Battle of the Border
Q & A With Joey Pena
It’s hard to have a better collegiate career than Joey Pena. The Brooklyn native just wrapped up an outstanding 4-year career with the St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans, hitting .366 with 37 RBI and 50 runs scored this season. Joey was far from a singles-hitting shortstop. He had 26 extra base hits and stole 37 bases, while playing all 54 contests. Perhaps most impressive, he drew 45 walks and struck out only 14 times; which padded his OBP to a ridiculous .498 over 194 at bats. Earlier this year he broke the program record for hits in a career. They came up just shy of returning to Cary, N.C. for the Div-II College World Series after they were shutout 6-0 by Blue Point native Shane McDonald. Pena participated in our Axcess Invitational on Tuesday and he was one of the stars of the show. He...
Dylan Mouzakes: My Journey to Pro Baseball
(Dylan Mouzakes is a 2012 graduate of Half Hollow Hills High School West where he starred on the mound. He went on to pitch at Pace University and he pitched in our inaugural Battle of the Border game in 2016. He is currently playing professional baseball. The following words are his own.) After a solid senior campaign at Hills West (Suffolk County All-Star, All-League, All-County, and Academic All-League) I was still not committed to a college. I received only two athletic scholarships, from Dowling and NYIT, and was determining what direction I wanted to go in with my career. I received a call from Coach Manning, at Pace University, during the summer of 2012 while at a friend’s pool party. He told me that Pace would love to have me and that I had a spot on the team if I decided to attend...
Why I’m Excited For 2018
It is a slow news week so I will take some time out from our usual content of feature stories and event coverage to write why I’m personally excited for the start of the 2018 baseball season. As the years have gone on, I have been trying to make this website the most accurate depiction of the Long Island baseball scene as possible. This is the first year, in my opinion, that I can do that. Let me explain. While this began as nothing more than a hobby during my senior year at Adelphi in 2013, the demand for information and my own ability to have access to that information has allowed me to increase the quality and depth of content. No longer am I relying on box scores or secondhand descriptions of the news. Sometimes I laugh at the simplicity of the articles in 2014 and 2015. As each ...
What’s The Best Stadium to Visit This Summer?
If you are anything like me and love the game of baseball, you appreciate the intricacies of the game that make it so unique than any other game. For purposes of brevity, I will focus on one aspect; the stadiums. No other sport–aside from maybe golf–offers such a diverse experience for the fans on a stadium to stadium basis. No two fields are created equal, and some are simply outrageous. It really enhances the experience when you can watch a baseball game in a cathedral. I have been to several, and here are my top top that offer the best combination of fan experience and opportunities to enjoy your time in the city. 10. Progressive Field– To say the city of Cleveland has been tortured by its sports teams would be an understatement. The LeBron James (brief) departure was simply one of the ...
Q & A with Joey Ricciardi
When you play for MacArthur, playoff berths are par for the course. The General are coming off a 16-win season, but they had their season cut-short by rival Division in the second round of the postseason. They will be looking to avenge that loss this season. One of the players they will be counting on is left-handed hitting senior outfielder Joey Ricciardi. He announced his commitment to play at York College of Pennsylvania a couple days ago. Prior to that, he put on an impressive performance at the charity Home Run Derby at Calhoun last month. He spoke with Vinny Messana about a variety of things, and here’s what he had to say… Talk a little bit about the college recruiting process and how you made your decision? The recruiting process was very stressful. I attended a lot of c...
Coach Ferber: The Man Behind the Instagram Account
(Photo Credit: Baseball Lifestyle 101) You’ve probably come across plenty of pages scrolling through the trenches of the explore page on Instagram. Plenty of baseball-related accounts use content that you’ve seen across various platforms of the internet. The account simply titled “coachferber”, while similar in content, is much different in terms of depth, knowledge and passion for the game. Every one of his 88K followers are treated to videos with insightful posts and captions that he estimated take him over 30 minutes to construct. Just don’t expect your timeline to be spammed with non-stop content, as the real man behind the account lives a normal life with his wife in Brooklyn after playing independent ball following his career at Cañada Community College ...
Third Annual Awards Banquet To Be Held Jan. 6
We are pleased to announce our third annual Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday Jan. 6 at the beautiful Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook, NY. The newly-renovated building’s elegant and spacious design along with its fine cuisine makes for the perfect destination for our biggest event of the year. The 2017 All-Long Island team will be honored along with numerous individual awards such as Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year. Additionally, we will be introducing a handful of new awards this year such as “Best High School Team.” The finalists for that are Massapequa, Kellenberg, Wantagh, Commack and Shoreham-Wading River. Recipients of the awards will not be charged, however, the cost per guest is $50 per plate. You can purchase tick...
Fall Ball Series: LIU Post
Really good bullpen from freshman Joe Valentino pic.twitter.com/0fkn9Me6Tf — Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 25, 2017 Our Fall Ball Series concluded this afternoon at LIU Post with the reigning ECC Champion Pioneers. I watched their full-team workout and it was very eye-opening. If there was any question that LIU Post baseball has come a long way over the previous three seasons, look no further than the newly-implemented rule by the school’s athletic department. On days that the men’s soccer team is playing, the baseball team is prohibited from taking batting practice on the field due to the amount of home runs that have interrupted the soccer games. The biggest culprits have been Rob Andreoli and Zach Fritz. Head Coach Mike Gaffney noted that in previous years t...
Fall Ball Series: SUNY Maritime
Our Fall Ball Series continues at SUNY Maritime–the reigning Skyline Conference champs pic.twitter.com/p2cXZNgebb — Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 17, 2017 Coming off the best season in program history, the Maritime Privateers have a right to be confident and playing loose as they attempt to defend their Skyline Conference title. They held a 3-2 lead into the fifth inning of the NCAA Regionals against powerhouse Shenandoah, who spent eight consecutive weeks as the No. 1 ranked Div-III team in the country. They ultimately had their season cut short but they are in great position for another successful season. In addition to returning seven of their nine starters, they are also returning their entire starting rotation led by Rookie of the Year Travis Bruinsma and Anthon...
Upcoming Drama “Stano” to Feature Long Islanders
Actor Joe Manganiello will be starring in an upcoming drama film titled “Stano“, portraying an ex-star baseball player that spends 17 years in prison and returns to the Bronx. The film will be directed by Raymond Felitta, who also directed Madoff. The baseball portion of the film was shot last month at MCU Ballpark, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. A few recognizable names will be cast in the film as extras during the baseball scenes. Dom Scala (Adelphi University), Bryan Goelz (Motus Academy) and Andrew Florides (Glen Cove) can be spotted in the film. Scala will be a coach while Goelz and Florides will be players. Manganiello has been in TV shows such as CSI:NY, The Sopranos, One Tree Hill, True Blood, Scrubs and Two and Half Men as well as movies such as Spiderman and Magic Mik...
Battle of the Border Rosters Announced
Our second annual Battle of the Border will be held tomorrow, Tuesday May 30th, at Hofstra University between the top college seniors from Long Island and the boroughs. Gates will open at 2 pm to watch batting practice. That will be followed by infield/outfield and then first pitch will be at 4pm. Below are the rosters for the two sides. Team Catalanotto: Pitchers: Alex Weingarten, SUNY Cortland Josh Outsen, St. Joseph’s College John LaRossa, University of Hartford Bobby Kelly, Molloy College Jorge Marrero, Hofstra University Danny Aguilo, SUNY Old Westbury Andrew Sesto, Adelphi University Brandon Lubrano, St. Joseph’s College Ben Wright, NYIT Catchers: Thomas Asbaty, LIU Post Ryan Dillon, Molloy College Infielders: Dan Daley, Baruch College Tommy Ziegen, SUNY Old Westbury Mike...
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