St. Joseph’s
Q & A With Mike DiFilippo
One of the hallmarks of a winning college program is player development. While any program would love to bring in the big-time recruit, it’s just not rational to expect that every player on your roster will be a PG All-American or an All-State player. There needs to be instances of players that come in and take a leap forward. During my time at Farmingdale State College, that would occur routinely. Players that were either overlooked in high school or simply took their game to another level once they stepped foot on campus. St. Joseph’s is the new king of the Skyline Conference – having won back-to-back-to-back championships including a thrilling walk-off win, 9-8, this year over those Farmingdale Rams in the winner-take-all finals. The Golden Eagles, who lost their first...
St. Joseph’s Seeking Three-Peat in Skyline Conference
(Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.) From 2008-2014 the Skyline Conference went through Farmingdale State College as the Rams captured 7 consecutive titles. Since that time. St. Joseph’s LI has won it four times, while no other program has won it more than once. 2015 – Old Westbury 2016 – St. Joseph’s 2017 – Maritime 2018 – St. Joseph’s 2019 – Farmingdale 2020 – N/A 2021 – Merchant Marine Academy 2022 – St. Joseph’s 2023 – St. Joseph’s Tom Caputo took over as Head Coach following the 2022 season, and he led them to a 30-11 season, as they defended their title and made another appearance in the NCAA Regionals. Following the season, his mes...
Back-to-Back! St. Joseph’s Captures 2023 Skyline Conference Championship for Second Straight Season
Phil Krpata was named Most Outstanding Player of the Skyline Conference Tournament pic.twitter.com/kYcnEpqQIr — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 14, 2023 by Gabe Zoda Mother’s Day is always filled with celebration. That was the case for St. Joseph’s University after winning the Skyline Conference Championship on Sunday. Their win over SUNY Maritime marked the Golden Eagles’ second straight title and 4th in 7 seasons (2016, 2018, 2022, 2023). The action in the game would start up in the top of the 2nd inning for St Joseph’s, scoring four in the frame. John Lynch led things off with a double to left center field. James Maggio would drive him in and replace his spot at second with a double of his own, scoring the game’s first run. The Golden Eagles would keep the scoring going...
Where Are They Now Powered by the BK7 Brand: Anthony Papa
When it comes to overused phrases, “he’s got that dog in ’em” is that at the top of the list. But Anthony Papa, a former Diamond Award winner, Long Island Champ and Skyline Conference champ, fits that mold to a t. Papa, who suffered a torn UCL during his senior year of high school and told nobody, wound up pitching a five-hit complete game in the Class A Long Island Championship in 2015. He was able to play through the pain during the season as a hitter and won the Diamond Award. Later in life, he tore his ACL during conditioning training on the beach. He was able to pitch through the pain as well and to this day never got the ACL repaired. Followers of Long Island baseball are familiar with Anthony Papa for his dominant days as a 1-2 punch atop the Division rotatio...
Rick Garrett Seizes the Moment
Rick Garrett, the 2022 Skyline Coach of the Year, has been at the helm for St. Joseph’s since 2014. He has decided to go out on top and spend more time with his family and friends. He has won 3 Skyline Conference championships – including the 2022 season – and brought the program to new heights with NCAA Regional wins and players consistently being named All-Conference and All-Region. Previously, he was the head coach of St. Dominic HS for 17 years where he led the Bayhawks to the 2009 CHSAA Championship and had 7 players drafted. “It’s been absolutely amazing to be the head coach at St. Joseph’s College. I’ve come across players, staff members, assistant coaches and parents that have just given me such great opportunities to grow as a coach and pe...
St. Joseph’s Captures the 2022 Skyline Conference Championship
St. Joseph’s captures the 2022 Skyline Conference Championship! pic.twitter.com/EkZ9kvSvjR — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 15, 2022 For the third time since 2016, the St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles have captured the Skyline Conference Championship. They did so by taking the long route – losing the first game on Friday before rattling off 4 consecutive victories in elimination games. Coach Rick Garrett – who has been at the helm for all three of the championships – stated that the message was simple following their 12-10 loss on Friday. “We said, ‘hey let’s take this one game at a time. Everyone that we face moving forward, it’s either us or them getting eliminated.’ It was just about keeping the pedal down and trying to sco...
What’s On Tap For This Week?
This week will start to actually feel like baseball season for two reasons It’s slated to be above 50 degrees from Tuesday through Friday. Seven local teams will be in action Before this week, it’s only been a handful of teams to even get on the field let alone have more than one game at a time. So this will be fun. We used to do the “What’s On Tap” every Monday back in 2015-’16, but it just got too tedious when there’s 15 teams playing multiple times per week. Also, I replaced it with the Weekly Power Rankings, which I haven’t started up yet. Here’s the local teams that will be action this week. Tuesday: Fordham @ Stony Brook 2pm Felician @ Molloy 3:30pm Wednesday: Sacred Heart @ Fordham 3pm LIU @ Farleigh-Dickinson 1pm Thursday: Felic...
St. Joseph’s Announces 2021 Schedule
St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles announced their 2021 schedule this week, and they will be opening up on March 13, at home against Mount St. Vincent. They will play a 26-game regular season against Skyline Conference opponents only. Those opponents will be Mount St. Vincent, Old Westbury, St. Joseph’s-Brooklyn, Merchant Marines, Farmingdale State, Mount St. Mary’s and Maritime. The final series will be May 1 and 2, with back-to-back double headers. The playoffs will be May 7-9 at the highest seed with a lighted facility. It may seem like a long time ago, but the Farmingdale Rams are the reigning champs, which was in May 2019 when they defeated Old Westbury at home. St. Joseph’s will go into the season with a very strong team, but they will have to replace co-aces Anthony ...
OTD: St. Joseph’s Outlasts USMMA in 11-Inning Thriller to Capture Skyline Conference Title
And the St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles are the 2018 Skyline Conference Champions! pic.twitter.com/XsYIblRhGb — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 6, 2018 Like the legendary Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra said, “it’s deja vu all over again!” Just as they did in 2016, the St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles captured the Skyline Conference championship in an 11-inning extra inning thriller at Farmingdale State College. The big hit came by pinch-hitter Gehrig Montoro to score Tyler Crafa on a well-struck line drive down the left field line to send his team and the St. Joseph’s faithful into a frenzy. “I said to him right before he got up ‘this is what makes the season, this one hit’ and he went up there and got it!” said fifth year Head Coach Rick Garrett. Reliever Anthony Caminiti, who came o...
Which Restaurants Do Long Island Athletes Miss The Most?
Like most people, I enjoy food. Not being able to dine-in at my favorite restaurants is frustrating. I’m definitely looking forward to once the stay-at-home order is lifted and I can go to Tap Room and The Meetball Place and Ciao Baby’s and Hummus Mediterranean and Brook House Deli the rest of the amazing places we have on Long Island. So yesterday I put up a simple question on Instagram which asked “which restaurant do you miss the most?” and here’s the responses. Some were asked to explain what they miss about it and here’s what they said. Chris Amato (St. Joseph’s) – Avocado’s Why: Avocado’s is a small Mexican American takeout restaurant located on Lakeland Avenue in Bohemia and has some of the best burritos on Long Island. Bei...
Things I Miss About the Baseball Season
It’s only been less than a month but somehow it feels much longer given how the carpet was ripped from beneath. With the weather warming up, it’s offering glimpses of what we are accustomed to recognize as ‘baseball season’. Honestly, the weather in 2020 was just about perfect. We haven’t been hit with any snowstorms and the temperatures have rarely been below 40 degrees since February 1. We’ve been hit pretty hard with bad spring weather every year since 2013 – and we can always count on one significant downfall of snow. In any event, I’m still missing my usual routine during the baseball season. Since the inception of Axcess Baseball, and Baseball on the Island before that, I’ve been used to heading out to a college game at 3 pm in Ma...
Andrew Aschettino Joins St. Joseph’s Coaching Staff
One year after stepping away from high school baseball with a County Championship, Andrew Aschettino is back. The 17-year Head Coach of Rocky Point has joined an already sterling coaching staff St. Joseph’s College to be the first base coach. The staff features Head Coach Rick Garrett, former Dowling Head Coach Tom Caputo and assistant coach Joe Benkert. “It was always a goal of mine,” said Aschettino. “It was always in the back of my mind to face a different type of challenge or opportunity. I don’t know if I thought it would be immediate. But Tom Caputo was one of my first assistant coaches at Rocky Point and we’ve been friends over 20 years. Rick being a friend as well, it happened pretty quick,” he added. While this may seem like an insignifica...
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