Valley Stream North
Valley Stream North Focusing on Fundamentals as They Look to Bounce Back
by Aaron Diaz (Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series.) Valley Stream North 10 Floral Park: 0 WP: Chris Manzi (PERFECT GAME, 10 K) Joe Gisonda was 2-2 with a 2-run HR and 4 runs. pic.twitter.com/SRoiofKZFM — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 29, 2019 After missing the playoffs in 2023, the Valley Stream North Spartans look to rebound with a full pitching staff to get back to their program success. “Last year was a difficult year for us,” said Valley Stream North head coach Phil Sanfilippo. “We got off to a poor start against some excellent teams and we dug ourselves a massive hole and missed the playoffs.” Now looking onward to 2024 in his 14th year, Sanfilippo and the assistant coaches James Casella and Daniel Lod...
Valley Stream North Looking to Bounce Back After Tough 2022
by Andy Smith 2022 did not go as planned for Valley Stream North. The Spartans had a difficult season, winning only five games in a challenging league and wound up missing the playoffs for only the second time in the past 15 years. Entering his 13th season as the head coach, Phil Sanfilippo reflected on the challenges that were faced and what lessons were learned. “We had victories over most teams in the league, including league champion South Side. However, most weeks we couldn’t get over the hump for the second win to take the series. We lost a junior starting pitcher for the season prior to league play, and we were young at some key spots, with two sophomores in the starting rotation and two more at SS and 3B. The starting pitching was inconsistent, as was the lineup’s ability to pu...
Valley Stream North Hopeful to Build Off Playoff Appearance
By Michael Malaszczyk The weather is getting warmer, the days are getting longer, and varsity baseball is getting closer. Coach Phil Sanfilippo of Valley Stream North had a lot to say about the upcoming baseball season in an interview with Axcess Baseball. By his own words, Coach Sanfilippo and his assistant, James Casella, are looking forward to a season less-stunted by the coronavirus pandemic than the 2021 season. “The last year was very much impacted by COVID,” said Sanfilippo. “This year, we’re starting very late, but not necessarily due to COVID.” Coach Sanfilippo had plenty of thoughts about his team’s 2021 season, which was very successful considering the circumstances. “After a slow start, we won 3 of our final 4 games, including an important win over Plainedge to qualify for the ...
Valley Stream North Enters 2021 Led By Talented Junior Class
When we wrote the 2020 season preview of Valley Stream North in January 2020, the world was a very different place, but they were also one of the teams on Long Island that was entering the season with a lot of uncertainty due to their youth. From their 2019 playoff team that was in the playoffs with a 14-9 record, they graduated every starting pitcher and position player. Coach Phil Sanfilippo noted last year that his team was going to be very young and inexperienced. So in that sense, they were not impacted as much as other teams. “Had we played last year, we would’ve been one of – if not the- youngest team in the county,” said Sanfilippo. They were expecting to have just three seniors and five juniors on the roster. They would’ve had maybe six sophomores sta...
Valley Stream North Prepared To Rebuild On the Fly
by Zevan Shuster The nature of high school baseball means roster turnover each year. The goal is to capitalize on strong senior classes. Valley Stream North High School Baseball Coach Phil Sanfilippo faces a unique challenge as the 2020 season approaches, Sanfilippo knows that the roster turnover from last year to this year – and the resulting inexperience of his roster – will be something that he hasn’t had to deal with since his coaching tenure began. “We graduated pretty much every starting pitcher that we had and every single starter on the field. They all graduated. Now, in many cases, we don’t always play all of the seniors. We play our best players and lots of times you’ll have a couple seniors on the field ,and guys from other grades, but it just so happened last year ...
Bethpage Dominates VSN 15-1 To Advance
FINAL: Bethpage 15 VSN 1 Bethpage is headed to the semifinals! pic.twitter.com/Mm65QFvns5 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2019 With the season on the line, Bethpage annihilated Valley Stream North on Tuesday afternoon by a score of 15-1. Bethpage advances to the Class A semifinals with the victory. After posting a scoreless top of the 1st inning, Bethpage wasted no time manhandling their opponents. With two men on and nobody out, Pete Schimmel launched a three-run home run to give Bethpage a 3-0 lead in the blink of an eye. Brody Paola tacked onto Schimmel’s home run with an RBI of his own. Then, things got ugly. Following the four-run 1st inning, the Bethpage bats exploded even more in the 2nd inning. They scratched across six runs on this occasion, expanding the lead...
Wantagh Defeats Valley Stream North 2-1 Behind McLane’s Gem
Mason McLane talks about what he did to keep the Valley Stream North lineup in check and how he got out of crucial jams in the 6th & 7th inning. pic.twitter.com/t93tPIajp0 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 6, 2019 In game one of the series, Wantagh got the best of Valley Stream North, as they squeaked out a 2-1 victory. From the get go, Wantagh wasted no time getting out in front. In the top of the first inning, Dylan Scott gave the Warriors an early 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly. From this point forward, Wantagh never surrendered the lead. Mason McLane got the start in game one of the series and was phenomenal. Entering the game, he had 70 strikeouts through 38.2 innings pitched. It’s safe to say he looked as good as advertised. McLane finished allowing five hits, one ear...
Valley Stream North Motivated By Last Year’s Controversial Decision
Very rarely are excuses valid, but we will let you be the judge of this one: Due to a rain out on a Saturday in the postseason, Valley Stream North was told by Section 8 that they would have to not only face Plainedge on a Sunday, but the winner would have to face MacArthur in the same day. Right away, that’s not entirely fair that in a varsity postseason game one team would be playing a double header and not the other team. You could make the case that the higher seed should have the advantage, but regardless it is not typically the case. Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Sean Rogers. The first baseman had 3 RBI in Valley Stream North’s 11-0 victory over Lynbrook. Eddie Ye was the winning pitcher. #TipYourCap pic.twitter.com/ivu1sRW6If — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbasebal...
