John Downing
Chaminade Enters 2023 as 3-Time Defending Champs, Reigning NYS Champs
John Downing fires a complete game and Chaminade captures the first ever CHSAA NYS Championship pic.twitter.com/0zCtFUooL1 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 12, 2022 To say that 2022 was a dream season for Chaminade would be an understatement. Legendary Head Coach Mike Pienkos, who has won 650 games and led the Flyers to an incredible 20 NSCHSAA Championships during his tenure. Pienkos was named Axcess Baseball’s Coach of the Year this past season as he led the Flyers to a 25-2 record and they captured the first ever New York State Catholic League Championship after two hard-fought games at St. John’s University. Chaminade Head Coach Mike Pienkos was named the High School Coach of the Year Powered by the BP Group pic.twitter.com/rSuKWiRTRL — Axcess Baseball LI (@axces...
Chaminade to Receive Axcess Team of the Year Award
John Downing fires a complete game and Chaminade captures the first ever CHSAA NYS Championship pic.twitter.com/0zCtFUooL1 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 12, 2022 2022 was a dream season for the Chaminade Flyers and they are set to be rewarded for it. The Flyers compiled a record of 25-2 – and captured the first ever New York State CHSAA Championship with two hard fought victories in the tournament. Additionally, both of their losses on the season were by one-run. It was perhaps the greatest group of talent a Long Island team has put together this century. They had double-digit Division-I commits on the roster (that number will continue to climb as more of the underclassmen commit), and their entire 2022 class of 15 are all now on college rosters. The stats are remarkabl...
Chaminade and St. Anthony’s Advance With Sunday Evening Victories
By Blake Buscemi Downing goes the distance for a complete game shutout. Absolutely dominant performance with 10 Ks. pic.twitter.com/QOvLmIgSf0 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2022 There were a pair of Catholic League games played today at St. Joseph’s College, both of which had one thing in common; they were pitcher’s duels. That was to be expected with the quality of pitching that was lined up for the day. Game one started off with a bang when Chaminade centerfielder and Binghamton-commit Nick Ungania smoked a triple into the right-center field gap. Marist-commit Brady Steinert drove him in with a single later in the inning to give Chaminade a 1-0 after an inning. Things got very quiet after this as both starting pitchers, Kyle Chase of St. John the Baptist and John Downin...
Morning Briefing: 5 Things to Know
It’s been an incredible start to the 2022 baseball season and yesterday was among the more action-packed days. Here’s a quick rundown of things to know. Chaminade LHP John Downing fired a perfect game with 11 strikeouts against St. Mary’s. The lefty needed just 62 pitches to complete the task. It was the second perfect game in as many weeks on Long Island. Chaminade improved to 9-0 in the CHSAA. They are, of course, the two-time reigning champs and are the favorites once again this year. 2. St. Anthony’s continued to roll We covered the game. Jason DeCaro has emerged as an ace for the Friars and he has thrown back-to-back CG shutouts. They are currently 8-1 and one game behind the Flyers in the CHSAA. They will get to face St. John’s-commit Kyle Chase today. ...
Observations from Chaminade vs Kennedy Catholic
Gary Gill-Hill was impressive today for Kennedy Catholic. Tremendously high ceiling pic.twitter.com/Jy3TTmpGLy — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 24, 2022 Yesterday was a non-league matchup between the reigning CHSAA Champs, Chaminade, and Kennedy Catholic which is in Somers, NY. It was a particularly exciting matchup on paper being that Chaminade is probably the 1st or 2nd most talented team in NY (Poly Prep is right up there) and they were squaring off against one of the best pitchers in NY, Gary Gill-Hill. Scouts were lined up behind home plate to watch Gill-Hill, who was mainly sitting 90 in the first inning. He did allow a run, as he walked Binghamton-commit Nick Ungania to leadoff the game and he came around to score on a bloop single by Towson-commit Brian Heckelman. He se...
Chaminade Enters Title Defense With 15 College-Committed Seniors
Chaminade has captured the 2021 CHSAA Championship with a 4-1 win over Kellenberg ! pic.twitter.com/jmozQfolci — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 10, 2021 Before Chaminade even takes the field for their title defense in 2022, first they have to finalize their roster. That may seem like a formality for a team returning 15 college-committed players. But it isn’t – in fact they had 51 players try out for the varsity team. That’s an incredible number in this era. “The competition at our tryouts is intense,” said head coach Mike Pienkos, who is entering his 40th season at the helm. They just captured their 17th CHSAA title in program history over Kellenberg. “I am blessed with a talented class, I mean the class is just loaded,” he added. Loaded...
What Are the Best Tools on the Island?
Baseball loves to talk about “toolsy” players. What does this mean? Well the five-tools are to hit, hit with power, run, field and throw. Players that have all five are said to be “five-tool players”. Very few of these exist in the game of baseball let alone on Long Island. So rather than trying to make a phony list of five-pool players on Long Island, let’s break the tools down. And we can even add pitchers for fun. Here’s what I got. This is based off my observations. Best Fastball (Top 6) Jake Moss (Manhasset 2022) commits to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania pic.twitter.com/OX8nlGl8P2 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 28, 2020 Jake Moss (Manhasset 2022) Sean Hamilton (Rocky Point 2022) Billy Steele (Shoreham-Wading River ...
John Downing Commits to Seton Hall
Final: Chaminade 2, SJB 1 WP: John Downing (CG, 4 H, 1 R, 7 K) pic.twitter.com/2MsfbAhgkf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021 Entering the 2021 season, there was reason to question whether Chaminade could successfully defend their crown in the Catholic League. The biggest reason is that although they possessed a world of talent, they had no players with varsity experience. It seemed like it could present an issue come playoff time when the chips are on the table. In typical Flyers fashion, though, they were able to lean on their coaching staff, pitching, defense and depth to dig deep and sweep Kellenberg in the CHSAA Finals. One of their major contributors all season was junior ace LHP John Downing. The southpaw went 5-0 with a 1.33 ERA. Over 38.2 IP, he struck out 39 and a...
Stock Watch: Which Players Rose Their Stock the Most During the Season?
2021 has basically been the year of the retail investor. We’re all familiar with AMC and $dogecoin but you’re not going to find stock advice in this article. But similar to stocks, some players experienced a meteoric rise during the high school season. This isn’t about which players simply performed the best – this is about who performed the best relative to what the expectations were this year. Here’s a breakdown from my vantage point – and I’ve seen (almost) all these players in person. 2021s Coltrane Calloway, Bay Shore The Seton Hall-commit was outstanding all season in leading Bay Shore to the Suffolk II title game against Huntington. He was named Conference II MVP and had a strong case for the Carl Yastrzemski Award. At the plate, he batted a...
Chaminade LHP John Downing Fires Gem To Advance to CHSAA Finals
Chaminade LHP John Downing on his complete game gem to send Chaminade in the Championship series pic.twitter.com/Q4XMnYbwWg — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021 Pitching and defense is the name of the game in the CHSAA and Chaminade has always thrived in that category. In the ultra-competitive Catholic League, the difference between a win and a loss is sometimes a defensive miscue or failed bunt attempt. That was the case as No. 2 Chaminade edged No. 3 St. John the Baptist, 2-1, to advance to the CHSAA Championship Series against Kellenberg on Wednesday. Chaminade knew they had a tall order in facing St. John the Baptist ace RHP Kyle Chase (St. John’s-commit) who has the ability to shut down any opponent. What he can’t control, though, is what happens once the ba...
Chaminade Starts Title Defense With 11-5 Win at St. Anthony’s
Final: Chaminade 11, St. Anthony’s 5 WP: John Downing pic.twitter.com/xoWMAPcczU — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 28, 2021 It turns out the demise of Chaminade was greatly exaggerated. The reigning champs went out on opening day at St. Anthony’s and handed it to the Friars with an 11-5 victory. Both teams are fielding inexperienced rosters in terms of their varsity experience, but Chaminade is certainly not lacking in their star power and that was evident today. Head Coach Mike Pientkos who has led the Flyers to over 600 wins spoke to me last week about the uncertainty of his roster and their lack of experience at this level. He did note, however, that they have a lot of players that can really play the game and will be impact players for them. From my vantage point...
Chaminade Prepares for a Title Defense Season Unlike Any Other
The Chaminade Flyers are the 2019 NSCHSAA Champions with a 3-1 victory over St. Anthony’s pic.twitter.com/czHcPb827e — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2019 Mike Pienkos is entering his 39th season as Chaminade‘s head coach. He has won over 600 games and guided the Flyers to yet another NSCHSAA title in 2019 – the 16th in program history. This year will probably be his biggest challenge, though, as he will tell you. The program has been built up to the point where he knew there would be a tremendous pool of talent to select from on the first day of tryouts. In a normal year, that wouldn’t be the slightest issue as he would take the next three weeks to narrow down the roster and then use the scrimmages to find the right lineup and pitching staff. In a COV...
