MacArthur baseball
Q & A With Pat Barrett
(Editor’s Note: Pat Barrett is a 2013 graduate of MacArthur HS. Following his career, he pitched at Virginia Wesleyan College. He has transitioned to coaching and has quickly risen from a Volunteer Coach to a Pitching Coach to a Recruiting Coordinator in just over one year.) I had the chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say… What was it like playing at MacArthur? Why are they always so successful? Playing for MacArthur HS was a very unique experience which I glad I was able to do. I honestly really didn’t play that much during my time as I was apart of a very stacked generation of talent which had many players recruited and go on to play in college such as Adam Heidenfelder, Rob Andreoli, Dom Danetti, etc. The success honestly starts at the youth level in t...
Brandon Buchan Changes Mind, Decides to Play Ball in College
Brandon Buchan won the 2018 Diamond Award, given to the best pitcher in Nassau County, for his performance in the 2018 season. Up until a few weeks ago, however, he wasn’t planning on continuing playing baseball anymore. The SUNY Maritime-commit came into his senior season as not just an under-the-radar player, but almost completely unknown outside of his school. He was rarely used as a junior on a team that featured several other accomplished senior pitchers. Buchan burst onto the scene in his senior year in a big way. Buchan attributes much of his improvement to his offseason workouts. “Last year I was told I was very thin,” the lefty said, “so I was able to put on 15 to 20 pounds throughout the offseason.” The increase in strength helped Buchan increase his fastball velocity from ...
Division Wins Thriller In the Battle of Levittown to Advance to Class A Finals
Diez fans Buchan to end it ! Division wins 6-4 and will face Wantagh for the Nassau Class A championship on Saturday ! pic.twitter.com/pHKo9zWlFj — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 24, 2018 Colin Diez came on in relief during the fourth inning, wound up pitching the final 3.2 innings including a strikeout to end the ballgame in a 6-4 victory over rival MacArthur and send Division into the Nassau County Class A finals against Wantagh; a rematch of 2010. “We want revenge–we want it,” Diez said moments after he fanned Brandon Buchan to record the final out. It was Buchan who was lights-out in Monday’s 9-0 victory for MacArthur that put Division on the brink of elimination but they bounced back with consecutive victories with their backs firmly against the wall ...
MacArthur Dominates Game One Thanks to Dominant Buchan
Brandon Buchan threw 6.1 scoreless en route to a dominating game 1 win. Game 2 tomorrow at MacArthur. pic.twitter.com/geZGzk6jbw — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2018 The MacArthur Generals made the short trip across Levittown and destroyed their crosstown rivals Division, 9-0, in game one of a best-of-three Nassau Conference A semi-final. Both starting pitchers, Nick Fressle for the Blue Dragons and Brandon Buchan for MacArthur both shut down the opposition in the first three innings. Division threatened in the bottom of the second, but a failed suicide squeeze got Buchan out of it after the Blue Dragons got a runner in scoring position with nobody out. After a RBI single from Joe Ricciardi to open the scoring, Ryan Wall drove in two to give the Generals a 3-0 lead. MacA...
Island Trees Advances to Face Crosstown Rival MacArthur in Class A Playoffs
Island Trees Head Coach Joe D’Auria on the 6-3 victory and their upcoming match up against MacArthur pic.twitter.com/HvlQ3BUzEO — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 11, 2018 The No. 15-seeded Island Trees Bulldogs advanced in the Class A playoffs Friday afternoon with a 6-3 victory over the No. 18 Locust Valley Falcons. Anthony Pellegrino got the start for Island Trees and made the most of the opportunity, throwing a complete game with 7 strikeouts and no walks. The senior ace was rattled early as Locust Valley snagged an early lead, but bounced back and seemed to get better as the contest wore on. “We saved Anthony for this game and he came through for us,” Bulldogs head coach Joe D’Auria said. “He went the distance and gutted it out against a good team… it means for us.” At t...
Nassau County Class A Power Rankings (7th Edition)
On Long Island, there aren’t many things that are more exciting than varsity baseball playoffs. With just one more week of play before the highly anticipated playoffs, not much is set in stone. With every conference up for grabs, it’s hard to see who’s the favorites to emerge as the top dogs right now. As seen in previous years, anything’s possible come May. Heading into the final week of play in the regular season, let’s take a look at the teams that are streaking in class A, followed by the top ten teams. TRENDING UP: Clarke (10-5) After starting off 2-4, there was no telling to how this Clarke team may pan out. Fast forward a month, and now Clarke has a slim chance of winning their conference championship. If they can sweep Mineola (13-2) behind the arms of...
Brandon Buchan Overpowers New Hyde Park in MacArthur’s Victory
Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Brandon Buchan. He was the winning pitcher, struck out 8 over four shutout innings. He also drove in a run in MacArthur’s mercy victory over New Hyde Park pic.twitter.com/eVk51W3YOj — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 26, 2018 With a loaded staff of seniors last year, there was no spot in the rotation for him. This season, Brandon Buchan has came out with a vengeance winning his fifth game of the season to go along with two HRs at the plate. The southpaw was overpowering today, touching 87 MPH, striking out nine and allowing just one hit over four shutout innings in MacArthur’s 10-0 win over New Hyde Park. The game was delayed roughly 15 minutes due to a late arriving bus for New Hyde Park on Senior Day for MacArthur. The gam...
Q & A with Joey Ricciardi
When you play for MacArthur, playoff berths are par for the course. The General are coming off a 16-win season, but they had their season cut-short by rival Division in the second round of the postseason. They will be looking to avenge that loss this season. One of the players they will be counting on is left-handed hitting senior outfielder Joey Ricciardi. He announced his commitment to play at York College of Pennsylvania a couple days ago. Prior to that, he put on an impressive performance at the charity Home Run Derby at Calhoun last month. He spoke with Vinny Messana about a variety of things, and here’s what he had to say… Talk a little bit about the college recruiting process and how you made your decision? The recruiting process was very stressful. I attended a lot of c...
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!
