Longwood baseball
Longwood Looks to Repeat as League I Champs
Rausch and Longwood HC Ryan McSherry spoke to Axcess Baseball after the game following the Lions’ dominant win, while the rest of the team enjoyed the victory in the background. pic.twitter.com/fBYRABZwHA — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 17, 2018 From three wins to outright League I champs in just one season. It was an incredible resurgent season for Longwood in 2018 under Head Coach Ryan McSherry. It came as no surprise to him, though. “We knew we had high ceiling guys,” he said in reference to their 2017 season in which they started primarily sophomores and juniors. “They just needed a year to transition,” he added. They certainly did that, outlasting Ward Melville to win the League 1 Champs and finishing with a record of 18-6 overall. With a pitching st...
Steven Rizzo & Vito Friscia Capture the 2018 Axcess Home Run Derby
On a hot & humid August afternoon, two players stole the show and stood above the rest in their respective brackets. Steven Rizzo (St. Anthony’s) captured the high school division and Vito Friscia (Hofstra) captured the college division in front of a packed crowd at Baseball Heaven. Rizzo led all high school hitters with 10 home runs, including seven in the first round. He defeated Matt Brown-Eiring (Connetquot 2020) in the championship round with two home runs. David Falco (Center Moriches 2019) smacked 3 HR, Brock Murtha (Saville 2020) hit two while Kyle Rausch (Longwood 2019) and Brown-Eiring each hit one. The college age players put on a clinic. St. Joseph 1B Paul Britt hit four home runs. He is a finalist for our Axcess Most Valuable Player for his amazing 2018 season for th...
ECR Day 2 Blog
Coram, NY–Tuesday was the second and final day of the ECR Showcase at Diamond in the Pines. The weather was absolutely picture-perfect and there was a number of eye-opening players that caught the eye of the dozens of college coaches in attention. Let’s jump right into it with the players that caught my attention… Braden Clark (Plainedge 2020) He caught my attention on Sunday at the Blue Chip event where he showed off his cannon. Tuesday he was 1.97 to second and 1.30 to third base. Obviously a red-light to base runners at the high school level. He also showed his stick with a well-struck double off the fence in right-center field. Very impressive showing from the incoming junior. Catchers rarely are developed defensively and contribute at the plate at this level so he...
Kyle Rausch: Why I Chose Navy
(Editor’s Note: Kyle Rausch catapulted himself onto the scene this season and put an exclamation point on a terrific season with an 8-for-13 postseason hot streak that helped carry Longwood into the postseason before ultimately getting eliminated by Commack. He is among the top power hitters in the class, (hitting six HRs in a one-week span earlier this month), has an exceptional arm in CF and has great blood lines with a Div-I baseball player in the family (brother, Sean). He committed to the U.S. Naval Academy yesterday. The following words are his own…) Although I have not made too many, I understand many decisions in life may be difficult. My decision to pursue an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy was easy. The opportunity to attend a prestigious institution to continue...
Longwood Ends Sachem North’s Season in Two-Day Elimination Game
Rausch and Longwood HC Ryan McSherry spoke to Axcess Baseball after the game following the Lions’ dominant win, while the rest of the team enjoyed the victory in the background. pic.twitter.com/fBYRABZwHA — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 17, 2018 Longwood (16-5) and Sachem North (11-11) started an elimination game Tuesday afternoon in the Suffolk AA playoffs. However, after four and a half innings of play, a rainstorm forced the remainder of the game to be played Thursday. In the end, Longwood’s offensive dominance on Tuesday was enough to keep the team alive with a 14-4 win over the Arrows. Sachem North got to Lions’ starter Jared Vanderhoof early. Three of the first four batters got on base to start the top of the first, then Frank Arena worked a walk to give Sachem a 1-0 lead....
Suffolk County Mid-Season Awards
We are roughly halfway through the 2018 high school season here on Long Island which means enough stats have been accrued that we can accurately identify most of the top performers from this season. I try to avoid these articles because there’s no way I can pinpoint every top performer with 100 percent certainty, but I feel good enough to hand out some hardware nonetheless. I’m proud to say the leading candidates for both of the major Suffolk County Awards, Carl Yastrzemski Award and Paul Gibson Award, were in my preseason articles so I don’t completely feel like a jinx. Without further ado, here’s my best guess for who takes home these awards in the summer. Class AA Coach of the Mid-Year Ryan McSherry, Longwood Honorable Mention: Tom Migliozzi, Hills West Class A C...
Ward Melville Ends Longwood’s 7-0 Start
Drake Eggleston fires a 90-MPH fastball past James Myler and Ward Melville holds on, 3-1, to end Longwood’s 7-game winning streak pic.twitter.com/ydecyfY71N — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 13, 2018 This one had playoff intensity from the first pitch. It had an ejection before most fans even made their way to a seat and it had excitement right up until the last pitch, when flame-throwing closer Drake Eggleston (UPENN-commit) fired a 90-MPH heater past James Myler with two runners on to slam the door shut on a crucial 3-1 victory over the upstart Longwood Lions. Everyone in attendance was on edge with the potential go-ahead run at the plate. Everyone except for Eggleston. “I knew what I had to do and I just focused on that,” said Eggleston. “I was pr...
PODCAST: Special Guests Gregg Sarra and Lou Petrucci
In this week’s podcast we have a great show with special guests Gregg Sarra of Newsday and Ward Melville HC Lou Petrucci as we discussed the best teams in Class AA history. The re-classification in 2003 introduced Class AA, but prior to that all large schools were in Class A. Gregg shares the stories of the 2006 Massapequa State champs (29-0), 2010 Lindenhurst that nearly went undefeated and 1998 Longwood team that qualified for a playoff berth on an unprecedented rule and wound up winning a title. Lou goes in depth about his 2013 Long Island Championship team at Ward Melville. We also made our predictions for the 2018 winner. Enjoy!
Recapping the Top Players in ECR Showcase
Today we covered the Elite College Recruiting (ECR) Showcase at Baseball Heaven. There was a bevy of high-end players being analyzed and observed by coaches representing some of the best baseball programs in the country. Through out the afternoon, I took notes and videos on some of the players that stood out to me. Below you will find notes about the best of the bunch. Matt Brown-Eiring (RHP, Connetquot 2020) Matt Brown (Connetquot 2020) throwing 82-83 MPH, 71 MPH slider and 73 MPH change up. Command of all three, consistent delivery pic.twitter.com/q0oGkI4hf5 — Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) August 23, 2017 Wow. What a pitcher he can be. He checks off all the boxes. The first thing you notice is the compact, clean mechanics from the classic high 3/4 arm slot. He is not the tallest...
LI Legends Best LI Titans Giaco, 4-2, With Impressive Outing From John Holmstock
The big Longwood class of ’18 lefty used all his pitches to dominate his opponents by way of the strikeout. Holmstock would strike out 14 Titans in his six innings of work in Boys of Summer 17u American. He would earn the win after his team would give him a 4-0 lead in the second inning. “My main goal is to keep every one of my pitches down in the zone,” said Holmstock. “And get productive outs.” The dominant LHP frustrated the Titans all game, as he only allowed three hits and two walks giving way to only six base runners over six innings (dropped third strike error was the sixth base runner). He would, however, run into trouble in the sixth inning after walking the nine-hitter to start the inning. This set the table for Tony Figliarulo to knock a fly ball double to center field. The next...
Longwood Developing Reputation for Producing College-Ready Players
Typically graduating 14 seniors would be a crushing hit for a high school team. In the case of Longwood, it’s business as usual. They have an influx of talented underclassmen and a number of upperclassmen that second year Head Coach Ryan McSherry is high on, thanks to an emphasis on the fundamentals of the game. “Teams that grasp the basics of the game are always competitive,” said McSherry. “We are always looking for diamonds in the rough. Fortunately, we have a big pool to choose from at Longwood so it’s easy to get lost. It’s a good place to coach because we have a lot of hard-nosed players. We have a David Eckstein-type of team” he added. They graduated all three of their starters last year, who went on to play college ball. The trio of Tr...
