While nobody enjoys time away from the diamond, it is necessary in order for players to rest their arms and prepare for the next season. Now that the calendar has turned to January, all eyes are on the 2023 season. From a personal standpoint, I will be watching from a distance for at least some of the season as my daughter was born last week and I would like to spend some time at home. Our reporter, Nick Cipolla, will be stepping up in the interim to be our go-to guy in terms of game coverage. I will be back, though, this is my passion after all. Here’s some of the top storylines heading into the season. What can Frank Catalanotto do for an encore? The 2022 Axcess Baseball College Coach of the Year took over the Hofstra program in July 2021 and in short order turned them into a champ...
MASSAPEQUA HAS DONE IT! They are the back-to-back-to-back Nassau County Class AA Champs!!! FINAL: Massapequa 8 Port Washington 6 pic.twitter.com/vCR8ZkeiCe — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2019 How unique is 2021? Massapequa – the three-time reigning Long Island Champs open up their season tomorrow against Port Washington and they don’t even have their final cuts made. That’s right, the team coached by one of the greatest coaches in Long Island history will take the field on Tuesday but won’t have their final roster until Thursday. And it’s totally plausible. Championships are the norm at Massapequa. They captured the previous three Class AA Long Island Championships before the shutdown in 2020 and Coach Tom Sheedy said 2020 was the best team of ...
Let’s start off with an easy one: How do you like playing for Coach [Tom Sheedy]? It’s great. He always has a get-after-it attitude. He always looks to make us better, but he tries to find the holes in what we have so we can improve on that. Another easy question: Favorite major leaguer? Bryce Harper; I liked him when he first started and made his debut. Just his energy and the way he plays, I always liked following him. Massapequa has three Division I players on the roster right now. But who are some of the younger players that you’re excited to see? Bobby Stang is one of them. He was with us last year. He didn’t get a lot of time because of Nick Schwartz, but the kid can rake and he’s definitely going to be a big part of the team. Also Danny Sohn. He played left field for us last year as...
Steven Matz. Marcus Stroman. Nick Tropeano. Anthony Kay. Joe Palumbo. Kevin McCarthy. Kyle McGowin. Those are the Long Island natives that are in the Major Leagues right now. They are all pitchers. In fact, it’s been 10 years since a position player from Long Island has played in the big leagues and that was Reid Gorecki (Kellenberg) with the Atlanta Braves in 2009. Fourteen of the past 15 players have been pitchers. That’s a trend that says our bats are lagging behind our arms. It makes sense in theory–our pitchers have fresh arms as they only play outdoors from March to October. This works in their favor. Our hitters, though, have limited reps while their counterparts in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas can get at bats 12 months out of the year. Alt...
Massapequa holds on, 7-6, to win the Long Island Class AA Championship for the third consecutive season ! pic.twitter.com/KEF44EkuVo — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 8, 2019 Once again, Massapequa has done it. They are your back-to-back-to-back Class AA Long Island Champions. This time, they defeated Connetquot 7-6 in one of the best games of the year. In a rather curious decision, neither team decided to throw their ace for the Long Island Championship. Connetquot jumped on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd inning, thanks to a Jared Yalon RBI. Yalon came through once again for the Thunderbirds in the bottom of the 4th inning with a 2 RBI double. This put Connetquot in front 5-0. When it seemed like Massapequa was down and out, they most certainly weren’t. With the ...
MASSAPEQUA HAS DONE IT! They are the back-to-back-to-back Nassau County Class AA Champs!!! FINAL: Massapequa 8 Port Washington 6 pic.twitter.com/vCR8ZkeiCe — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2019 For the third year in a row, Massapequa has won the Class AA County Championship. This time, they defeated Port Washington 8-6, clinching the sweep and the title. From the beginning of the series, there was never much doubt in Massapequa. Building off Friday’s victory, Massapequa wasted no time taking charge. In the bottom of the 2nd, RBI from Dan Sohn and Alex Rende provided Massapequa with an early 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd, Johnny Castagnozzi launched a three-run HR to left field, putting the Chiefs out in front 6-0. considering Derek Haag shut down the Port Washingto...
Chris Siklas is our @BsbLifestyle101 player of the game after giving his team the lead in the top of the 7th. He finished with three hits & 3RBI. pic.twitter.com/CPe1GF7wHW — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 30, 2019 Every time Massapequa and Oceanside meet, it’s always a treat. As predicted, Tuesday afternoon’s game did not disappoint by any means. In a game for the ages, Oceanside topped Massapequa by a score of 7-6 to take game two of the series. This wasn’t a normal win by any means for Oceanside, this was the result of a hard fought battle. After suffering a tough loss on Monday, the Sailors wasted no time getting runs on the board. In the opening frame of the game, Austin Vlahakis started the Oceanside rally with an RBI single to left field. The next b...
Year in year out, when Massapequa plays Oceanside in playoffs it’s never as good as advertised, it’s better. On Saturday afternoon, Massapequa squeaked by Oceanside by a score of 6-5 to capture the game one victory. They’re now one win away from repeating as county champions in consecutive years. Earlier in the season when these two teams played, Oceanside flat out embarrassed Massapequa in game one of the series as they won by a score of 13-0. However, this wasn’t the case yesterday. Oceanside jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning courtesy of a Leo Alvarez RBI. He finished the day cashing in all 5 RBI for Oceanside. In the first inning, it seemed as if Brendan McFall was going to shut out Massapequa once again, as he struck out the first three batters...
6’6″ Greg Marino is coming off a great year and is up to 88-90 MPH with his heater. Certainly a potential draft candidate pic.twitter.com/d5UKWGTEoS Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 16, 2017 This afternoon I was at Stony Brook University to watch their Scout Day, which was attended by at least 20 MLB scouts from across the region. Stony Brook is one of the few teams in the region that consistently have their players selected in the MLB Draft. This year should be no different, as they have a handful of players that are draft-eligible. Additionally, they have younger players that could garner interest in the coming years. Below is my observations from the workout. Dylan Resk (JR) is a 6’1″ power-hitting outfielder that smacked 13 HR last year and drove...
Well-struck double by Boston College-commit Travis Honeyman pic.twitter.com/tlJp4MpSiG Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 7, 2017 The bats of Motus Academy came out hot in their early afternoon victory over the Ontario Terriers, scoring five runs in the second inning. Lou Annunziata got it started with a single to left, and advanced to second when Frankie DiMartino was hit by a pitch. Brady Doran hit an RBI single to score Annunziata and Jason Vasil followed with a single of his own to score DiMartino. Boston College-commit Mikey Florides ripped a two-run single to extend the lead to 4-0 and Carlos Hidalgo followed with an opposite field RBI triple to right center to make it 5-0. “The guys really had a great approach,” said Head Coach Bryan Goelz. “They work...
We couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better match up for our inaugural Home Run Derby today at NYIT. In what looked like it would be a blowout, Team McHugh made a furious comeback from a 26-10 deficit to come up just short, by the score of 35-31. Below are some of the highlights from the contest…. Anthony Fontana led off the bottom of the first with a huge round. He hit three home runs and compiled 14 points overall. His sweet swing produced several long blasts pasts the cone in deep right field. The Furman-commit got his team out to a quick 14-0 lead. Both teams exchanged two points in the second inning from James Myler and Jarred Vanderhoof. In the top of the third, the captain Tim McHugh put up four on the board. His power bat generated several massive flies out to...