2026 Season Previews
Ward Melville Looks to Lean on Pitching to Return to their Winning Ways in 2026
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Anthony DiCocco After a challenging season in 2025, head coach Lou Petrucci and the Ward Melville Patriots will seek to restore the program’s glory this spring. Last year was not kind to the Patriots. Following a 2024 campaign that saw it finish a game over .500, Ward Melville went 5-15 a season ago to miss the playoffs. Regardless of the team’s performance, Petrucci, who is entering his 20th season at the helm of the Patriots, took full responsibility for the lost season. “The players were 5-0 and I was 0-15; that’s God’s honest truth,” Petrucci said in an interview with Axcess Baseball. “Last year was a reality check and payback for all of the times we won a lot of games.” Two of the m...
Clarke Returns Large Crop of Talented Seniors from 2024 County Championship Team
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series 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 It was certainly an uncharacteristic season for the Clarke Rams in 2025. Coming off winning the Nassau County Class A title in 2024, the Rams were defeated in the quarterfinals by Seaford in a best-of-three. While they still finished with a typically strong 18-5 record, it was the type of season that legendary coach Tom Abruscato is not accustomed to. “I would say it was disappointing by our standards,” said Abruscato who has been at the helm since 1999 and has won over 500 games and 23 conference titles....
Holy Trinity Returns Plenty of Firepower as they Look to Compete for Championship
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Max Edelman Jaden Alvarez (Holy Trinity 2026) hits a double to the LF wall. pic.twitter.com/o2Eeu7wFRo — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 28, 2024 Led by head coach Dan Luisi, the Holy Trinity Titans finished the 2025 season with a 13-9 record, despite only having one senior in their starting lineup. Although they failed to reach their ultimate goal, Luisi, who is about to begin his eighth season in charge of the Titans, looked back fondly on 2025. “I thought last year we made a lot of really great strides.” Luisi said. “We had a really young team. Our whole lineup, with the exception of only one senior, was all juniors, sophomores and freshmen. Which presented some challenges at times for our gu...
Connetquot Looks to Defend Their Suffolk AAA Crown
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series For the first time since 2019, Connetquot captures the Suffolk County Championship! 🏆 They will face Massapequa next Saturday at 7pm for the Long Island Championship pic.twitter.com/dOrZyukw8q — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2025 Entering last season, Rob Burger knew he had a special group. In fact , he knew well before then. “I remember talking about that group when they were in middle school that it was a dynamic group. Well, that was them,” said Burger. Connetquot took a tremendously difficult path to winning the County Championship, needing to win five elimination games all in one week. They were able to knock off Sachem North twice – including a thrilling 3-2 win in whic...
Port Jefferson Eyes Class C County Championship
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Ryan Manno Final: Port Jefferson 12, Babylon 7 WP: Ruairi Rago (CG, 10 H, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 Ks) Port Jefferson scored 9 runs in the 5th inning Kyle Erickson: 3-4, BB, 2 R, RBI Evan Raymond: 3 RBIs Winner-take-all on Thursday, 4pm Middle Country Athletic Complex pic.twitter.com/HsJ6xQLBn5 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2024 “Our expectation is to win a Class C County Championship this year,” Port Jeff head coach Jesse Rosen said. There is no rebuilding phase. For a program that has already experienced championship runs and deep playoff baseball, the standard has been set and this group believes it’s ready to meet it. Last season, the Royals finished 7-11 while competing as one of the smallest Cl...
Comsewogue Begins New Era as Spartans
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Joe Bello FINAL: Comsewogue 3, Westhampton 1 Warriors hang on to win on a lineout to third base pic.twitter.com/r74l5ix2qn — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 14, 2025 Joseph Caltagirone is heading into his 10th season at the helm of the Comsewogue Spartans baseball program. As Caltagirone and the Spartans come off what was a tough season, finishing 5-15, they look to be competitive in a tough league this spring. “Coming off of a winner-take-all County Championship season in 2024 in which we lost to Hauppauge,” Caltagirone said, “We knew it was going to be tough replacing the departing senior class.” The Spartans graduated eight starters in the field and their top five pitchers after the 2024 se...
Led by 2 Division-I Aces, Kings Park Looks to Return to Class A County Finals
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series By Anthony DiCocco Kings Park 1, Mt Sinai 0 WP- Connor DeKenipp (2 IP, 1 K, 0 H) Dylan Frers (8 IP, 9 Ks, 0 R, 5 H) Vincenzo Buffolino hit a walk-off single to score Nicola Cespe in the bottom of the 10th. pic.twitter.com/r6C1gNhZJv — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 24, 2025 After failing to repeat as Suffolk County and Long Island Champions in 2025, head coach Andrew Abreu and the Kings Park Kingsmen are laser-focused on returning to the top. Last season, the Kingsmen had a nice year, going 14-8 en route to playing postseason baseball. Nonetheless, Kings Park was unable to keep its crown, as both its Suffolk County and Long Island Championship title defenses came to an end with a 4-3 playoff...
Northport Faces Challenge of Replacing 15 Seniors From 2025’s Playoff Team
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Max Edelman The 2026 season is shaping up to be a year unlike any other for the Northport Tigers. After a 2025 season that saw the graduation of a whopping 15 seniors, the 2026 season for head coach Sean Lynch features a tough task ahead of him. However, he first looked back on a 2025 he won’t soon forget. “We made the playoffs and won our first round game.” Lynch said. “Then we lost to Connetquot over at their place 2-0 in a very good game that was tight all the way. Then we got eliminated. It was a good year and we had a great group of seniors and we really gelled together. We had a lot of chemistry and really good senior leadership. So, losing 15 seniors, we’re going to be very young this year a...
Unfinished Business: Walt Whitman Baseball Sets Its Sights on a Breakthrough Season
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Ryan Manno Uncommitted SS Lucien Saint Cyr with a grand slam for Walt Whitman. Was featured in our “Up Next” series pic.twitter.com/eQpHsXxG15 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 29, 2025 The Walt Whitman Wildcats enter the 2026 season with a clear mission and standard. After reaching the playoffs in each of the last three years, head coach Keith Barrett says the goal is simple: make it four straight. For this group, success starts with another postseason berth, but the Wildcats are determined to go further than they did a season ago. Last spring, Whitman finished 12-6 in league play and 12-8 overall. The season included a playoff win and valuable experience in high pressure games. The Wild...
Lindenhurst Looks to Bounce Back After Tough Season
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Hunter Javeline After a disappointing last place finish in 2025 Lindenhurst is looking to turn it around. Last year the team had 2 seniors and 4 freshmen who received significant playing time. “It was a young squad who had a lot of learning to do and they did learn,” Coach Rob Moore said in an interview with Axcess Baseball. The coaching staff at Lindenhurst decided to have one-on-one conferences with each player right after the season ended. This set up goals for the team going into their respective summer ball teams. Coach Moore said, “It was a real wake-up call, particularly for the younger guys going into next season.” So far in winter workouts, the team is laser focused and has a new look in t...
Mattituck Ushers In New Era With Former All-State Player Joe Tardif at the Helm
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series by Joe Bello Joe Tardif is heading into his first season as the varsity coach of the baseball program at Mattituck High School. He steps into the role after he has been the head coach of the JV team at Mattituck for the past five years. Tardif takes over for Dan O’Sullivan, who was the varsity coach for six years. Last year, the Tuckers finished with a record of 2-18. “The 2025 season went about as expected.” Tardif said, “We were and still are a young team working on fundamentals and keeping games close.” Going into the 2026 season, Tardif and the Tuckers will be without their senior captain and All-League winning shortstop, Ben Vogel. “We will miss him dearly as we relied on him for almost everything...
Coming Off Magical 2025 Season, Eastport-South Manor Looks to Compete for County Title
Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s series By Anthony DiCocco Eastport-South Manor 11, Hills West 10 (F/11 innings) Walk-off hit by sophomore 2B Connor Minihane. They will host No. 4 East Hampton on Thursday pic.twitter.com/yVYOXaCUiR — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2025 Following a magical season that featured a disappointing ending, head coach Jim McGowan and the Eastport-South Manor (ESM) Sharks will work to get over the hump in 2026. After losing a win-and-in game in 2024 to miss the playoffs, the Sharks put together a campaign for the ages last year. Though ESM lost its final two contests of the season to end its run prematurely, those were the team’s only defeats all spring, as it won its league and was ranked the No. 1 Cla...
