Wantagh baseball
Q & A With East Rockaway Coach James Hickey
East Rockaway is in the midst of an outstanding season, they are playing in the New York State Class C semifinals today. As is the case with many small schools on Long Island, the success is mostly gone under appreciated. Head Coach James Hickey spoke about their season and this is what he said: Can you tell our audience about your season and how unprecedented this is for the program? We are currently 15-7 this year. We finished 1 game behind Class B County Champion Wheatley in the BC League going 13-3. We tied the school baseball record for wins in a league season with the 2001 team of 13 league wins After a second place regular season finish we lost a 15 inning classic to Wheatley in the BC championship game. We were down to our last out in the Long Island Championship against Pierson ...
Wantagh Puts Up Nine in the 7th, Captures Third Consecutive County Championship
THREEE PEEEAT!!! Wantagh has done it, they are the back-to-back-to-back Nassau County Class A Champions! FINAL: Wantagh 14 Division 3 pic.twitter.com/RaMeHbraeR — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2018 Stop me if you’ve heard this before; the Wantagh Warriors are Nassau County Class A Champs. On Memorial Day afternoon, Wantagh proved they were worthy of completing the three-peat as they defeated the Division Blue Dragons by a score of 14-3, highlighted by a nine-run 7th inning. Although the Warriors won their third consecutive championship, this year was much different than the last two. In many ways, this game was over before it started. In 2016 and 2017, Wantagh needed three games to be crowned county champions. This year, they posted a clean sweep over Division, proving...
Wantagh Continues to Roll; On Verge of Claiming Third Straight County Title
Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Anthony Fontana who fired a complete game allowing two runs and working out of a couple jams in Wantagh’s 5-2 victory over Division in Game 1 of the Nassau Class A Finals pic.twitter.com/HT0UZH7lsc — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2018 It starts with pitching and defense and for the past 12 games, that has been the recipe for the Wantagh Warriors (22-2). They have not lost since April 26 and remarkably haven’t yielded more than three runs during that period. Their ace, Anthony Fontana, fired another CG in the Warriors’ 5-2 victory over Division (20-5). He is now 9-1 o the season and 22-1 in his varsity career. He was backed by an offense that scored four runs in the first inning of Post-commit Nick Fressle; although it ...
Willix Sends Wantagh to Third Consecutive County Championship
Patrick Willix with the big fly for Wantagh! Wantagh takes a 5-3 lead in the top of the 8th off a 2-run blast to right center by Willix. pic.twitter.com/AiYdqGhXp7 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 23, 2018 The Wantagh Warriors entered enemy lines Wednesday looking to continue their historic run and with one swing of the bat off Patrick Willix, they are headed to their third consecutive Nassau County Class A Final. They did not get off to the start they were hoping for. Garden City starting pitcher Billy Duff was in a groove early getting through three innings while only allowing one hit. Wantagh starting pitcher Patrick Willix did not get off to as smooth of a start. In the first inning, he got into early trouble but escaped stranding runners on first and second. In the second in...
Wantagh Secures Playoff Bye With 8-1 Thrashing of North Shore
Wantagh’s Head Coach Keith Sachs on the 8-1 victory. The 2-time Class A Champs advance with their victory over North Shore pic.twitter.com/W0ZZtIZKx3 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 16, 2018 The No. 1 Wantagh Warriors topped the No. 5 North Shore Vikings 8-1, playing most of the game at Wantagh High school on Tuesday, before finishing up at Molloy College’s Mitchel Field on Wednesday due to a rain delay. The two-time defending Long Island Class A champs came out firing early and never took their foot off the gas as they come one step closer on their quest for a three-peat. “We’ve been winning games but not always putting it together,” Wantagh head coach Keith Sachs said. “We hit the ball well, threw the ball well, made some clutch defensive plays…really I think we pl...
Nassau County Class A Power Rankings (7th Edition)
On Long Island, there aren’t many things that are more exciting than varsity baseball playoffs. With just one more week of play before the highly anticipated playoffs, not much is set in stone. With every conference up for grabs, it’s hard to see who’s the favorites to emerge as the top dogs right now. As seen in previous years, anything’s possible come May. Heading into the final week of play in the regular season, let’s take a look at the teams that are streaking in class A, followed by the top ten teams. TRENDING UP: Clarke (10-5) After starting off 2-4, there was no telling to how this Clarke team may pan out. Fast forward a month, and now Clarke has a slim chance of winning their conference championship. If they can sweep Mineola (13-2) behind the arms of...
Nassau County Class A Power Rankings (6th Edition)
As usual, Class A is a power struggle at the top. Despite the two-time reigning champ Wantagh Warriors playing well, they will have plenty of competition from the other powerhouses as well as some upstart teams. Time will only tell as we head down the stretch of the final two weeks of the season. Last week featured Wantagh beating Plainedge two games out of three to take the conference lead, along with Division beating Valley Stream North to take capture first place as well. The last two weeks of the regular season will feature nothing but competitive baseball, so expect to see some upsets as the regular season winds down. With that being said, here are the teams that stood out this past week in class A, followed by the top ten teams in the county. TRENDING UP: North Shore (9-3) After win...
Wantagh Stays Hot and Wins Crucial Series Opener Against Plainedge
Final: Wantagh 4, Plainedge 1 WP: Anthony Fontana S: Mason McLane pic.twitter.com/pyGUi3N7Of Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 23, 2018 Anthony Fontana has made a habit of coming up big in his career. Whether it be at the plate in the Long Island Championship against the Paul Gibson Award winning RHP Sam Kessler or last season on the mound in an emergency start against Carl Yastrzemski Award Winning RHP Brian Morrell, the southpaw is always calm and in control on the mound. And he always seems to win. He performed like a seasoned veteran today, pitching out of a couple of jams to lead Wantagh to a 4-1 victory over a dangerous Plainedge team that entered with a record of 9-2-1. “We practice every single day and we really work hard for these big games and I think we exe...
Nassau County Class A Power Rankings (5th Edition)
A common theme this year in Class A has been upsets. However, last week the top teams prevailed as they established themselves as legitimate contenders. The race for first place in virtually every conference besides conference A4 is heating up, as Plainedge, Wantagh, Division and Valley Stream North will all be battling for the top spot in their respective conferences. Heading into perhaps the most exciting week of the year, let’s look at the teams that stood out this past week. TRENDING UP: Valley Stream North (8-1) Heading into the year, the Spartans virtually went unnoticed in conference A3 as a legitimate threat. Standing at week five in the season, Valley Stream North will have the opportunity of taking first place in the conference. Their lineup consisting of Joe Gisonda, Sean ...
2018 Nassau County Class A Preseason Power Rankings
Although the weather may not reflect the fact that high school baseball is right around the corner, believe it or not it’s here. The major storyline is the two-time reigning Long Island Champion Wantagh Warriors looking to protect their throne while everyone is coming for them. Class A has an incredible amount of parity, as there are double the amount of programs as Class AA. It should make for some high drama once again this season. With that being said, let’s take a look at the preseason top five teams for Class A. 5. Clarke With the realignment of the new conferences in Class A, Conference A4 sticks out as the conference with the least amount of experience regarding deep playoff runs. A team that’s had a history of winning conference and county championships led...
Q & A With Nassau County Reporter Mike Connors
We had some difficult with the audio in the podcast, so here is a transcript of the audio between Vinny Messana and Nassau reporter Mike Connors. You’ll be releasing your Top-15 players in Nassau County this week, when is that coming out? I’m shooting for Saturday or Sunday this week, but first I will be beginning our third Face of Nassau challenge. It’s a great way to start of the new year. Yep, people want their baseball information– That’s what it’s all about. So let’s talk about some of the top guys. Our list won’t be released until March, but there’s a couple of guys that are no secret in terms of being the top player. Let’s talk first about Wantagh’s Anthony Fontana. What can you tell us about him? Not only does he hav...
What Are the Major Story Lines to Watch for in 2018?
With the calendar flipping to 2018, all eyes are on the upcoming baseball season. Despite the bitter cold in the beginning part of the season, it was another enjoyable season in 2017. We will go through some of the major story lines to watch in 2018… Who is MLB Draft worthy? Despite several players garnering interest late into the season, the only high school Long Island players that got drafted were Ben Brown and Brian Morrell. This was surprising to me considering some other players getting looks from Major League scouts. We will cover this topic more in depth in the next week or so, but I’ll give you four players that have my attention–Franklin Parra, Anthony Fontana, Logan O’Hoppe and Mark Faello. Next year will be interesting with Tim McHugh, Jason Diaz and Max...
