Chaminade
Chaminade Enters Title Defense With 15 College-Committed Seniors
Chaminade has captured the 2021 CHSAA Championship with a 4-1 win over Kellenberg ! pic.twitter.com/jmozQfolci — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 10, 2021 Before Chaminade even takes the field for their title defense in 2022, first they have to finalize their roster. That may seem like a formality for a team returning 15 college-committed players. But it isn’t – in fact they had 51 players try out for the varsity team. That’s an incredible number in this era. “The competition at our tryouts is intense,” said head coach Mike Pienkos, who is entering his 40th season at the helm. They just captured their 17th CHSAA title in program history over Kellenberg. “I am blessed with a talented class, I mean the class is just loaded,” he added. Loaded...
What is the Best School to Recruit from on Long Island?
This idea originally came to me about five years ago when I was covering a Shoreham-Wading River practice before the season. Looking around, it appeared they had more talent some many college teams and I remember thinking that a college coach could’ve done most of their recruiting just from that team. They wound up winning 20 consecutive games and capturing the Class A Suffolk County Championship that season. That was in 2017 and since then a lot has changed. But at the same time, the cream always rises to the top and many of the best programs on Long Island have been the best programs for several decades. Some have their peaks and valleys, but this list will focus on the best of the best – the ones you can always count on will be there come playoff time, the ones that produce ...
Up Next Powered by the Yard Sports Academy: Mikey Cervoni
This is the ninth installment of the popular series “Up Next” Powered by the Yard Sports Academy in which we highlight the top underclassmen on Long Island. Previously, we featured Centereach OF Logan Norman, Garden City LHP Gabe Beschloss , Connetquot INF Ryan Kiendle, Clarke MIF Nick Berasti, Miller Place SS Alex Strickland, Pat-Med OF Robbie Melo, Holy Trinity 1B Kyle Kozlowski, and West Babylon 1B Jace Alvino. Make sure to check out the Yard Sports Academy here. Chaminade has proven to be a fertile ground for high school baseball players over its history but especially over the past handful of years. The class of 2022 is no exception as all 15 players are committed to a college. That is just a prelude to the next few graduating classes as both 2023 and 2024 are stocked with high-end pl...
JJ Gatti Commits to the University of Dayton
JJ Gatti capped a great 2021 season with his recent college commitment to the University of Dayton. The college, which is located in Ohio, competes in the Atlantic-10 conference and reached the conference championship this past season and also the last full season in 2019. Gatti is a a talented RHP that helped lead Chaminade to the CHSAA Championship this season in a sweep over Kellenberg. He will enter the season as one of the favorites to capture the Pitcher of the Year. I had a chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say… Can you talk about your experience with the college recruiting process and why you chose Dayton? My college recruiting process was filled with many ups and downs as I’m sure goes for most people. I had went from being on nobody’s rada...
John Downing Commits to Seton Hall
Final: Chaminade 2, SJB 1 WP: John Downing (CG, 4 H, 1 R, 7 K) pic.twitter.com/2MsfbAhgkf — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021 Entering the 2021 season, there was reason to question whether Chaminade could successfully defend their crown in the Catholic League. The biggest reason is that although they possessed a world of talent, they had no players with varsity experience. It seemed like it could present an issue come playoff time when the chips are on the table. In typical Flyers fashion, though, they were able to lean on their coaching staff, pitching, defense and depth to dig deep and sweep Kellenberg in the CHSAA Finals. One of their major contributors all season was junior ace LHP John Downing. The southpaw went 5-0 with a 1.33 ERA. Over 38.2 IP, he struck out 39 and a...
Chaminade Captures 19th NSCHSAA Championship
Chaminade has captured the 2021 CHSAA Championship with a 4-1 win over Kellenberg ! pic.twitter.com/jmozQfolci — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 10, 2021 Under normal circumstances, you would get anxious when the potential tying run steps to the plate in Game 2 of the CHSAA Finals but with a team like Chaminade that lives and dies with pitching and defense, somehow the base runners just don’t feel that likely to score. The Chaminade Flyers defeated Kellenberg, 4-1, to capture the 19th championship in program history. They outscored the Firebirds 14-2 over the two game series and won four of five games against them this season. And this was with a team that was considered inexperienced by coach preseason and vulnerable by many. This game did have a much different vibe than G...
Chaminade Barreling Towards Another CHSAA Championship
If you thought this was the year that Chaminade was going to be vulnerable – you were sorely mistaken. After capturing the CHSAA in 2019 and graduating that entire team in ’19 and ’20, they are now one game away from repeating as champs. They briefly struggled earlier this season as they stumbled out of the gate with a 3-3 record but now they have found their cruising altitude at the right time. The Flyers defeated Kellenberg in Game 1 of the NSCHSAA Championship Series by the score of 10-1 behind an all-around team effort and dominant pitching – which has been the hallmark for the program for decades. Coach Mike Pientkos’ squad excelled not only on the mound, but also in the field and on the base paths today; outplaying Kellenberg in every regard. They even g...
Chaminade LHP John Downing Fires Gem To Advance to CHSAA Finals
Chaminade LHP John Downing on his complete game gem to send Chaminade in the Championship series pic.twitter.com/Q4XMnYbwWg — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021 Pitching and defense is the name of the game in the CHSAA and Chaminade has always thrived in that category. In the ultra-competitive Catholic League, the difference between a win and a loss is sometimes a defensive miscue or failed bunt attempt. That was the case as No. 2 Chaminade edged No. 3 St. John the Baptist, 2-1, to advance to the CHSAA Championship Series against Kellenberg on Wednesday. Chaminade knew they had a tall order in facing St. John the Baptist ace RHP Kyle Chase (St. John’s-commit) who has the ability to shut down any opponent. What he can’t control, though, is what happens once the ba...
Phil Schurr’s 5th Inning HR Propels Kellenberg to Securing No. 1 Seed
Final: Kellenberg 3, Chaminade 2 WP: Andrew Koshy S: Brendan McCann Phil Schurr go-ahead solo HR and Kellenberg locks up the No. 1 seed for the postseason pic.twitter.com/FwhMqRO936 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2021 When longtime Kellenberg head coach Chris Alfalla stepped down prior to the season, there was only one person that was best-suited to take over for the program and not have them skip a beat. That person is Pat Miles, who was currently coaching at the JV level for the program and was familiar with every varsity player on the roster. That provided Kellenberg with the unique advantage that very few teams on Long Island had – a head coach with knowledge of his players. With the cancelation of the 2020 season, most varsity coaches only had minimal interaction...
Vin Roman’s RBI Single Delivers 2-1 Win For Chaminade
Final (8 innings): Chaminade 2, St. Anthony’s 1 WP: Andrew Heiderstadt Vin Roman go-ahead hit to score Anthony Lods pic.twitter.com/7wqqhZAOgZ — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 30, 2021 When you hear about the CHSAA being the most competitive league on Long Island, it’s because of the parity. This week was an excellent example in the series between Chaminade and St. Anthony’s. In the rematch of the 2019 championship series, the teams exchanged victories on Tuesday and Wednesday in the first two games of the series setting the stage for today. Chaminade was able to come away with the 2-1 victory, with the go-ahead run scoring in the top of the 8th inning on an RBI single by Vin Roman to score Anthony Lods – who led off the inning with a walk. As is usually...
Chaminade Starts Title Defense With 11-5 Win at St. Anthony’s
Final: Chaminade 11, St. Anthony’s 5 WP: John Downing pic.twitter.com/xoWMAPcczU — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 28, 2021 It turns out the demise of Chaminade was greatly exaggerated. The reigning champs went out on opening day at St. Anthony’s and handed it to the Friars with an 11-5 victory. Both teams are fielding inexperienced rosters in terms of their varsity experience, but Chaminade is certainly not lacking in their star power and that was evident today. Head Coach Mike Pientkos who has led the Flyers to over 600 wins spoke to me last week about the uncertainty of his roster and their lack of experience at this level. He did note, however, that they have a lot of players that can really play the game and will be impact players for them. From my vantage point...
Chaminade Prepares for a Title Defense Season Unlike Any Other
The Chaminade Flyers are the 2019 NSCHSAA Champions with a 3-1 victory over St. Anthony’s pic.twitter.com/czHcPb827e — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2019 Mike Pienkos is entering his 39th season as Chaminade‘s head coach. He has won over 600 games and guided the Flyers to yet another NSCHSAA title in 2019 – the 16th in program history. This year will probably be his biggest challenge, though, as he will tell you. The program has been built up to the point where he knew there would be a tremendous pool of talent to select from on the first day of tryouts. In a normal year, that wouldn’t be the slightest issue as he would take the next three weeks to narrow down the roster and then use the scrimmages to find the right lineup and pitching staff. In a COV...
