Eric Joyner
Newfield Poised For Bounce Back Season Following Sub .500 Record in 2023
by Aaron Diaz Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series. Newfield 11, Centereach 2 WP: Matt Hesselbirg Bartho: 3 hits, 2 RBIs Hesselbirg: 2 hits, 2 RBIs Whitbeck: 3 RBIs pic.twitter.com/6Qli1lYfjJ — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 4, 2023 Following losing 26 seniors in the past two years, the Newfield Wolverines couldn’t capture the same success in a County Championship in the 2023 season as they did in 2021. An early injury to their number one pitcher set them back as they had a team filled with youth. Newfield finished 2023 with an 8-12 record despite a hard-fought year through the eyes of their coach Eric Joyner. “We lost our number one pitcher in week one, Joyner said. “That was a huge loss for us and somet...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Newfield Looks To Bounce Back in 2020
In 2018, Newfield was spoiled with a bevy of power arms. On their varsity team, they had five pitchers that would commit to Division-I schools and two more that committed to Division-III schools. After graduating three of those pitchers, they were less equipped to handle a significant injury to one of their three horses. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what would happen when Chandler Giovinco went down prior to the season and required Tommy John surgery. The injury was not just a crushing blow to the pitching staff, but he also led the team with 3 HR and 26 RBI the previous season. Additionally, it was a senior that was in a leadership role. “Losing Giovinco killed us,” said Eric Joyner, now entering his fifth year at the helm. “Not just on the mound but at the plate....
LI Titans Cruise Past LI Baseball, 12-0
The Long Island Titans made quick work of LI Baseball, winning 12-0 in a mercy rule shortened three inning game. Coach Eric Joyner said that his team was focused on “having a good approach with two strikes, moving runners over, and having productive outs” adding that “we were able to put the ball in the gap, we ran the bases well, and stole some bases when we had the opportunity”. He went on to further say “when you do all the little things well, everything comes together”. The Titans sent Jimmy Mahoney to the mound, and it was somewhat of a shaky start for him. He gave up a leadoff single, followed up by a walk. He then got the next batter to weakly line out. With one out, both base runners stole, putting themselves in scoring position. However, Mahoney worked his way out of trouble with ...
