Jimmy Joyce
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...
Jay Loviglio: A Life in Baseball
There are many former Major Leaguers that have received more praise and notoriety than Jay Loviglio. The East Islip native is just fine with that. The man who has been involved with every level of baseball has seen just about everything. He’s just not a fan of telling everyone about it. In fact, even the man who hired him for his current role as hitting instructor for the LI Black Diamonds only found about his credentials from a Google search after running into him while he was working at PC Richards & Sons. Don’t let the modesty fool you, though, Loviglio has all the traits of a baseball lifer. After graduating from East Islip HS in 1974, he attended Suffolk Community College due to an error by the admissions department at LIU Brooklyn. Despite attending classes for the e...
Insider Notes: Why Hofstra Chose Cardinale, Who’s Next to Commit?
One of the top uncommitted players in the 2018 class is now off the board with James Cardinale committing to Hofstra University today. Many more to come in the upcoming weeks. Why did Hofstra identify Cardinale as a top player? James Cardinale (uncommitted) is one of the top arms on the class of 2018. He is looking to pitch the Cougars to the LIC pic.twitter.com/CefHlApUWi — aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2017 For one, Cardinale is a very polished pitcher. He has clean mechanics, very smooth arm action and command of a fastball, curveball and change up. His velocity remains in the 79-82 MPH range, which doesn’t typically translate to the Div-I level, but he certainly has room to improve still. With their current coaching staff, they have traditionally leaned towards u...
NYSSWA All-State Teams Announced
The 2017 New York All-State teams were announced this morning. They are classified into Class AA, Class A, Class B, Class C and Class D. Each Class is then categorized into individuals teams in descending numerical order. Below are the Long Island players that were mentioned. Class AA First Team- Hermes Abreu, Bay Shore Mark Faello-Plainview-JFK Second Team- Dylan Judd-Oceanside Patch Dooley-Hills East Third Team- Peter Theodorellis-Commack Anthony Siroka-Sachem East Fourth Team- Jake Edwards-Calhoun Brad Malm-Pat-Med Fifth Team- Angus McCloskey-Farmingdale Oliver Tavares-Deer Park Matt Overton-Hauppauge Sixth Team- Justin Reyes-East Meadow Greg Tsouprakos-West Islip Seventh Team- Matt Pinto-Massapequa Johnny Pohlman-Commack Frank Stola-Northport Eighth Team Chris Wasson-Massapequa ...
Wantagh Gets to Morrell Early, Repeats As Long Island Champions
THE WANTAGH WARRIORS ARE BACK TO BACK CLASS A LONG ISLAND CHAMPIONS! FINAL: Wantagh 4 Shoreham-Wading River 2 pic.twitter.com/JFdQ2tqOgN — aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) June 3, 2017 Much like they have for the past two seasons. Wantagh‘s star players shined when it mattered most. This time it was in the Long Island Championship, defeating the 24-1 Shoreham-Wading River WIldcats 4-2. From the first pitch of this championship contest, the atmosphere could’ve been mistaken for a Wantagh home game. The first pitch of this game was driven for a lead off double over the left fielder’s head courtesy of Anthony D’Onofrio. This was just the beginning. When the first inning was all said and done, Morrell was forced to throw 32 pitches an...
Previewing Saturday’s Mega Match Up Between SWR and Wantagh
Well, this is what the people wanted. The locomotive versus the immovable object. The reigning New York State Class A champion Wantagh Warriors (21-5) against Shoreham-Wading River (24-1). The reigning New York Class A Player of the Year (Jimmy Joyce) against the reigning Carl Yastrzemski Award winner (Brian Morrell). Two Div-I pitchers in the midst of great seasons going head-to-head in a winner-take-all. How do they stack up? The way I measure how potent a high school offense is, is by how many Div-I players they have. Wantagh has Joyce, Anthony D’Onofrio, Trevor Fagan and Anthony Fontana. They have several other key pieces such as John Conroy, Charlie Interrante, Pat Willix and Jake Castellano–who had a big game in the County Championship. D’Onofrio might be the best p...
Wantagh Overcomes Early Deficit To Repeat As Class A County Champions
THE WANTAGH WARRIORS ARE YOUR BACK TO BACK CLASS A CHAMPIONS!!!!! FINAL: Wantagh 4 Garden City 2 pic.twitter.com/zX5QpNE4Uh — aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 30, 2017 Despite the struggles, despite the losses, despite the deficits, Wantagh overcame every single obstacle in their path and are now back-to-back county champions. Although winning may seem like a normal day at the office for the Wantagh Warriors, this wasn’t just any other victory. This was a victory with a great amount of emotion that solidified their team’s legacy. On the mound for game 3 of the county championship, southpaw Brendan Haas got the start in the most significant game of his young career. He struggled early with his command, allowing 2 earned runs in the 1s...
Massapequa and Garden City Both Force Game 3’s
The Massapequa Chiefs and Garden City Trojans both faced elimination this afternoon–both won in blowout fashion to force a winner-take-all Game 3 on Tuesday. The Chiefs defeated the Plainview Hawks in game one of the double header at SUNY Old Westbury by a score of 10-1. For the second consecutive year, Massapequa is headed to game 3 of the county championship. Last year, the Chiefs fell to the East Meadow Jets in the do-or-die game 3. This year they’re hoping to be on the other end of the spectrum. “Last year was very upsetting, we thought we should’ve won the county championship but we ended up losing to a very good East Meadow team, but this year we’re even more determined. After the win we’re in the same spot as last year but now we’re very con...
Jimmy Joyce Propels Wantagh to Game One Victory
FINA: Wantagh 6 Division 2 WP: Jimmy Joyce Anthony Fontana: 2-Run HR Trevor Fagan: 2 RBI’s pic.twitter.com/cWeM3Nk9nD — aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 23, 2017 Wantagh once again proved they are a “playoff team” as they downed the Division Blue Dragons by a score of 6-2 in game one of the three-game series. From the start of this game, the Warriors seemed to have control of this game. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Trevor Fagan delivered a 2 RBI single, and later scored on a wild pitch. His 2 RBI capitalized a 4-run 1st inning, and gave star pitcher Jimmy Joyce all of the run support he needed. “When you give a pitcher like Jimmy an early cushion like that in the ballgame, it helps him and us play comfortably the rest of the way,” said Fagan...
Previewing the Nassau Class A Semifinals
And then there were four. The first two rounds of playoff baseball in Class A brought rivalry match ups, games that came down to the wire and a ton of upsets. Let’s hope the next round brings the same amount of excitement. With the first week of playoffs in the books, here’s a look at the upcoming best of three series’ in Class A. Division vs. Wantagh: The match up players and fans have been waiting patiently for is finally here. The rivalry between two of the most decorated programs in Nassau County is back, and this time, they will be playing for a trip to the county championship. Before anybody goes and makes any predictions, there are several aspects that need to be highlighted. The first aspect is that the regular season does not matter. Although Division beat Wantag...
Nassau County Class A Power Rankings (Final Edition + Playoff Predictions)
The final week of the season has ended in Class A, which means chaos is underway. The “first four” of the playoffs feature the 4 lowest seeded teams battling for 2 spots to get into the round of 16. These games will take place on Tuesday afternoon. The round of 16 is scheduled to kick off on Saturday afternoon. After yet again a crazy week of baseball, here are the top 5 teams at the end of the season AND my predictions for the postseason. 5. MacArthur (12-3) (Last week: Unranked) MacArthur was hoping that Garden City would drop one game in the series against Manhasset in order for the Generals to capture a county championship. Unfortunately for them, Garden City swept Manhasset which means that MacArthur has the 6 seed heading into the playoffs and will face their cross town r...
Mike Narbutt’s RBI Double Gives Bethpage 2-1 Victory Over Wantagh
Bases loaded, two-out, 3-2 count, one-run lead against the reigning New York State Class A Champs from Wantagh. Gianni Sozio was on for the save and was facing Charlie Interrante–one of last year’s playoff heroes. After just missing with a 2-2 breaking ball he induced a ground out to SS to end the game to slam the door on the 2-1 victory for Bethpage. Final: Bethpage 2, Wantagh 1 pic.twitter.com/CkOHhfloh8 — aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) April 19, 2017 “I was really nervous to be honest with you,” said Sozio directly following the game. “Legs were shaking–but the only thing on my mind was the win. They’re a great team with great hitters–and of course I had to face the top of the lineup which is never easy to go through. They hav...
