Miller Place sophomore LHP Nick Frusco carried a perfect game into the sixth inning and struck out 15 in a 13-0 win over East Hampton pic.twitter.com/Ud2EPCfWSf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 30, 2023 Long Island has long been a hotspot for producing hard-throwing southpaws. This has been true dating back to the 1970s when Neal Heaton was the No. 1 overall pick in the country but chose to attend Miami. It seems every couple years there’s another young stud that garners interest from Power 5 conferences. Next up is Miller Place southpaw Nick Frusco. After initially committing to Rutgers, he de-committed and announced his commitment to Clemson this past week. Frusco has been up to 94 MPH with his fastball and sits in the low 90s. As a sophomore, he led Long Island pitcher...
Hunter Colagrande struck out 11 in a complete game shutout outdueling one of the top pitchers on Long Island in a 2-0 victory for Kings Park pic.twitter.com/JQL1JM7SNs — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 17, 2024 You could not have asked for a better pitching match up in a playoff game. Arguably the top pitchers in the 2024 class and 2025 class squared off against each other in a Class A playoff game between Kings Park and Miller Place. It was Hunter Colagrande, one year older than Nick Frusco, who came out on top in this one as he fired a 4-hit, CG shutout with 11 strikeouts in a 2-0 victory that took just over 90 minutes to complete in front of his hometown crowd on a Friday evening. Offense was always going to be at a premium between these two Division-I arms. Scouts were lined u...
by Mike Merolle (Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.) Miller Place 15, Hampton Bays 3 WP Nick Frusco (5IP 1H 0R 10Ks) Tyler Lopez 2 for 3 2-2bs 3RBI Joey Citrangola 1 for 3 3RBI pic.twitter.com/XHHuAWzHNk — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 9, 2023 Miller Place had a strong 16-8 campaign until it was cut short by Sayville in the playoffs last season. This year, the Panthers are under new leadership. Joe Mancini is taking the reigns from former head coach Ricky Caputo. Mancini served as Miller Place’s assistant coach for eight years under Caputo. In terms of coaching style, Mancini plans to focus on the fundamentals. “I learned a lot from Rick. I’m very grateful for the time we had together. We grew a bond, he’s a...
Jacob Rentz earned his second win of the season and Bennie Franquiz continued his incredible start to the season with a 3-hit day including an RBI single to break a scoreless tie in the fourth. @GCsports pic.twitter.com/fQAazht5Tf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 22, 2023 With the game tied 0-0 in the top of the fourth inning and a runner on second, Mount Sinai‘s shortstop, Bennie Franquiz, stepped to the plate against hard-throwing left-handed pitcher Nick Frusco. In most circumstances, a team would prefer the lefty-lefty match up. But with a .650 hitter at the plate, this was a scenario it would’ve made sense for an intentional walk. Franquiz made him pay with an RBI single up the middle to send his dugout into a frenzy and give Mount Sinai the 1-0 lead. They adde...
Final: Bayport-Blue Point 3, Miller Place 1 WP: Liam Stemmler (CG, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 7 Ks) BBP improves to 8-0 on the season, they’ll face Sayville next week pic.twitter.com/1tjYP9nxkE — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 14, 2023 One of the key tenets of Bayport-Blue Point’s 25 consecutive postseason appearances is their ability to grind out at bats, beat high-end pitchers with timely hits and, of course, outstanding pitching. Their starting pitching has been lights-out this year and they are now 8-0 on the season and on the verge of another postseason berth after their 3-1 victory over Miller Place. Today’s starting pitcher, FDU-Florham commit Liam Stemmler was efficient and effective. He out dueled sophomore LHP Nick Frusco, who was overpowering at times but made just ...
by Brian Honka Miller Place 3, East Hampton 1 WP: Trevor Diamond 6ip 1 run 5 hits Tyler Hodella 2-3, double, 2 RBIs Mikey Schleider 2-3, RBI pic.twitter.com/xK3ohQ2o81 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 19, 2022 Miller Place is coming off a 13-6 season and a trip to the playoffs where they lost to Bayport-Blue Point. They will be looking to follow that up with another postseason appearance. The team graduated 10 players from last year’s team so filling the gaps left by those players will be something the coaching staff will have to figure out this off-season and early in the season. Among that group was their All-County OF Tyler Hodella – who had ridiculous season. He batted .557 with a .618 OBP, .889 SLG, 1.520 OPS, 34 hits, 10 doubles, 3 triples, 2 HRs, 25 runs and 24...
by Mike Anderson A .500 finish may not have been what Miller Place varsity baseball was looking for, but given everything they were going through last year, it was perfectly respectable. The team fought an unprecedented schedule and lacked varsity experience, as they only had three seniors on the team. Not only that, but Miller Place played in one of the most competitive leagues in Suffolk County last year. Conference IV had four 11-win teams and seven of the teams finished at least .500 or better. That number was the highest of any league in Section XI. Mix the lack of experience, the strange schedule, and the tough league together, and it spells a perfect recipe for disaster. However, Miller Place did a great job avoiding disaster and finished at an even 9-9 and made the playoffs, showin...
Final: Kings Park 14, Miller Place 11 WP: Declan Cumming S: Jason Sacks pic.twitter.com/bTNWXUyeXz — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 10, 2021 The beauty of baseball is one day you get shutout and the next you come out and score 14 runs against a perennial playoff team. Kings Park lost a tough one, 1-0, on Saturday against East Hampton‘s ace Colin Ruddy. Just two days later, they bounced right back and put up four runs in the first inning and won a thrilling game in come-from-behind fashion against Miller Place on the road. All told, the game took 3 hours from start to finish but you can take out about 15 minutes for a delay when the home plate umpire had to exit due to an injury he sustained. The field ump wound up changing into the protective gear. That was around 7pm and t...
by Chris Sacchi Miller Place defeats Hauppauge, 4-3, to capture the Class A Town of Brookhaven Varsity Wood Bat tournament Kai Loftin recorded the victory. Miller Place went 6-0 in the tournament pic.twitter.com/xs3AKAkQyf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 13, 2020 Miller Place baseball and head coach Ricky Caputo have enjoyed a fascinating past couple of seasons. Coming off a 16-4 record in 2019, Caputo’s squad earned a promotion from league VII to League VI in 2020, ready to capitalize on the momentum and further vault the program. “Last year was crazy. We had 18 seniors,” coach said. “We had guys who had multiple years of varsity experience. We were set to have an incredible year.” “This year is way different.” Despite the decline in the number of experienced seniors, coach C...
Going into the season, Commack knew they were capable of winning a championship. Although it was only a six-game sample size, they proved that during the Town of Brookhaven Varsity Wood Bat Tournament. The Cougars went 6-0 – including a 2-0 victory in the championship against Lindenhurst. Oneonta-commit Drew Vincent was outstanding. The senior fired a complete game shutout with 10 strikeouts, allowing just two singles in a masterpiece of an outing. It was his second win of the tournament, he also won on Wednesday night. Although he was throwing goose eggs inning-after-inning, his counterpart Brandon Arcone of Lindenhurst was equally masterful for much of the game. Commack was scoreless entering the bottom of the fifth inning but Vinny Pagano led off with a walk. Jack Cascone followed...