On Monday, Steven Matz will start for the Toronto Blue Jays and on Tuesday, Anthony Kay will start for them. While they are four years apart and never actually pitched on the same team, the two southpaws graduating from Ward Melville HS and winding up on the same pitching staff is an incredible story. Additionally, Ben Brown – four years younger than Kay – has been steadily rising up the minor league ranks in the Phillies minor league system and has a shot to be the third Patriots to be in the big leagues at once. While he will tell you otherwise, Ward Melville HC Lou Petrucci is a big reason for that success. The Patriots head coach is as passionate and knowledgeable about the game as there is and the players gravitate towards it. And with a third former player on the cusp of ...
Max Nielsen strikes out 18 batters to send Ward Melville to the Suffolk County AA Finals ! pic.twitter.com/RtJrqe4y4p — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2019 Max Nielsen made two announcements while appearing on our IG Live back in April. He stated that he was undergoing Tommy John surgery by Dr. James Paci and he was transferring from UCONN to St. Anselm College. He later changed his mind and has since transferred to UMBC – which competes in the America East. He is the reigning Carl Yastrzemski Award winner – which is given to the top player in Suffolk County. He led Ward Melville to the Suffolk Class AA Finals against Connetquot. He compiled a record of 5-1 with an ERA of 1.44 ERA with 103 strikeouts. He allowed only 19 hits over 49 innings. The high point of his season...
(Editor’s Note: Max Nielsen announced yesterday that he has decided to transfer to University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He played his freshman season at UCONN but decided to transfer to Saint Anselm’s but has since changed his mind. He had Tommy John surgery last month and will likely miss the 2021 season.) When he was in sixth grade, Max Nielsen remembers going to the Ward Melville varsity baseball games watching Anthony Kay star for the Patriots. That was in 2013 when the southpaw was dominating Suffolk County hitters and leading the Patriots to the Long Island Championship. Six years later, it was Nielsen who was the key piece to the Patriots claiming the League I title and making a deep postseason run once again into the semifinals of the Suffolk AA postseason....
Max Nielsen strikes out 18 batters to send Ward Melville to the Suffolk County AA Finals ! pic.twitter.com/RtJrqe4y4p — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2019 Max Nielsen announced on IG Live tonight that he will be undergoing Tommy John surgery on Monday by Dr. James Paci. He also said after narrowing down his choices to Maine and Saint Anselm, he has decided to transfer to Saint Anselm from UCONN. He is the reigning Carl Yastrzemski Award winner – which is given to the top player in Suffolk County. He led Ward Melville to the Suffolk Class AA Finals against Connetquot. He compiled a record of 5-1 with an ERA of 1.44 ERA with 103 strikeouts. He allowed only 19 hits over 49 innings. The high point of his season came in the semifinals against West Islip in which he set a pr...
by Tony Genualdo Max Nielsen strikes out 18 batters to send Ward Melville to the Suffolk County AA Finals ! pic.twitter.com/RtJrqe4y4p — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2019 Ward Melville’s run to the Suffolk County title game last year was just the latest in a string of successful seasons for the Patriots of League I. Connetquot would win the championship over Ward Melville in three games, but Coach Lou Petrucci said that he couldn’t have been prouder of his team. “Our kids learned to play in some amazingly energetic and competitive environments,” said Petrucci. “They well exceeded our expectations.” Among those kids from last year were Matty Maurer and Brady Doran, two players who were dominant at the top of the batting order for the team. They would set the tables for fello...
Max Nielsen strikes out 18 batters to send Ward Melville to the Suffolk County AA Finals ! pic.twitter.com/RtJrqe4y4p — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2019 When he was in sixth grade, Max Nielsen remembers going to the Ward Melville varsity baseball games watching Anthony Kay star for the Patriots. That was in 2013 when the southpaw was dominating Suffolk County hitters and leading the Patriots to the Long Island Championship. Six years later, it was Nielsen who was the key piece to the Patriots claiming the League I title and making a deep postseason run once again into the semifinals of the Suffolk AA postseason. They won the league title four of his five seasons on varsity. The hard-throwing Nielsen was the recipient of the coveted Carl Yastrzemski Award, which is given an...
Connetquot is the 2019 Suffolk AA Champs ! They will face Massapequa in the Long Island Championship on Saturday pic.twitter.com/DVn38w3IzF — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 4, 2019 When Connetquot made a deep postseason run into the Suffolk AA Final Four last season, many felt that they had overachieved. Everyone except the players, who felt they should’ve won it all. One year later, they have climbed the mountain top and captured the AA County Championship for the first time since 2015. They did so with a 14-1 victory against No.1 seed Ward Melville and ace Max Nielsen. The T-Birds and their high-octane offense had been held in check in Game 1 by Ryan Hynes, but defeated Ethan Farino yesterday. They faced UCONN-commit Max Nielsen, who was coming off an 18-K master piece o...
Max Nielsen strikes out 18 batters to send Ward Melville to the Suffolk County AA Finals ! pic.twitter.com/RtJrqe4y4p — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2019 With a trip to the Suffolk AA Finals on the line, Ward Melville LHP Max Nielsen delivered the game of his life. The UCONN-commit struck out a school-record 18 batters in an 8-0 victory over West Islip to advance to host No. 3 Connetquot in a best-of-three series beginning tomorrow. After allowing the first two batters to reach base in the top of the first, a caught stealing and two strikeouts allowed him to escape unscathed. Facing 6’5″ RHP Anthony Cinquemani, the Ward Melville offense wasted no time. Matt Maurer doubled on a shallow pop up to left field, Ethan Farino was hit by a curveball and catcher Anthony ...
Many teams would consider a 15-8 season–including a playoff win–a success. However, this is not the case for Ward Melville. As one of the most successful programs on Long Island over the past decade, any season that ends short of a championship is short of their ultimate goal. After their worst season in seven years, the Patriots are ready to compete for a title once again. The main obstacle Ward Melville faces this season is their strength of schedule. Not only is League I arguably the most talented league on the island, but all teams return a significant amount of impact players from last season. Their opponents include Longwood, Sachem East, Brentwood, Pat-Med, William Floyd and Central Islip. Evidently, Ward Melville will have their hands full. Fortunately for them, they re...
Yes it may seem like the 2019 draft is a long time away, but the reality for MLB organizations is that the preparation began immediately following the 2018 draft. Area scouts have had workouts and will continue to monitor their high-follows very closely from now until June. Below is a list of the eight players I believe have a chance to get drafted next year, and how they have evolved since I first watched each of them. Jason Diaz, RHP, Kellenberg Jason Diaz set such a high standard for himself that it was always going to be difficult to continue to outperform expectations. Having a 94 MPH at 16-years-old can be a blessing and a curse. From my perspective, I was blown away with him as a sophomore. His natural stuff, his composure, the similarities to Marcus Stroman, etc, put himself in eli...
Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Dan Palermo who hit a leadoff HR in Sachem East’s 8-2 victory pic.twitter.com/vnDXcHOMm3 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 18, 2018 When you play a team for the fifth time of the season, there are no surprises. The cream rises to the top on merit alone and Sachem East rose to the occasion from the first at bat–when center fielder and Iona-commit Dan Palermo launched a solo shot to left off Max Nielsen on their way to an 8-2 victory over Ward Melville. With the victory, the Arrows advance to face West Islip in the finals of Bracket #4. “We always like facing Ward Melville–they’re our biggest rival, we always get hyped for these kind of games and we love it,” said Palermo. They continued to tack on runs. Crai...
*This episode is sponsored by X-Factor Meals. They are a Long Island based company offering meal prep and sports specific nutrition for athletes of all levels. Visit their website here. * On this episode, we are joined by UCONN-commit and Ward Melville LHP Max Nielsen. We discuss the terrific run of Ward Melville baseball, his experience with the college recruiting process and what led him to decide on UCONN, what Ward Melville needs to do to return to the county championship and his admiration for former New York Yankees LHP Andy Pettitte.