Farmingdale State College Head Coach Keith Osik notched career win No. 400 yesterday in a victory over Mount St. Mary’s. Osik is in his 18th season at the helm for the Rams, he took over in 2005 and has led them to 8 Skyline Conference Championships and one College World Series appearance in 2009. They also reached the NCAA Regional Finals in 2012 as they were one win away from getting back to the CWS in Appleton, WI. Osik was a 10-year big leaguer; debuted in 1996 at Shea Stadium and played right up until getting hired by Farmingdale in July 2005. It is a very interesting and unique path from the Major League clubhouse to a Division-III program that had been middling. Upon his arrival, Osik transformed the program into a Division-III powerhouse and they captured the Skyline Conferen...
This is the second installment of the 2021 Fall Ball Series. Special thanks to East Coast S & P for sponsoring this year’s series once again – make sure to check them out here! And Farmingdale State is your 2019 Skyline Conference Champs ! pic.twitter.com/N0ccC8e8kM — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 7, 2019 A lot has happened in the world since Farmingdale’s last Skyline Conference Championship – and that was just two years ago. That team rolled through the conference tournament with three straight wins on their way to another championship – which was their sixth of the decade. While it appeared they were in great shape to repeat in 2020, the world had other plans and their 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic after a 3-2 start. The senior...
While I was down at Farmingdale State College today, the biggest change I noticed about the reigning Skyline Conference Champs was not the roster but the field they were on. Having played there during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, then being back each subsequent season I am very familiar with the campus and the stadium. So it was very noticeable when I first saw the brand-new turf on the field. This was “long overdue” in the words of Head Coach Keith Osik. They made several more upgrades, including each of the bullpens, adding protective fence in front of the dugout, a brand-new scoreboard, batting cages and even brought in the outfield fences. Osik joked that “when the score is 3-2 in the ninth inning we’d like our guys to know they can put the ball out”, but ad...