Mike Grisanti talks about his dominant performance that led his team to victory. pic.twitter.com/UKScF9Ns66 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2018 The weather certainly wasn’t ideal for playoff baseball on Tuesday afternoon, but that didn’t stop Massapequa from coming out of the gates firing. Thank to a six-run first inning, Massapequa prevailed over Plainview JFK by a score of 8-3 in game one of the Class AA Semifinals. John Cooke got the start for Plainview on the bump, but the Chiefs wasted no time getting to him. Johnny Castagnozzi got the rally started for Massapequa by ripping a bases loaded RBI single to left field. Mike Grisanti followed up the Castagnozzi RBI with a 2 RBI double, and Mike Moreno delivered a sacrifice fly. All of a sudden, it was a 4-0 lead...
With just one week left of play in Class AA, everything’s starting to get interesting. This past week, we saw Baldwin beat the previous first-place Calhoun Colts in two games, along with Syosset handing Oceanside their first loss of the season. Unexpected outcomes have been the motto so far in 2018, so one can assume we may be in for some surprises this week. Heading into the final week of the regular season, here are the new top five teams in Class AA. 5. Herricks (8-6-1) (Last week: No. 4) Coming off their bye week, Herricks remains one of the two hottest teams in Class AA. The other? The Baldwin Bruins (7-8). The two red hot teams face off this week with a great chance to play again in the first round of the playoffs. If Herricks wishes to receive better than the seven seed in the...
A Tim Fine two-run game-winning single helped push Calhoun past Plainview JFK, 10-9. Calhoun got the momentum going early in the bottom of the first with shortstop Matt Pelcher knocking a homerun to deep right center to get the Colts on the board and tie it up at one a piece. The Colts knew they would be in for a test, as Plainview JFK starter and Hofstra-commit Mark Faello took the hill. Faello certainly had plenty of run support throughout the game. The Hawks knocked a total of nine runs in the game and scored one in at least every inning. The trouble for the Hawks came in the second inning when Calhoun second baseman Jack Pugliano cleared the bases loaded with a one-out triple to right center. Pugliano would later score in the same inning on a two-run double by starting pitcher Anthony ...
Mark Faello on his no-hitter (6-innings) against Herricks pic.twitter.com/x9o8kGK80X Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 28, 2018 It wasn’t EXACTLY the real deal, but it was close enough. Reigning Diamond Award winner Mark Faello fired a six inning no-hitter in Plainview JFK‘s 10-0 mercy-rule victory over Herricks on Tuesday afternoon. He struck out 12 batters and walked three. Last season, he no-hit the same team while compiling 19 strikeouts. The game was much closer than the score would indicate, actually, for much of the game. Faello smacked a two-run HR over the center field fence in the 1st inning to give himself an early 2-0 lead. The score would stay that way and Herricks was able to make Faello work hard in the fifth inning. They forced him to throw 28 pi...
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...
It was a frustrating ending to the 2016 season for Plainview-JFK who lost to the eventual Class AA champs from East Meadow by the scores of 4-3 and 6-4, despite beating them two of three during the regular season. “We thought we were right there,” said fourth year Head Coach John Givargidze. “We took two of three from East Meadow to start the season but they were red-hot when they got to the playoffs,” he added. They finished the season 13-8, but will be returning almost all of their impact players with the exception of leadoff man Jake Saltzman (Molloy). They will be counting on All-County third baseman Matt Butigan, All-County RHP/SS Mark Faello and All-Conference RHP/OF Tyler Marinaccio. Butigan, however, is nursing a strained UCL and will most likely miss the fi...