Massapequa baseball
Nassau Class AA Power Rankings (3rd Edition)
In a week where two of the top teams had their bye weeks, there were a number of clean sweeps across the county. Oceanside, Farmingdale and East Meadow all stood out last week, sweeping their respective opponents in dominant fashion. So far, 2018 has proven that any team can be beaten at any time. For the time being, the top five teams in Class AA seem to be locked in as the best teams in the county, buy anything is possible in high school baseball. With that being said, here are the top five teams heading into the third week of the season. 5. Calhoun (5-1) (Last week: #3) Heading into the week, Calhoun seemed as if they were the hottest team in Class AA. However, they took a step back this past week. The Colts were fortunate to come out of the week with two victories against Herricks, as ...
Nassau County Class AA Power Rankings (2nd Edition)
As imagined, the top teams in Class AA prevailed in opening week, destroying their opponents on both sides of the ball. Massapequa suffered an opening day loss to Farmingdale, but found a way to bounce back in the next two games of the series. Heading into what should be an exciting week in Class AA, let’s take a look at the new top five teams. 5. Port Washington (3-0) (Last week: Unranked) Coming as a surprise to many, Port Washington swept Hicksville to open up the season, earning them a top five spot in this week’s power rankings. A team that is coming off a couple early exits in the postseason, seems as if they can pose a real threat to their opponents this year in Class AA. At the plate, Port Washington combined for 27 runs. Leading this offensive explosion was Jack Stolpe...
2018 Nassau County Class AA Preseason Power Rankings
With our fourth nor’easter this month upon us, who knows when opening day may be. As soon as the fields are clear, however, the high school baseball season will finally get underway. Although Class AA may be overlooked because there’s 14 teams compared to 28 teams in Class A, there’s still a significant amount of competition. Last year was about as exciting as it gets in Class AA, with Massapequa taking home the title and the Long Island Championship, so don’t expect this year to be any different. With many of the top teams returning their best players, let’s take a look at this year’s preseason top five teams. 5. Farmingdale A team that took the county by storm in 2017 is back and expected to make a deep run this season. Luckily for the Dalers, their tw...
Q & A With Nassau County Reporter Mike Connors
We had some difficult with the audio in the podcast, so here is a transcript of the audio between Vinny Messana and Nassau reporter Mike Connors. You’ll be releasing your Top-15 players in Nassau County this week, when is that coming out? I’m shooting for Saturday or Sunday this week, but first I will be beginning our third Face of Nassau challenge. It’s a great way to start of the new year. Yep, people want their baseball information– That’s what it’s all about. So let’s talk about some of the top guys. Our list won’t be released until March, but there’s a couple of guys that are no secret in terms of being the top player. Let’s talk first about Wantagh’s Anthony Fontana. What can you tell us about him? Not only does he hav...
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!
Andrew Primm Commits to LIU Post
The 2018 class is an especially strong one in terms of catchers. Already players like Dylan Judd, Anthony Carleo, Ryan Mullahey and Nick Ungar have committed. None of those players, however, have a Long Island Championship under their belt like Massapequa C Andrew Primm. Today his name went off the board as he chose to accept a scholarship to LIU Post. He had been weighing another offer, but ultimately chose to play for the reigning ECC Champs. I watched Primm last week, and he is certainly a standout player. He displayed his 1.9 pop time to second base by throwing out not one, but two runners in that game.Additionally, he can handle the bat very well for a catcher. He plays his travel ball for the Diamond Spikes. Catchers that can control the running game are valued high, especially in a ...
Nick Schwartz Commits to St. John’s
This weekend was filled with positive experiences for many people down in the WWBA Underclass World Championship in Fort Myers. For Massapequa catcher Nick Schwartz, it was potentially life changing as he gave his verbal commitment to one of the best baseball programs in all of the nation; St. John’s University. They are coming off a 42-13 season in which they made an appearance in the NCAA Regionals. Schwartz spoke with Vinny Messana about his decision and here’s what he had to say… Talk a little about your experience with the college recruiting process and how you wound up committing to St. John’s… The college recruiting process with St. John’s started last year when I went to their mini camp for the first time. After the mini camp, the coaches became ...
Johnny Castagnozzi Commits to North Carolina
It’s been quite a year for Massapequa‘s young phenom Johnny Castagnozzi. Six months ago he became the first freshman to start on varsity under Head Coach Tom Sheedy and today he announced his verbal commitment to play for the University of North Carolina. He was weighing the possibility of attending Vanderbilt and Notre Dame as well. In between, he also helped the Chiefs to the Class AA Long Island Championship over Commack. One year ago today, we published a feature story on him, just after he put his name on the map by getting ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the 2020 class in the entire state of New York. Originally a SS, he was moved to third due to the presence of LIU Post-commit Chris Wasson. Castagnozzi is a very humble individual that lets his play do the talking. We sel...
Who Are the Top Uncommitted 2018s Remaining?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM6KEX5XWiY&t=1s With the Blue Chip Prospect 18U tournament taking place this weekend at Baseball Heaven, now is a great time to go over who the top available players in the 2018 class. Surprisingly, there are several high-end players still on the table. A number of them have scholarship offers currently on the table, but are waiting to make their decision. Here’s our top 25, organized by position in alphabetical order Catchers: Anthony Carleo (North Shore) Dylan Judd (Oceanside) Anthony Lamar (Freeport) Josh Lester (Copiague) Andrew Primm (Massapequa) Charles Rainone (Deer Park) Nick Ungar (Connetquot) Pitchers: Justin Aviles, Brentwood Jacob Cheshire (Sayville) Drake Eggleston (Ward Melville) Anthony Jacabacci (Bellport) Joe Litchhult (Hills East...
Team Fontana Takes Inaugural Home Run Derby 35-31
We couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better match up for our inaugural Home Run Derby today at NYIT. In what looked like it would be a blowout, Team McHugh made a furious comeback from a 26-10 deficit to come up just short, by the score of 35-31. Below are some of the highlights from the contest…. Anthony Fontana led off the bottom of the first with a huge round. He hit three home runs and compiled 14 points overall. His sweet swing produced several long blasts pasts the cone in deep right field. The Furman-commit got his team out to a quick 14-0 lead. Both teams exchanged two points in the second inning from James Myler and Jarred Vanderhoof. In the top of the third, the captain Tim McHugh put up four on the board. His power bat generated several massive flies out to...
Travis Honeyman Commits to Boston College
Travis Honeyman becomes the first player from the class of 2020 to verbally commit to a Div-I college. He committed to Boston College this evening. (The following story is from June 29th) He might’ve only been in sixth grade at the time, but Travis Honeyman vividly remembers watching his older brother, Bobby, star for the Massapequa Chiefs in the early part of the decade. “I went to every home game and I just remember saying ‘I can’t wait for when it’s my turn,’ said the now-15-year-old. With the Chiefs taking home the 2017 Long Island Class AA championship this year, Travis–now in ninth grade but playing on the JV10 team–is closer to making that goal a reality. “I’m even more excited now,” he said. In fact, he was able to live vicariously through his two best friends who were called up. B...
Home Run Derby Field Set
The highly-anticipated Axcess Baseball Home Run Derby will take place on Saturday, September 9 at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Westbury. It will include 12 of the best high school power-hitters on Long Island beginning at 2 pm. The two captains will be Anthony Fontana (Wantagh ’18) and Tim McHugh (Commack ’19). The players they will fill their teams with will be Johnny Castagnozzi (Massapequa ’20), Logan O’Hoppe (St. John the Baptist ’18), Anthony Carleo (North Shore ’18), James Myler (Longwood ’20), Jarred Vanderhoof (Longwood ’18), David Falco (Center Moriches ’19), Nick DeMicco (Plainedge ’18), Will Feil (Wheatley ’18), Peter Zielinski (MacArthur ’18) and Charlie Rainone (Deer Park ’18). The ...
