One of the most prolific collegiate hitters over the past three seasons has found a new home in professional baseball. Jesse Russo, a three-time Axcess Baseball All-Long Island member has signed with the Trois Rivieres of the Canadian American Association. Last season he played with the Alpine Cowboys of the PECOS League. That was after finishing up a phenomenal three-year career at SUNY Old Westbury in which he hit .386 with a .431 OBP and .582 SLG in 2018. He also participated in our Axcess Invitational in May at Hofstra which featured the top college seniors in the region. He becomes the eighth player from that game to sign a professional contract joining Giovanni Dingcong, Joey Pena, Bobby Honeyman, Aaron Pinto, Chris Pennell, Frankie Moscatiello and David Palmer. The first four of whi...
We named four freshmen on this year’s All-Long Island team. All four of them are finalists for the 2018 Axcess Baseball Rookie of the Year Award. Here’s how they stack up: Matt Overton, Molloy Key Stats: .342 AVG, 38 R, 2 HR, 36 RBI, .439 OBP, .449 SLG Travis Zurita, Maritime Key Stats: .402 AVG, 2 HR, 32 RBI, .500 OBP, .513 SLG, 13-for-17 SB Mike Manetta, SUNY Old Westbury Key Stats: .370 AVG, 27 R, 21 RBI, .421 OBP, .521 SLG, 11-for-16 SB Vin Napolitano, Nassau CC Key Stats: .394 AVG, 33 R, 5 HR, 32 RBI, 26 BB, .528 OBP, .646 SLG Voting will take place on our Twitter until Friday. The voting will be a major factor involved in the decision.
Injuries were especially cruel to the Old Westbury Panthers‘ pitching staff last season, resulting in a 9-8 loss in the first round of the Skyline Conference playoffs against Mount St. Mary’s. Despite falling down 4-0 after three innings, their relentless offense fought back before ultimately stranding the bases loaded with the go-ahead run on second base. It was a microcosm of their season, as the team was led by a .331 AVG, .402 OBP and .444 SLG. They averaged 7.08 runs/game and eclipsed double digits on eight occasions. Unfortunately, they lost ace Adam Heidenfelder, who had transferred from Hofstra University and won their first two games of the season, to a season-ending shoulder injury. His absence reverberated through a pitching staff that lacked an answer, resulting in ...
Please let us know if we have missed or have not updated your college commitment. We will keep the Class of 2018 active until December 31st. Class of 2018 Michael Abagnale-SUNY Old Westbury Robbie Affenita-Adelphi Chris Amato-Suffolk Alex Andrew-Middlesex County Jalen Bertie-SUNY Old Westbury Cameron Botta-SUNY Old Westbury Hayden Altimari-Penn State Brandywine Joe Amoroso-SUNY Old Westbury Justin Aviles-Marietta Matt Ayala-Alvernia Mike Badala-St. Joseph’s Ryan Baumann-Southern New Hampshire Nick Biscardi-Quinnipiac Jason Bottari-Albany Chris Buehler-LIU Brooklyn Matt Carey-NYIT Anthony Carleo-Lackawanna Michael Cartusciello-Belmont Abbey Dillon Cassidy-Herkimer CC Noah Centeno-Sacred Heart D.J. Chandler-St. Thomas Aquinas Paul Christopher-Oswego Anthony Cipri-Adelphi Michael Cole-F...
College baseball winds down its final weeks with these teams still going strong. Take a look at who excelled: Division-I: Hofstra: Hofstra defeated Charleston, 7-1, to help stop a six-game losing streak. John Rooney’s brilliant campaign continued Friday, going nine innings, giving up just five hits and one run in line for his sixth victory of the season against zero losses. His ERA drops to 0.97 for the season. Hofstra was able to grab their first runs of the game in the sixth behind a Mikey Riesner RBI sac bunt. That was followed up by an Austin Gauthier two-run single to give Hofstra the lead 3-1. They proceeded to tack on four more in the eighth, good enough to put them at 14-15 on the season and 4-8 in conference play. Fordham: Fordham was defeated, 5-3, in eleven innings against Georg...
Game 1 Timely hitting and a dominant performance by starter David Otero Jr. helped push Farmingdale to a 3-0 victory over Old Westbury in game one of the double header. A pitchers duel with a little bit of defense helped keep the score at 0-0 until the seventh inning. Farmingdale starter David Otero Jr. pitched a complete game, giving up no runs and four hits. He ran into trouble in the sixth inning when second baseman Jesse Russo lined a triple in the gap to start the inning. He settled in after that, inducing two ground balls to second baseman Tyler Schrimpf. Schrimpf finished out the inning by making a run-saving diving catch down the right field line to preserve the game at 0-0. The bats for both teams were silent for most of the day. Farmingdale registered seven hits while Old Westbur...
Senior Adam Heidenfelder will be anchoring the rotation pic.twitter.com/UnEyFlV8bf Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 22, 2017 Despite losing to Mount Saint Marys College in the first round of the Skyline Conference tournament, the SUNY Old Westbury Panthers baseball team has high hopes and confidence heading into 2018. “I am the most positive coach. I never talk about the negatives,” said head coach Rod Stephan. The Panthers, 20-16 (10-8 Skyline) in 2017, have only 12 players returning with 10 freshmen and four new transfers which doesn’t include John Fogarty, who did not play last season. “We’re young. And when I say we’re young, it means we’re going to be good for a while,” said Stephan. For coach Stephan, this is ...
There is a ton of talent at our local colleges and universities. Far too little attention is given to the college players, my guess is because people constantly want to know who is the next child prodigy and that involves being not just exceptionally talented but exceptionally young. For purposes of this article, we will focus on the college players that are draft-eligible in 2018 only. There’s two categories; players that should get drafted unless they have a poor season and players that could get drafted but only if they have an exceptional season. Category 1: Reiss Knehr, RHP Fordham Knehr is a 2015 graduate of St. Dominic HS–that’s right he and Kyle Young were on the same stuff. That was prior to Kyle Young’s breakthrough season, and Knehr was the ace of that st...
(Photo Credit: Old Westbury Athletics) Jesse Russo is not content with the numbers. The two-time All-Long Island selection is coming off consecutive seasons in which he batted .399 with a total of 47 stolen bases and 80 runs scored for the Old Westbury Panthers. Players of his ilk, however, never are content with their results and are always hungry for more. “When you start off 0-for-20, it’s tough to get your average up,” said the 2014 graduate of Clarke HS jokingly. Even despite the uneven starts to the past two seasons, he has put up numbers on par with the best players on Long Island. He is focused on improving the start to his 2018 season. “I’ve always thrived off of higher velocity, so when we face 82 or 83 MPH early on in the season, it takes a little b...