2025 Season Previews
Connetquot Motivated After Falling One Game Shy of Reaching County Finals
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Joe Bello Final: Connetquot 4, Walt Whitman 0 WP: Nick Pepitone (CG shutout, 2 hits, 15 Ks, 3 BBs) Connetquot is moving on! They will face the loser of Commack-Sachem North on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/aN0VNGIuOG — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2024 Robert Burger is heading into his 6th year as the head coach of the baseball team at Connetquot High School, and his 26th year coaching in the district. The Thunderbirds skipper is expecting another season full of success this spring. “After finishing the regular season with an 18-6 record and clinching the League II Championship, we were eliminated in the semifinals.” Burger said. “We lost our first playoff game which took place over a tw...
Westhampton Coach Reflects on Offseason, Prepares for Season Ahead
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Adrianna Armani As the Westhampton baseball team prepares to take the field for another season, anticipation is running high. Following an intense offseason of training, head coach Asa Grunenwald shares insights on the team’s progress, goals for the upcoming season, and the standout players expected to make an impact. With a renewed focus on teamwork and performance, Westhampton looks poised for a strong run this year. The Westhampton High School baseball team encountered several challenges last season, particularly regarding their hitting. Over the offseason, they have concentrated on improving their swings and overall approach. When reflecting on last season, coach about the team’s biggest c...
After Claiming Elusive League Championship, Westbury Looks to Succeed in Expanded League
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by George Caratzas The Westbury Dragons are coming off consecutive winning seasons and their first time topping the Nassau county-wide league since 1972. Without a little league in town, much of head coach Ryan Mulholland’s team is new to the sport when entering high school, making the task of winning that much more challenging. After a 9-8 year in 2023, the Dragons went 11-6 overall and claimed the league title for the first time in over 50 years. “No matter what league you play in, you want to finish first in,” Mulholland said in an interview with Axcess Baseball. “It was really exciting for our program to have some success in baseball. We look up at the banners in the gym that say ‘1968’ and ‘1972...
Talented West Babylon Team Tasked With Replacing Program’s All-Time Winningest Pitcher
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Joe Bello West Babylon has done it ! They comeback and defeat Division, 4-2, to capture the Class A Long Island Championship pic.twitter.com/hhHQzypWoe — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 4, 2023 The West Babylon Eagles are prepping for their 2025 season, one that head coach Shaun Kaminski expects to have a lot of success in. Kaminski is heading into his 2nd season at the helm of West Babylon baseball, but this will be his 4th season as a part of the program. The Eagles finished with a record of 13-5 in 2024, they reached the playoffs but their season was cut short due to losses to Centereach and Smithtown West. “The 2024 season was an interesting season to navigate.” Kaminski said. “Prior t...
Following Record Setting Season, Evan Cabral Looks to Lead Garden City Back to Postseason
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Max Edelman In his sixth season with Garden City, head coach Dave Izzo guided his team into one of the most challenging conferences that Long Island has to offer. Izzo was able to take his team to a regular season conference championship before falling to Division in the playoffs. “We played in arguably the toughest conference on Long Island in my opinion.” Izzo said. “With Division, Calhoun and Carey. We won the conference regular season, which was great. We went into the last three game series of the season against Division and whoever won the series was conference champs and we beat them two out of three. But we saw them in the quarterfinals of the playoffs and they smoked us.” Garden City junior...
After an Injury-Plagued Year, Bay Shore Focused on Improving in 2025
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Max Edelman In his third season as head coach of the Bay Shore Marauders, head coach Chris Schiro’s team struggled to a 5-15 record. While the record might not be the best, injuries played a large part in the team’s struggles. With the injuries came opportunities for younger players, who Schiro is hopeful can play larger roles in his fourth season in charge. “The last couple seasons we’ve definitely been a little bit down.” Schiro said. “We had a younger team last year which will lead to good leadership this year. We had the unfortunate injury bug last year where we had a lot of seniors go down before the season even started and during the year which led the way for a group of sophomores to co...
William Floyd Looks to Take the Next Step
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by George Caratzas Coming off a year that saw the William Floyd Colonials win 15 regular season games and a pair of postseason contests, head coach Keith Kobasiuk’s crew is looking to break through and start one of the program’s most successful periods in history. The Colonials will be without two key cogs to last year’s team, as shortstop Angelo Velez and pitcher Jake Sambriski both graduated. Velez spent much of the season as the Colonials two-hole hitter and was a major part of one of their winningest seasons in recent memory. With Velez gone, Kobasiuk will need to find somebody to replace his clubhouse presence, as well as his on the field production. “Angelo is a quiet kid,” Kobasiuk said in...
Mount Sinai Motivated by Last Year’s Finish
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Max Edelman Jacob Rentz earned his second win of the season and Bennie Franquiz continued his incredible start to the season with a 3-hit day including an RBI single to break a scoreless tie in the fourth. @GCsports pic.twitter.com/fQAazht5Tf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 22, 2023 In his first season as head coach of the Mount Sinai Mustangs, falling short of the playoffs in the final game of the season was disappointing for Ryan Pembroke’s team. However, with plenty of talent returning, the Mustangs are primed to make it back to the playoffs in 2025. “We went 9-11 and missed the playoffs by one game.” Pembroke said. “We started off 1-10 in a very tough league with an inexperienced te...
MacArthur Returns Impressive Core Of Last Year’s League Champs
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Max Edelman In 32 years as the head coach of the MacArthur Generals, Steve Costello has compiled 570 wins in a tenure that has spanned four decades. And while last year’s team wasn’t able to accomplish the ultimate goal of a championship, only four seniors graduated from Costello’s program, leaving plenty of returning players in 2025. “We only had four returning seniors on the entire roster last year, which is very unusual.” Costello said. “All of those seniors did a great job. We were really unsure with how last year was going to go. We ended up winning the league before getting eliminated in the County Quarterfinals to Carey in a three-game series. We lost one game in the regular season.” Wh...
Wantagh Looks to Return to the Top After County Finals Appearance
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series. by Max Edelman Final: Wantagh 0 | Clarke 5 Clarke wins the Nassau County Class A Championship for the first time since 2019! pic.twitter.com/AtGqvNDuAL — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2024 With decades of experience under his belt. head coach Keith Sachs is entering his 31st season as head coach of the Wantagh Warriors. In his 30th season in charge, Sachs led his group to a league championship before seeing their season end in game three of the County Championship. “We made a great run.” Sachs said. “We won the first game against Clarke and then lost a couple of tough games. It’s hard. Every year our goal is to win a County Championship and we don’t want to be negative when we fal...
Mineola Looks to Build Off Last Year’s Semifinal Appearance
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landcape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Joe Bello Helms Bohringer is looking forward to the 2025 baseball season, which will be his 30th as the varsity head coach at Mineola High School. The Mustangs went 7-6-2 last season, they made the playoffs and beat Seaford in the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Clarke in the semifinals. “I thought we got better as the season went along, some of our juniors stepped up and our senior leaders played well.” Bohringer said. “It was a good season for the Mustangs. First time we had ever reached the semifinals.” Unfortunately, Bohringer lost some good talent last season, losing 3 players who are all playing baseball at the next level. Andrew Basel is at Northeastern University, Matt Orena is now a...
Danny Walsh Focused on Returning to the Postseason in First Year as Newfield’s HC
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Max Edelman Following a season in which the Newfield Wolverines didn’t make the playoffs, the Wolverines will be welcoming in a new head coach in the form of Danny Walsh. Walsh, who previously served as an assistant coach for Newfield, looked back on a bittersweet playoff-less season for his team. “We didn’t make the playoffs which is ultimately the goal going in.” Walsh said. “They stuck together and worked hard. Overall, I think it was a good year.” While the Wolverines did have a strong senior class last season, they will be without that core group. Of the seniors who played for Newfield last season, two of them are playing in college now. Matt Hesselbirg is playing at Mercy University and J.C. G...
