Neal Heaton
The North All Stars Win the Fifth Annual HCBL All Star Game
by Jonah Karp The best prospects of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League were front and center at Baseball Heaven on Monday. The North All Stars defeated the South All Stars 14-5, in what turned out to be a tale of two narratives. The South All Stars plated the first two runs of the game in the top of the second on three hits off of Patrick Clyne (LIU Brooklyn). But Neal Heaton’s squad quickly responded with a solo blast off the bat of Freddy Sabido in the bottom of the frame to cut the deficit to one. The score remained 2-1 until Dan Luisi’s team tacked on two more in the top of the fifth on two hits to extend the lead to 3-1. Then the narrative shifted. In the bottom of the seventh the North All Stars bats came alive. Eight players reached base. Nine players recorded hits. Six players...
Neal’s Knowledge: What is ‘Pitching Backwards’ and Why Should You Do It?
If hitting is timing, then pitching is disrupting timing. There is no better way to do that than to be unpredictable as a pitcher. Hitters are taught to look for fastballs in particular counts–0-0, 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2. They sit back and look for a pitcher’s fastball. If they have any doubt what type of pitch is coming–they lose a little bit of confidence. That can be just enough to get him off his game. Throwing breaking balls and change ups in these hitter’s counts is called ‘pitching backwards’ and it is a very important for a young pitcher to eventually develop this skill in order to get to college because that’s when hitters will really make you pay for your mistakes. At the lower levels, it’s really not as important to pitch backward...
Garrett Heaton Commits to Stony Brook
When Garrett Heaton steps in the box against any high school pitcher he has the advantage already. Heck, he will most likely have the same advantage in two years also, when he steps in against a Division-I pitcher from the America East conference. That’s because he is one of the few local players who can say his father both lived it and was able to teach it to him. “I think the only difference between myself and a kid who doesn’t have a former MLB player as a parent is that i started learning things about the game that some players don’t learn until they’re in college or in some cases never learn,” said the senior at Bellport HS. For those unfamiliar, Neal Heaton was the Steven Matz of the previous generation. After winning the Carl Yastrzemski Award out...
