Hofstra baseball
Mark Faello Fires No-Hitter in Plainview’s 10-0 Victory
Mark Faello on his no-hitter (6-innings) against Herricks pic.twitter.com/x9o8kGK80X — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 28, 2018 It wasn’t EXACTLY the real deal, but it was close enough. Reigning Diamond Award winner Mark Faello fired a six inning no-hitter in Plainview JFK‘s 10-0 mercy-rule victory over Herricks on Tuesday afternoon. He struck out 12 batters and walked three. Last season, he no-hit the same team while compiling 19 strikeouts. The game was much closer than the score would indicate, actually, for much of the game. Faello smacked a two-run HR over the center field fence in the 1st inning to give himself an early 2-0 lead. The score would stay that way and Herricks was able to make Faello work hard in the fifth inning. They forced him to throw 28 pi...
March 24 Recap
A busy day for teams on the island with 10 teams taking the field. There were seven double headers as well. Teams went 13-5. See who shined: Division-I St. Johns: St. John’s defeated Binghamton 4-0. Starter Sean Mooney went 5.1 scoreless innings for his fifth win of the season. The Red Storm took a 1-0 lead early courtesy of a John Valente groundout. They continued to cruise behind strong pitching until the ninth, where they scored three runs to extend their lead. St. Johns moves to 10-7 on the season. Stony Brook: Stony Brook swept the double header against Quinnipiac, winning 10-4 and 5-1. In game one, the Sea Wolves jumped out to an early start, scoring four in the first and two in the second. Chris Hamilton launched a first inning grand slam to put Stony Brook up early. The blast...
Rooney Outduels Royalty
Final: Hofstra 5, UNCW 3 WP: John Rooney S: Chris Weiss pic.twitter.com/UkrMPnd1OU — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 23, 2018 Friday night baseball under the lights in the south. That is college baseball at its finest. Tonight it was an up-and-coming teams from the northeast, though, that stole the spotlight. The red-hot Hofstra Pride (10-4) defeated UNC-Wilmington (14-7) by the score of 5-3, with the go-ahead hit coming in the eighth inning by sophomore Rob Weissheier to score Teddy Cillis. In front of dozens of MLB scouts, Hofstra’s ace LHP John Rooney out dueled the reigning CAA Pitcher of the Year, Alex Royalty. Rooney went seven innings, allowing 3 ER on four hits, two walks with seven strikeouts to improve his program-record of career strikeouts to 206. Hofstra ...
Vito Friscia’s Dramatic Walk-Off HR Extends Hofstra Win Streak to 9
Vito Friscia on his walk-off HR to give Hofstra the dramatic 9-8 victory over Albany pic.twitter.com/4uJpcLxSBV — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 17, 2018 When you’re hot, you’re hot! Junior designated hitter Vito Friscia smacked an opposite field, walk-off HR in the tenth inning to give Hofstra a dramatic 9-8 victory over Albany in 10 innings. Trailing 7-1 in the seventh inning, things were looking bleak for Hofstra if they had any hopes of extending their eight-game win streak. That was until a four-run seventh inning and two in the eighth tied the game up and made it a new ball game. Albany re-gained the lead in the top of the ninth, but once again Hofstra answered back in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI single by Justin Smith to score Daniel Page. “I...
Smithtown East Season Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWmVPt6rH-k There’s been few teams that have won at a higher clip than Smithtown East since 2015. The Bulls have won 53 games over the past three seasons but had their hopes dashed by the Suffolk Class AA champs in both 2015 (Connetquot) and 2016 (West Islip). Last year, they had another successful season but ran into a dominant pitching rotation in No. 1 Ward Melville that shut them out in consecutive games by the scores of 6-0 and 3-0. “We beat the first game and we just needed to beat them one of the next two games,” said Head Coach Ken Klee. “We didn’t score a run–they were just better than us. Their pitching is very good,” he added. Fortunately for the Bulls, they have one of the most talented and deepest pitchi...
Matt Reistetter On Handling Adversity
(Editor’s Note: Matt is a five-year member of the Washington Nationals minor league system. He is a 2010 graduate of Hauppauge HS and was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Hofstra University in 2013. He has compiled a .258 AVG through five seasons.) by Matt Reistetter When my father passed away when I was 14–baseball saved me. When my girlfriend passed away when I was 16–baseball saved me. My mind is the strongest tool I possess. I can handle adversity. I can handle the grind. A season in the minor leagues is a grind. Especially during August. Every aspect of your life is strictly regimented to a set of routines you’ve established since Spring Training. Except on that day you get the text from the trainer, “No BP, no early work. Report at 6. Show and Go.” These days seem to always c...
Hofstra Prioritizing Playing Without Fear
After finishing eighth in the CAA in 2017, the Hofstra Pride baseball team looks to put last season behind. The Pride finished with a 14-37 (7-17 CAA) record in 2017. Hofstra has not been to the CAA tournament since 2012. “We lost so many close games that we almost figured out how to lose,” said head coach John Russo. “And more importantly, we’d almost feel like we were going to lose in the dugout.” The Pride lost five players to graduation. One of those seniors is David Leiderman, the former Pride starting third baseman, who signed with the Miami Marlins organization and report to minor league camp in March. Leiderman finished his Hofstra career with a .266 average with 11 home runs and 88 RBI. Leiderman is the 16th Hofstra player to join the professional baseball ranks. The other seniors...
Which Local College Players Could Be Drafted in 2018?
There is a ton of talent at our local colleges and universities. Far too little attention is given to the college players, my guess is because people constantly want to know who is the next child prodigy and that involves being not just exceptionally talented but exceptionally young. For purposes of this article, we will focus on the college players that are draft-eligible in 2018 only. There’s two categories; players that should get drafted unless they have a poor season and players that could get drafted but only if they have an exceptional season. Category 1: Reiss Knehr, RHP Fordham Knehr is a 2015 graduate of St. Dominic HS–that’s right he and Kyle Young were on the same stuff. That was prior to Kyle Young’s breakthrough season, and Knehr was the ace of that st...
David Leiderman Signs Contract With Miami Marlins
David Leiderman (Bellmore JFK ’12) has signed a professional contract with the Miami Marlins today, the Hofstra grad announced on his Instagram. He was selected to participate in our Battle of the Border this past year but opted to not play due to attending pre-draft workouts. The power-hitting third baseman had a bit of down season in 2017 by his standards, coming off an All-CAA season in 2016. In that season, he batted .271 with a team-best 56 hits, 21 extra-base hits, 7 HR and 35 RBI. Following his junior season, there was legitimate talks that he would be selected in the 2017 MLB Draft. His most significant accomplishment was his tremendous season at Bellmore JFK in 2012 in which he batted .609 and was named the Diamond Award winner. He was named All-State as well as All-Long Isl...
Matt Pelcher Commits to Hofstra
The trend continues of Hofstra University becoming a hot-spot for elite prospects on Long Island. Catcher Matt Pelcher (Calhoun 2020) announced his verbal commitment to the Pride, joining fellow LI top players such as Jimmy Joyce, Anthony D’Onofrio, Mark Faello, Brad Camarda, James Cardinale and William Kennedy. He becomes the fourth 2020 graduate on the island to announce his verbal commitments (Joe Wozny; UCONN, Travis Honeyman; Boston College, Johnny Castagnozzi; North Carolina). Pelcher has been in the limelight since eighth grade, when he was called up to varsity to be the starting catcher for Calhoun. He did a commendable job, batting .286 and handling a very talented pitching staff led by Dylan Hughes and Jake Garguilo. We wrote a feature story on him directly following the se...
Fall Ball Series: Hofstra
We continued our Fall Ball Series at Hofstra yesterday, where the Pride hosted Queens College in a scrimmage. They looked good in yesterday’s scrimmage. They got on the board early and often and won by the scores of 12-1 and 9-3. While the results of the fall do not count, it is a positive sign to see a pitching staff throw strikes and fundamentally solid baseball. The Colonial Athletic Association is historically a difficult conference that featured four 30-win teams (Northeastern, UNC-Wilmington, William & Mary, Delaware) last season. The Pride struggled in 2017, but they are returning their top four leading hitters (Steven Foster, Vito Friscia, Mikey Reisner, Teddy Cillis) in addition to their top two power hitters (Friscia and Vinnie Costello) and will be hoping that l...
Jimmy Joyce and Brandon O’Brien Make College Debuts
Joyce warming up for his collegiate debut pic.twitter.com/kAgN4oPqm5 — Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 1, 2017 Two of the most successful pitchers in recent Long Island history, Jimmy Joyce (Wantagh) and Brandon O’Brien (Division), made their collegiate debuts this afternoon at Hofstra University. Joyce started for the Pride and fired two shutout innings, needing just six pitches in the first inning and working around a walk in the second inning to complete a scoreless outing. He looked confident, worked quick and threw strikes. He fanned one batter in the second inning on a devastating curveball. The 2016 New York Class A Player of the Year and 2017 Nassau County Diamond Award winner has a chance to be a two-way player for the Pride as a freshman–which is incred...
