Team Beast
BEAST Academy Set to Open in the Fall Led by Craig Everett
Craig Everett, who has been the Head Coach of Concordia for 13 years, and involved with college baseball for 20+ years, recently had some downtime during the baseball season for the first time in decades. He approached Pete Kritikos, owner of Team BEAST, with an idea to create a post-graduate program for players that either wanted to take a gap year after high school or that are sitting out a year in college due to the roster overload that was caused by COVID. “Ironically, we had just sent in a proposal to a place in Florida to do the same, so we said it just makes sense to do it here,” said Kritikos. “We’ll start here and if things progress in the future, we’ll see. But with so many kids re-classing and not finding homes, it makes sense to do,” he added...
Commack’s Charles Galiano Innovates Catching Training With C25 Product
During the pandemic every person was overcome with boredom. Many were simply filling those hours with Netflix documentaries like ‘Tiger King’, while others were looking to develop new skills to hopefully profit from. Commack’s Charles Galiano – a former minor league catcher of the Milwaukee Brewers and owner of Seven Tool Catching – fits into the latter. While working at Team BEAST facility in his hometown, Galiano had an idea spring upon him while in the cage. “I thought to myself it’s absolutely crazy nobody has thought to put weighted balls through the machine,” said Galiano. “I knew it was a novel idea and it would be a big hit so I kept my mouth shut and didn’t tell anybody except my family,” he added. The timing couldn...
Tyler Cox: What Christmas Means To Me
(Editor’s Note: Tyler Cox is a 2021 graduate of Clarke HS. He helped Clarke capture the Nassau County Class A Championship in a thrilling series win over Division. In November 2019, he announced his verbal commitment to West Virginia of the Big-12. He is among the elite hitters in the 2021 class. The following words are his own.) Christmas to me isn’t as much about the presents I receive and the week off from school, but more about the time I get to spend with family and friends. Every Christmas my family and I take the time to open presents and spend the day together, but I feel like the holiday is most enjoyable because of the people I am able to spend my time with. This Christmas I was able to throw with one of my teammates from our county championship team last year, Brendan Turton, w...
Who Were Some of The Top Travel Teams in 2020?
Unfortunately we did not have a high school baseball season in 2020 which crushed a majority of our content throughout the year. This included game coverage, power rankings and postseason awards. On the flip side, we focused our coverage on the travel ball scene once we got the green light to play games beginning on July 5. Here are some of the top teams from this season. Long Island Titans Quattrini (17U) Overall Record: 45-3-2 20 shutouts in 50 games Tournaments Won: Diamond Nation – Super 17 Diamond Nation – East Coast Nationals Perfect Game – New England Select Blue Chip Prospects Northeast Elite Antonia Agostinelli Memorial Tournament MVP Beast National 2021 Overal Record: 56-14-1 Tournaments Won: BSE 19u Diamond Nation 17/18u BBH 18u Labor Day PH Mid-Atlantic Elite ...
Up Next Powered by The Yard Sports Academy: Brandon O’Neill
(Editor’s Note: This is the sixth installment of the popular ‘Up Next’ Series Powered by The Yard Sports Academy. In this series, we feature the best players on Long Island that have yet to appear in a varsity game. Previously, we featured Andrew Koshy, Josh Knoth, Chris Batuyios, Sebastian Lippman and TJ Bradford. Thank you for your continued interest.) When you’re looking to build a team, it’s important that you have a strong presence up-the-middle. New Mets GM Jared Porter specifically mentioned that in Monday’s press conference when discussing the needs of the Mets. They addressed that need on Saturday with the signing of free agent catcher James McCann. He’s a player that really improved his pitch framing (sixth in the MLB), he throws out 46 p...
Beast and NexGen Elite Battle It Out To 6-6 Tie
Ryan Appell singles and NexGen Elite ties it up 2-2 in the third pic.twitter.com/wi5NO5fd1a — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 17, 2020 The early morning time slots in tournaments – especially when the temperature in the 40s – means pitching and sluggish offense. That was not the case today as the Northeast Elite 18u kicked off between Beast 2022 and NexGen Elite. The teams battled back-and-forth but ultimately it ended in a 6-6 tie as the game reached the time limit. The pitching match up was Christian Antonopoulos (Manhasset 2022) for Beast against Michael DeFilippo (Connetquot 2021) of NexGen Elite. Both teams went scoreless in the first inning. The scoring got going in the bottom of the second against DeFilippo with two outs and nobody on. Army-commit Nolan Nawr...
Oil City Bandits Complete Incredible Comeback, Capture 14-13 Win
It was a comeback for the ages on Saturday afternoon at Mitchel Field in the 11u division of the ‘Beat the Heat‘ tournament. This was a tale of two games. There was the first half of the game that was all Team Beast, and the second half that was all Oil City Bandits, as OCB came away with the incredible 14-13 victory – in a game that was only four innings due to the time limit. In the top of the first, the Bandits jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Michael Amato got things going with a walk, stolen base and then came around to score on an RBI single by Aiden Perry to left field. This ballgame was far from over at this point – in fact it was just the appetizer. Beast Black responded with three runs in the home half of the first. Anthony Kotarski singled and scored ...
Caleb Aurelien’s Walk-Off Hit Propels LIB Prime 15U Into PG Finals
What an exciting ballgame it was despite the oppressive heat at Baseball Heaven. This was a semifinal match up in the Perfect Game New England Select 15U with a trip to the finals on the line. LIB Prime sent their ace, Sadier Vicioso, to the mound against Team Beast, who sent hard-throwing RHP Engel Silvestre. Early on, it appeared this was all LIB Prime, who had the right offense approach against Silvestre. They took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Sean Costello to score Tim Henning – who led off the inning with an infield single to second. Silvestre wound up striking out three in the inning, as he did in the first inning but the high pitch count in the heat certainly benefited the offense. Vicioso, in the meantime, was dealing. The southpaw is ever...
Wild Back-And-Forth Affair Finishes In Tie Between Team Beast and HDMH
This was supposed to be a prosperous time for pitchers as hitters struggled to get acclimated back to game speed after a four-month hiatus. That was not the case today in a Wednesday matinee between Team Beast and HDMH in the Boys of Summer Collegiate League. The rosters were filled with recognizable names of recent high school graduates from Long Island. With the cancellation of elite collegiate summer seasons around the country, dozens of talented Long Island ballplayers were forced to play local. This adds up to create compelling summer league match ups like today. Chris Manzi took the hill for HDMH against a star-studded Beast lineup. They went to work early in the first inning beginning with a single by James Myler, who stole second to get into scoring position. St. John’s OF Ti...
TBR Releases 2020 Preseason Rankings
Travel Baseball Rankings has released their 2020 Preseason Rankings. Below is the New York list. There were plenty of Long Island-based teams: (Disclaimer: This is no affiliation to Axcess Baseball.) 9U Rankings Richmond Titans Giordano EEP Brooklyn Dreamchasers RedBlacks Baseball NY Bluebirds NYC Spartans SFX Huskies Richmond Titans Arne EEP Staten Island Webster Wolves 10U Rankings Brooklyn Bandits Richmond Titans Blue Bonnie Rangers Raiders Baseball Club NY Bluebirds Blue Richmond County Nationals EEP Staten Island Orioles Myers SFX Huskies Ozone Howard Rising Stars Fairport Red Raiders Panthers Shock Prime Crimson Pride RCBC Nationals 11U Rankings Dreamchasers Team Steel Select Grit Baserats Baseball NY Bluebirds Brooklyn blue Storm Richmond County Americans Lions Elite Bonnie Braves T...
PODCAST: Matt Rocchio
Here’s A Rundown of some of the topics we discussed: State of the Team: Really moving in the right direction Graduated only one impact senior from 2019 He’s very pleased with the leadership of the seniors so far. They’ve been working out for the past three months in the gym He cannot wait for the season to start Impact Players LHP Matt Polestino will anchor the rotation. He’s been on varsity since ninth grade. He is committed to SUNY New Paltz. His first varsity game was at Shoreham-Wading River in 2017 and he shut them down for five innings in relief. Dan Brown, a scholarship player that will be going to Pace. Beating Shoreham-WR in 2017 They had lost 4-1 the day before so he knew they could hang with them. Joe Muchnicki was coming off a no-hitter the week before. ...
