Island Trees
Island Trees Gears Up For A Bounce Back 2024 Season
by Mike Merolle Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series. Island Trees 2, North shore 1 WP- Kevin Kristyensen Save- Christian Taylor James Karras and Andrew Mule with multiple hits pic.twitter.com/sjlKSvekB2 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 13, 2023 Last season was a transitional year for Island Trees as the Bulldogs finished the year with a 5-13-1 record. There were many new faces on the team and Island Trees had a new coach in 2023. Now in his second season as head coach, Mike Valiando expects competitive baseball in Island Trees. “Last season did not end the way we wanted it to… We had a lot of new faces. Last year’s team showed flashes of what it could be at times,” Valiando told Axcess Baseball. “I am ex...
Where Are They Now Powered by the BK7 Brand: Bryan Verbitsky
Bryan Verbitsky has a claim for the best high school career on Long Island of this century. He was a two-time Diamond Award recipient – given annually to the top player in Nassau County. He led Island Trees to a County Championship in 2007 over Clarke. He ended his career with his name all over the record books at Island Trees – finishing first in home runs (30), hits (136), ABs (319), runs (129), second in SBs (45) and fourth in ERA (1.90). Simply put, he had one of the finest careers a high school player can have. Additionally, and this is something that often gets forgotten – he did so when the conference was talent-based, meaning he performed exceptionally against the best players in the county. “There were no gimme wins in the league,” said Verbitsky. Man...
Island Trees Enters New Era With Head Coach Mike Valiando
by Andy Smith Vinny Giambona with a 3 run triple to put Island Trees up now 13-1 over Wheatley pic.twitter.com/HMTPFnAZO7 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 23, 2022 Island Trees had a down year by their standards. The Bulldogs won the Nassau County Conference 5 Title in 2021 but fell short of their goal in 2022. The Bulldogs finished with a 9-9 league record, but they were eliminated by Seaford in the double elimination bracket. Head Coach Mike Valiando, who will make his head coaching debut in 2023, reflected on how the team performed last season. “Last year was filled with a lot of ups and downs. We had some injuries, but our players battled, and the seniors gave us everything they had.” Although Valiando is entering his first season as the head coach he is quite famil...
Island Trees Cruises to 14-1 Non-League Victory Over Wheatley
By Thomas Cregan Vinny Giambona with a 3 run triple to put Island Trees up now 13-1 over Wheatley pic.twitter.com/HMTPFnAZO7 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 23, 2022 Island Trees, led by big performances from Connor Waiting and Vinny Giambona, rolled through Wheatley with a 14–1 victory in 6 innings. In what was set to be a big-time non-league matchup between two of last year’s Long Island Conference Champions, Island Trees showed just how deep their lineup is. Featuring a pitching matchup between James Tercynski (Wheatley) and Matt Ramirez (Island Trees). Both pitchers started off the first inning well only allowing one run each however, the first two innings were not an indication of what was to come. Island Trees would open the scoring with Connor Waiting who blas...
Sean Welsh Strikes Out 9, Goes 3-for-4 in Clarke’s Opening Day Victory Over Island Trees
Final: Clarke 5, Island Trees 2 WP: Sean Welsh S: Nick Giardino pic.twitter.com/OHFVwJvoJK — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 31, 2022 This was the very site of plenty of great battles last season between two high-octane Conference V rivals. After plenty of jostling throughout the regular season and one blowout playoff game, Island Trees took two critical games at Clarke, with their backs firmly against the wall. They were unable to continue that magic from 2021, as the Clarke Rams defeated Island Trees, 5-2, on opening day of the 2022 season after two consecutive cancellations to start the week. Th conditions were awful for pitchers and fielders despite the 57 degree temperatures due to winds gusting at 40+ MPH. A few fly balls were overrun and pitchers struggled with command &#...
Island Trees Preparing for Title Defense in 2022
Here’s the final out of the game for Island Trees – a strikeout by Vinny Giambona – to send them into the Long Island Championship pic.twitter.com/tlcB1bPIsj — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 18, 2021 Joe D’Auria knew from the time they were in 5th grade that they would be a special group. “I said this is the group I want to go out with,” said D’Auria, who guided Island Trees to the Nassau County Conference 5 Title in 2021 and will be retiring after this season. It was an outstanding season, and for those inside the building – it was not the least bit surprising. “I told you last year, these guys are real baseball players. They dedicate themselves – they play extensive travel ball. I thought this would be the year they&#...
Q & A With Island Trees RHP/SS Vinny Giambona
Island Trees captured the 2021 Nassau Conference V Championship with an exciting 3-2 victory over Clarke. They also had to defeat them the day before, which was an 8-3 victory. It was the third County Championship in their program’s history. A major reason behind their incredible season was their impressive group of juniors Prior to the season when I was writing their season preview, their head coach Joseph D’Auria told me he was optimistic about their chances because of how committed his players are. He stated his players were all the type that “eat, sleep and breathe baseball.” For me as a reporter and scout, that’s a phrase that is very specific to teams that are going to be successful. Coaches won’t say that if they don’t truly believe it. And ...
Mount Sinai Bests Island Trees in an Action-Packed Game to Claim the Conference V Long Island Championship
By Nicholas Cipolla Chris Batuyios strikes out 3 batters to end the game. Mount Sinai wins the Conference V Long Island Championship pic.twitter.com/ZmZmwIGRbW — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2021 In a game that will be talked about for years to come, Mount Sinai achieved the goal every team on Long Island tries to do at the beginning of the year. And that goal was to win the Long Island Championship In a game full of clutch hitting, spectacular defensive plays, and a little bit of controversy, Mount Sinai outlasted Island Trees winning by a score of 8-6. The game started off like most games do. Max Reichenbach worked around a hit batter to keep Island Trees off the board in the top half of the inning. Robby Stephens did his part by retiring the first three batters he faced...
Recapping A Thrilling Day of County Championships
It doesn’t get much better than 10 elimination games across Long Island to crown County Champions. Scratch that, it doesn’t get ANY better than that. The games ranged from Sag Harbor to South Side, and the great majority of them were close. I wish I could be at all the games but that’s just not possible, so I took my best guess as to which game to cover. I started at Sachem East, stayed for a few innings and made the short drive to Selden for Newfield’s game. The decision worked out well as Commack got out to an early 4-1 lead then I went to a Newfield and the score was 0-0 in the second inning. Here’s all the action. Nassau III South Side defeated Manhasset, 2-0, on the road behind a complete game, two-hit shutout by Danny Russell. This was a remarkable turn ...
Recap of Nassau County Semifinals
Yesterday was Game 1 of the Nassau County semifinals for each Conference. I won’t say it was filled with thrilling games (because three of them were run-rules), but it was certainly filled with outstanding individual performances. I bounced around like a mad man from Massapequa to Island Trees to Division. It took until my third stop to find a competitive game so I’m thankful I continued to search. Here’s a breakdown of each: Massapequa 10, Oceanside 0 Carter DeSousa with a walk-off single as Massapequa wins via run-rule 10-0 over Oceanside in Game 1 of the Nassau Conference I semifinals. They’ll be back at it tomorrow for Game 2 pic.twitter.com/zbgu3SYQlc — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 12, 2021 This one was over in the first inning when Massapequa knoc...
What’s Going On With Nassau Conference V
This year was bizarre from the jump – so I understand that a lot of decisions had to be made for the first time. That much is true. That still doesn’t mean that common sense doesn’t apply. So when Nassau and Suffolk each switched up their conference formats for this season, there was going to be a decision that needed to be made. At the most basic level, Nassau had five conference and Suffolk had six. That would be fine if there was no Long Island Championship involved, but once they decided that June 20th would be the Long Island Championship day – they needed a way to even it out. According to my source, the conventional wisdom would suggest that Nassau Conference V would play a playoff like the other leagues – top 2 get byes, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 in the first ro...
Island Trees Bulldogs Edge Clarke Rams, 3-1, in Battle of Nassau’s Undefeateds
by Andrew Connors Here’s the final out and post-game celebration! pic.twitter.com/MPDxEPpRNM — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 20, 2021 Two Nassau powerhouses met at Island Trees’ High School on Thursday afternoon, both looking to continue their undefeated seasons. The Island Trees Bulldogs came into this game knowing that the Clarke Rams had a similar goal in mind, but Coach Joe D’Auria was confident in his squad, saying “we knew coming into the game that we’ve been getting away with sloppy play, but we’ve been gearing our guys up for this game and this series…we’ve had a lot of battles over the years and I’m looking forward to this one as well.” The Bulldogs and Rams are usually a matchup to watch, as both coaches admitted that whenever they see each other on ...
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