NEWS
Thomas Hackimer’s Path from Walk-On to Fourth Round Pick is a “One in a Billion”
(Photo Credit: St. John’s University Athletics) by Vinny Messana, Editor-In-Chief Now in his 21st season as the Head Coach at St. John’s University, Ed Blankmeyer has seen a lot. Whatever he hasn’t seen there, he probably saw while coaching Team USA. He has coached more than 80 players who have gone on to play professional baseball–most notably Mo Vaughn and Craig Biggio while at Seton Hall. Still, he was almost at a loss for words when discussing the journey of his star reliever, Floral Park native Thomas Hackimer. “Thomas is quite a story,” he said. “To go from a walk-on to a fourth round pick is one-in-a-billion,” he added. Hackimer chose to attend St. John’s because of the academic scholarship he received. He chose to major in physi...
Mets Select Freeport Native Justin Dunn No. 19 Overall
(Photo is courtesy of Boston College Athletics) Freeport native, Justin Dunn, was selected with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft by the New York Mets. He is in the midst of a tremendous junior season at Boston College, in which they will open up the super regionals against Miami on Friday. Dunn is a 6’2″ 180 lb RHP that is 4-1 with a 1.49 era over 60.1 IP. He has struck out 66 against only 16 walks while allowing 49 hits. His stock shot through the roof after fanning 11 against Tulane in the regionals while allowing two ER. It actually rose his ERA from 1.35 to 1.49. He was named to Baseball America’s All-America third team. Despite growing up in Freeport, N.Y., he attended Gunnery HS in Connecticut. While it may not be the same as Steven Matz being selected ...
West Islip Prepares for “Business Trip”
by Vinny Messana Some teams go decades between winning county championships. Some have never won at all. For West Islip, it’s been just two years. Still, they were fueled by the fire of losing in the first round of the playoffs last season and it propelled them to winning it all again. With the New York State Class AA tournament just three days away, they are in position to go where no baseball team in program history has gone before–winning the NYS title. “I think we all knew going in that this is the potential that we had,” said catcher Nick Valenti–who is hitting a cool .546 with 38 RBI this season. “I don’t think we’re going to waste our opportunity going up there. No matter what happens, it’s still a successful season but we’...
Suffolk Tops Nassau, 5-0, in the Inaugural Battle of the Border
by Vinny Messana After seven months of planning, the inaugural Battle of the Border finally went down. I’ll get to the timeline of how it came about and all the difficulty that went into planning it shortly–but first, here’s how the game went. Suffolk won 5-0 behind the stellar pitching of Matt Kostalos (ECC Pitcher of the Year from St. Thomas Aquinas), Nick Girardi (St. Joseph’s), Dylan Mouzakes (Pace), Kevin Martinez (Farmingdale), Matt Leach (St. Joseph’s) and Peter Vath (Molloy). They allowed only three hits as a staff. The game was scoreless until the fifth when Suffolk broke through with RBI hits by Nicholas Gargan (St. Thomas Aquinas) and Joe Calabrese (St. Joseph’s). They added a run on a wild pitch. T.J. Riccio (New Haven) added an RBI single in...
West Islip Cruises to Its Second Long Island Class AA Title in Three Years
By Nakeem Grant If there was any doubt that there would be a letdown after their tooth-and-nail series victory over Northport, that was put to rest right away. West Islip dominated in the Class AA Long Island Championship– defeating East Meadow 16-0 at Farmingdale State College. West Islip’s offense and pitching left the game in no doubt as they kept their foot on the pedal throughout the game. Twelve of West Islip’s 16 runs came in the first three innings of the ballgame with most of the damage coming from the core of their lineup. Jake Guercio, James Kory, and Jimmy Mattera each had multi-RBI games and as a team, they racked up 12 hits. According to today’s winning pitcher, Ray Weber, this is another typical game for their offense. “All year we’ve been great on offense putt...
Bobby Hegarty Throws a Gem in Class A Long Island Championship
by Vinny Messana Being a sophomore, Anthony Fontana hasn’t faced too many pro-caliber pitchers yet. It took him just one at bat to adjust to Sam Kessler‘s stuff and he laced an RBI single to right field in the third inning which extended Wantagh‘s lead to 2-0 at the time, and proved to be the game-winning run that delivered their first Long Island Championship since 2010. “OH MY GOD–An experience I’ll never forget,” said the sophomore first baseman. Both teams went quietly offensively through the first two innings. Sam Kessler, who entered with eight wins, and will be headed to West Virginia this summer–if he does not get drafted next week–got the start for the Mustangs. He pumped fastballs in the high 80s and mixed it with a hellacious...
Wantagh Wins Class A County Finals on Walk-Off Single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rqVci8Boeg by Vinny Messana Not even Martin Scorsese himself could script a more fitting end to a County Championship game. Bases loaded, two-out, bottom of the ninth inning with the clean up hitter up after Bellmore JFK manager intentionally walked two batters to load the bases and set up a force at any bases. On a 2-2 count with score knotted at 2-2, DH Will O’Brien laced the walk-off single to right field to score Charlie Interrante in front of an electric crowd and give Wantagh their first Nassau County Class A title since 2010. “It’s a feeling I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” said O’Brien. “All I wanted to do was get the ball on the bat and score the winning run and that’s what happened. Best ...
Dowling Shuts Its Doors
In an email sent to its students, Dowling announced that the school would cease all operations as of June 3rd, 2016. The news comes after months of speculation regarding financial troubles. The enrollment had plummeted 50 percent since 2009, according to Newsday. They had been seeking outside investment and appeared to have a suitor in March, but talks did not materialize. The school is more than $54 million in debt and were forced to close after 48 years–nearly cancelling their 2016 graduation. The news comes at an inopportune time to us as Baseball on the Island. Our Battle of the Border was among the several sporting events planned at the campus this summer that needed to be cancelled, in addition to the Long Island Championship for girl’s lacrosse. We will have a new venue ...
Northport Takes Advantage of West Islip’s Miscues, Forces Do-Or-Die Game Three
by Vinny Messana When the West Islip bus showed up at 3:45pm, or about an hour later than planned, it was a good omen for Northport. The Northport Tigers (20-7) took advantage of five errors by the Lions and were led by Nicholas Palmerini‘s complete game to force a do-or-die Game Three tomorrow at West Islip. They are looking for their first Suffolk County championship since 1983. “The energy from the crowd helps, and with my team behind me, I can throw whatever I want and feel confident,” said Palmerini. The crowd was highly energized and chanting on the Tigers at every opportunity and it certainly was a factor in this game. After the Lions took an early 2-0 lead from a wild pitch that scored Lou Antos and an RBI single by Nick Valenti that scored Ray Weber, Palmerini se...
Jimmy Mattera Throws Out Runner At Plate to Send West Islip to Class AA Finals
by Vinny Messana What. A. Finish. With West Islip clinging to a 3-2 lead, Smithtown East’s leading hitter, John Marti, came to the plate with the tying run on second base. West Islip had their ace, Albany-bound RHP Ray Weber, on the hill looking to send the Lions into the Suffolk County Class AA Finals. With first base open, they opted to pitch to Marti and he lined a single to left. The left fielder, Jimmy Mattera–who had pitched the first six innings–charged the ball and fired a strike to catcher Nick Valenti, who applied the tag for the final out and send the Lions into a frenzy. “I just got the ball and let it fly,” said Mattera, who recorded the victory in the clinching game. “I just came off the mound, so my arm was all warmed up so I knew if I had...
Chris Cappas Pitches Kellenberg into CHSAA Finals
by Vinny Messana At this stage of the season, all the teams in the CHSAA are very familiar with each other. For that reason, when tasked with facing a pitcher (Jimmy Conway) that shut them out earlier in the season, there was no reason to think gloom-and-doom. Kellenberg (17-5) defeated St. Dominic’s (16-9) by the score of 5-3 to advance to the CHSAA finals against the winner of St. Anthony’s-St. John the Baptist. “It’s been like this all year,” said Head Coach Chris Alfalla. “Every game is the same. Every team is tough. We’ve faced this guy before–he blanked us–so we knew we were gonna be in for it. He did a good job, but we did a little better job,” he added. Their junior southpaw, Chris Cappas, won his sixth game of the season ...
