Jason Campo is a power hitting first baseman from St. John the Baptist. The 2022 grad attended our Ducks Stadium Showcase back in August of 2019. Yesterday he announced his commitment to attend Stony Brook University. St. John the Baptist, who captured the CHSAA title in 2018, is building quite a program under Head Coach Casey McKay. Don’t be surprised if they are playing on Championship Monday next year. I spoke with Jason about his experience with the college recruiting process and a myriad of other topics, and here’s what he had to say… Can you explain your experience with the college recruitment process and why you chose Stony Brook? My college recruitment process went very smoothly. Every couple of weeks I would touch base with Jim Martin, the assistant coach for Sto...
Giancarlo Giacometti fires 6.1 innings today against Kellenberg in a 6-1 victory for St. John the Baptist. He’s our @BsbLifestyle101 Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/sRz2Bffj67 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 9, 2019 With several MLB scouts lined up behind home plate, Giancarlo Giacometti shined the brightest on a dreary day in East Meadow on Opening Day for St. John the Baptist. The crafty right-handed pitcher was unflappable, as he fired 6.1 strong innings in a 6-1 win for the Cougars over Kellenberg. He noted that he was excited for today and had it marked on his calendar facing Miami-commit Jason Diaz. “‘Especially being Opening Day, I just wanted to get the win,” said the right-hander. After going down 1-2-3 in the first, they had a huge second inning. Freshman st...
by Joseph Langan Since the hire of Coach Casey McKay in 2016 St. John the Baptist High School has found themselves to be one of the top competitors in the CHSAA league. Since that time they’ve found themselves making back-to-back championship appearances, in which they hoisted the title in 2018. SJB fought hard in 2019 to try and make it back to the CHSAA title game for the third straight year, but fell short in the semi finals to St. Anthony’s High School. As the 2020 season rapidly approaches, SJB is hungry to avenge their semifinal loss and hold up the championship trophy once again. Coach McKay and his team will be challenged more than ever before during that endeavor with new addition of the Brooklyn/Queens Catholic schools to the league. Instead of looking at it as negative Co...
In a move that has been in the makings for over two decades, Brooklyn/Queens schools will be added to the Nassau-Suffolk Catholic League–effective spring 2020. This is big news, as it adds more parity to a league that was already very balanced. Rather than three-game series, there will be two-game series for the Long Island schools and one-game against the Brooklyn/Queens schools. This will not include the playoffs–the existing format will remain, but their hope is to build towards an intersectional or state tournament like public schools do. Below is the letter that was sent out by Ralph Dalton, President of NSCHSAA. Since the inception of the current format, here are the championships by school: Chaminade – 16 St. John the Baptist – 12 Holy Trinity – 6 Kelle...
Add another accomplishment to his young career. Logan O’Hoppe (St. John the Baptist 2018) will appear in tonight’s New York Penn League All-Star Game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark (Staten Island Yankees home field). The game begins at 7pm, but the gates will open at 3pm for spectators. Expect a large contingent of friends and family for the wildly popular 19-year-old phenom. O’Hoppe has five home runs, 20 runs scored and 26 RBI through 44 games this season. He was recently named Philadelphia Phillies minor league hitter of the month after he crushed five home runs in one month. He is also regarded as one of the best defensive catchers in the Phillies’ system. Fans will be treated to an incredible day, and that’s even before the first pitch is thrown. Former...
Final: Chaminade 3, St. John the Baptist 0 WP: Logan Koester (4-hit shutout) The Flyers advance to the Championship Round on Sunday at Hofstra pic.twitter.com/RCdplLqgxW — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2019 It was a battle of the present and future stars on display Tuesday night at St. Joseph’s College. For a while, it appeared the youngster would be the star of the evening but a two-run single by Aidan Larkin broke a scoreless tie and was the difference in Chaminade’s 3-0 victory over St. John the Baptist to send the Flyers into the championship at Hofstra. St. John the Baptist freshman Kyle Chase took the mound against Chaminade ace Logan Koester. Chase, the unflappable youngster, was perfect through four innings–showing his ability to keep his heart rate...
Giancarlo Giacometti fires 6.1 innings today against Kellenberg in a 6-1 victory for St. John the Baptist. He’s our @BsbLifestyle101 Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/sRz2Bffj67 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 9, 2019 With several MLB scouts lined up behind home plate, Giancarlo Giacometti shined the brightest on a dreary day in East Meadow on Opening Day for St. John the Baptist. The crafty right-handed pitcher was unflappable, as he fired 6.1 strong innings in a 6-1 win for the Cougars over Kellenberg. He noted that he was excited for today and had it marked on his calendar facing Miami-commit Jason Diaz. “‘Especially being Opening Day, I just wanted to get the win,” said the right-hander. After going down 1-2-3 in the first, they had a huge second i...
If there is one thing that’s consistent across all sports, it’s that teams who get hot at the end of the season win championships. That was exactly the case last year for the St. John the Baptist baseball team as they won 11 of their final 12 games on their way to a CSHAA league championship. And it wasn’t easy. “In [this] league, it’s almost whoever gets hot at the right time,” said St. John the Baptist head coach Casey McKay. “A lot of the games we were actually down,” he said. “We were behind or tied in every single game in the playoffs.” That includes the deciding game of the league championship where the team was down 3-0 and rallied to win the game 5-3 and their first league championship since 2014. “We don’t get high on ourselves.” McKay says that’s the reason why the 2018 team neve...
Despite losing six games in a row during April last year, St. John the Baptist did not wave the white flag. In fact, they stayed the course and wound up in the CHSAA finals against Kellenberg at Hofstra, before losing 1-0 to Miami-commit Jason Diaz. That is a sign of a resilient, well-coached team with strong leadership from upperclassmen. The Head Coach, Casey McKay, knew things would turn around even during the skid. “The two things I always told the guys was; keep competing and stay together,” he told Axcess Baseball. “When you lose one-run games and guys get thrown out at the plate, you just have to keep competing and things will turn around,” he added. Nothing shows the epitome of their team-first attitude like their improbable comeback trailing 5-0 in the 5th ...
Really good bullpen from freshman Joe Valentino pic.twitter.com/0fkn9Me6Tf Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 25, 2017 Our Fall Ball Series concluded this afternoon at LIU Post with the reigning ECC Champion Pioneers. I watched their full-team workout and it was very eye-opening. If there was any question that LIU Post baseball has come a long way over the previous three seasons, look no further than the newly-implemented rule by the school’s athletic department. On days that the men’s soccer team is playing, the baseball team is prohibited from taking batting practice on the field due to the amount of home runs that have interrupted the soccer games. The biggest culprits have been Rob Andreoli and Zach Fritz. Head Coach Mike Gaffney noted that in previous years t...