Class?
It feels like we should still be getting ready for the 2020 season rather than tying a ribbon on it. It feels like yesterday I was at Stony Brook covering their game against Iona. The next week was supposed to kick off the high school baseball season. As we know, that never happened. The next several months we were forced to watch old highlights and hope for better days. July 5 finally featured real live baseball games and since that time, it’s been a sprint to the finish line of the season. Last night was the Northeast Elite 18U tournament which is an annual tournament at Baseball Heaven hosted by Phillies Director of International Scouting, Sal Agostinelli, which features the top teams from the region and it’s always a treat. This tournament began in 2007 when I was just a ju...
Who Were The Favorites For The Paul Gibson Award?
Sports fans and media love playing the what if game. Growing up a die-hard baseball fan, I always wondered what if Jeffrey Maier doesn’t reach over the outfield fence and catapult the Yankees dynasty? What if Barry Bonds doesn’t feel slighted by the media coverage Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa received in 1998 and decides it’s not worth it to take steroids? And what happens if Duaner Sanchez decides not to take a cab at 2 am causing him to miss the rest of the season and the Mets make the World Series in 2006? This year we are playing a different type of what if game What if the season started on time and continued unimpeded through May? Let’s start with the Paul Gibson Award, which is given to the top pitcher in Suffolk County. Last year it was won by Joe Savino of C...
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