by Trevor Dugan
Axcess caught up with Dan Gilroy and Cooper Daniels of the Top Tier Aviators following their championship victory at PAL Stadium @liboysofsummer @TopTierAviators @cooper_dan88211 @DanielGilroy33 pic.twitter.com/9lSFc2zYYr
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 15, 2025
It was a dominant performance for the Top Tier Aviators Friday evening as they captured the championship in the LI Boys of Summer Varsity Division over the Long Island Empire.
The championship matchup featured plenty of players committed to play college baseball. The Aviators started New Haven-commit Dan Gilroy on the mound, while the Empire started SUNY Purchase’s Jordan Cassuto.
The Empire batted first and gave Gilroy an early scare in the top of the first inning. After striking out the first batter of the game, the Empire put two men on base thanks to an error by the Aviator infield and a walk. With runners on first and second, Gilroy forced a lineout to short to elude the early Empire threat and finish off a scoreless top of the first.
The Aviator offense got off to a rapid start in this championship bout. Two straight singles to start the game posed an immediate scoring threat, and a third straight by SS Cooper Daniels (Westhampton 2026) scored the game’s first run to give Top Tier an early lead. A second run would score after an errant throw by the Empire catcher sailed into center field as Daniels attempted to steal second, allowing the Aviators to take a 2-0 lead.
One more run would come across in the top of the first when Cooper Costa-Helmsteadt (Southampton 2026) laced an RBI single to left-centerfield, extending the Top Tier lead to 3-0 heading into the top of the second inning.
The Empire were able to get a couple of those runs back right away in the second inning. Melvin Perez (SUNY Old Westbury) led the inning off with a single, then stole second base. The next batter was struck out by Gilroy, then Xavier Wilson of Island Trees High School walked to put two men on. The next batter chopped a ball back to the pitcher, but the throw sailed over the first baseman’s head. The error allowed both runners to score, and the Aviator lead was reduced to 3-2.
With their lead diminished after just one inning, the Top Tier offense wasted no time getting those runs back and then some in the bottom of the second. Following a leadoff flyout to center, a single and two straight walks loaded the bases for Cooper Daniels, who delivered once again with a bases-clearing double. Although Daniels was thrown out at third attempting to stretch his hit to a triple, he extended the Top Tier lead to 6-2.
Cooper Daniels plates three more with an RBI down the line to extend the Aviators’ lead
Top Tier 6 – Empire 2
Mid third pic.twitter.com/d9se2uYFDj— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 15, 2025
Daniels would finish the day 2-for-2 with a team high five RBIs and one run scored.
Daniel Gilroy backed up his offense by firing a 1-2-3 shutdown inning in the top of the third, getting the Aviators’ bats back up to the plate while they were hot. In the bottom of the third, however, the Empire brought in Aidan Medeiros of Queens College to relieve Cassuto. Medeiros was able to answer Gilroy with a 1-2-3 inning of his own.
Not to be outdone, Gilroy tossed a second consecutive 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fourth, striking out two batters in the process to bring his strikeout total to seven on the day.
After a stagnant third inning, the Aviators’ offense struck again in the bottom of the fourth. A leadoff walk put a runner on to start the inning, then a strikeout followed by a single put runners on the corners with one out. As the SUNY Poly Tech-commit John Leonard came to the plate, the runner on first attempted to steal second, prompting a throwing error allowing the runner on third to score. Leonard followed that up with a triple to score the runner from second, and was driven on a sac fly two batters later to stretch the Top Tier lead to 9-2.
Dan Gilroy records two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 top of the fourth for the Aviators
Top Tier 6 – Empire 2
Mid fourth pic.twitter.com/nNlQAsH3Ra— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 15, 2025
Gilroy retired the side in order for the third straight inning in the top of the fifth. Retiring the last nine batters of the game consecutively. Gilroy finished with a line of 5.0 innings pitched, eight strikeouts, two hits and no earned runs allowed.
Heading into the bottom of the fifth, the Aviators needed just one more run to force a mercy rule and clinch the championship. Gilroy reached base on a throwing error to lead off the inning, advancing to second on the errant throw. After the next batter struck out, Cooper Costa-Helmsteadt ripped an RBI double down the left field line to score Gilroy and give Top Tier a 10-2 championship victory.
It was a dominant performance for the Top Tier Aviators from start to finish, as they finish the Boys of Summer season 15-4-2. The LI Empire finish the Boys of Summer season 15-8-1.
