Chris Sacchi
Kellenberg Begins New Era With Pat Miles at the Helm
by Chris Sacchi After 22 years of coaching at Kellenberg Memorial High School, Chris Alfalla has handed down the reins to a former player of his, who is ready to continue the legacy. “It’s a dream come true,” said Kellenburg head coach Pat Miles. “As a 14-year-old kid going to baseball camp at Kellenberg, as an incoming freshman going into the year 2001, now coming full circle,” Miles said. “Being such a big part of my life, it’s certainly something that I want to continue with his philosophies and his connection to his players.” After playing for Alfalla on the varsity level, Miles moved on to play college ball at Molloy following the 2005 season. Miles says he came on board to coach at Kellenberg “pretty much right away” after college, and the relationship has continued during the ...
St. John the Baptist Enters 2021 With a Formidable Roster
by Chris Sacchi Casey McKay’s St. John the Baptist baseball team has been a consistent contender for the CHSAA title since he took over in 2016. With one title, another title appearance, and most recently a semi-finals loss to St. Anthony’s in 2019, McKay has coached a lot of great players. So how does he feel about this year’s squad, ahead of a unique 2021 season? “This is probably the most talented team we’ve had,” McKay said. “I would almost say since the team’s been nationally ranked in the early 2000’s. It’s more talented than the team we had when we won in 2018.” “They’re ready to play, they’re hungry to play. We have a lot of college baseball players on this team that are really, really excited for this year to see what they’re able to do and pu...
Hauppauge Prepares for ‘Biggest Challenge’
by Chris Sacchi After the 2019 season, Hauppauge head coach Josh Gutes already had a clear idea of how the team would stack up the following year, ready to defend a league title. “I pretty much had opening day’s lineups written at the end of the 2019 season.” For a program that has won 4 league titles of the last 5 seasons, that makes sense. Yet heading into 2021, Gutes has a team that is filled with positional battles, and the lineup is much less of a sure thing thanks to graduating 7 seniors following 2020. “I probably have seven different lineups that are written out already, with as many as 15,16 kids mixed in there.” This has made preseason that much more important, and coach Gutes embraces the new feeling in Hauppauge. “Every second of practice matters. I think this is going to be a ...
Matt Prokopowicz Eager To Start Coaching Career With St. Dominic’s
by Chris Sacchi Matt Prokopowicz is in his second year as head coach of the St. Dominic’s baseball team. Yet, he’s still waiting to manage his first game. “Getting to go now, I’m a little kid in a candy store. I’m all smiles ear to ear and I can’t wait, I need to get that baseball fix in… it’s starting to hit home that we’re going to be starting very very soon.” Coach has a lot to look forward to. As a former All-American at Hofstra, and a member of Massepequa’s 2006 Class AA State Championship team, coach brings great experience from his playing days to foster what he feels like is a fantastic team environment. “Being a team and having success, you’ve got to trust every single person… And those kids get it. They understand it and they’re buying in. And if you come ...
North Babylon Looks To Restore Momentum From 2019
by Chris Sacchi Steve Corrado and his North Babylon High School Baseball team can be seen as a reflection of the current state of affairs when it comes to overcoming Covid-19. At first, Corrado has to reflect on what has been lost: “The first thing I would say is that last year, my heart was broken for my seniors, that they didn’t get an opportunity to come back out and prove that we were going to be a good team.” Just like the rest of the world, Corrado is hoping we can reclaim what was had before. Absolutely dominant outing by 6’4 RHP Colin Rhein (North Babylon 2021). Sitting 87-88 T89 with a vicious 72 MPH hook pic.twitter.com/oWzo8Ye3kj — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 24, 2020 “We hope that the blueprint for success in ‘18 and ‘19 will carry over to all these...
Westhampton Aviators take game 1 of the HCBL Championship Series over Riverhead, 10-4
by Chris Sacchi Two teams throughout the Hamptons League season sparred back and forth all season for the top spot. The Riverhead Tomcats and Westhampton Aviators both won 27 regular season games, besting their franchise marks. Their dominance over the league can be punctuated by this fact; no other team in the 7-squad league finished above .500. It was no surprise, then, that these two forces would meet in a three game series to determine the league champion. Due to a 4-2 head to head record, the Aviators received the top seed and thus enjoyed home field in games one and three, if needed. They swept the Southampton Breakers two games to none in round one. Riverhead was taken to a decisive game three against Sag Harbor before scoring key runs in the bottom of the eighth to move ...
Riverhead Advances to HCBL Championship Series
by Chris Sacchi In a win or go home game three of a first round playoff series between the Riverhead Tomcats hosting the Sag Harbor Whalers, it truly came down to the wire in an exciting 6-4 victory for Riverhead, moving on to face the Westhampton Aviators in the championship series. After a scoreless top half for Tomcats starters Nick Desalvo, his team jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, thanks to production from some of the best hitters in the entire Hamptons League. Robert Gallagher hit .319 and set his own record for stolen bases in a Tomcats season with 38. Jason Coules set the Tomcats record for triples and was the only Hamptons Leaguer to bat over .400 this season. Coules was the one who got it starter for Riverhead with a walk against Whalers southpaw start...
Westhampton Aviators Advance to HCBL Championship Series
By Chris Sacchi Game two of a three game opening round playoff series between the Southampton Breakers hosting the Westhampton Aviators was delayed 55 minutes from its 4:30 start, due to umpires that were preoccupied at another game at Baseball Heaven. After two innings, the game was an absolute slugfest with a score of 7-7, with those two innings taking almost an hour. Westhampton proceeded to score 10 more runs, while Southampton stayed quiet in a 17-7 loss that eliminated them from the postseason. In the top of the of the first, Dan Franchi, who holds the all time record for hits in a season and hits across a career for the Aviators, fittingly led off with a single. Teammate Eric Callahan followed with another single into right, and Franchi sped over to third. With runners at the cor...
Dan Franchi Sets HCBL Hits Record in Westhampton Aviators Victory
by Chris Sacchi A beautiful Friday afternoon game between the Westhampton Aviators and the Sag Harbor Whalers came down to a close 5-4 victory for host Westhampton, with an added historic milestone. Sag Harbor went down quickly with two ground outs to start the game against George Washington right handed starter Harrison Cohen. Whalers three hitter and shortstop Brock Franks then hit the first pitch he saw right back from where he came for a hard hit line drive single up the middle. Whalers center fielder Andrew Bates then followed with a long shot to straight away center field that was easily extra bases. Frank’s came around third base hard trying to score, but a great throw in from the outfield from Aviators center fielder Dan Franchi cut off Sag Harbor from a first inning run to end t...
Riverhead Tomcats Start off HCBL With a 2-0 Victory
Reporter @SachChristopher talks with @RHTomcats outfielder Robert Gallagher about “setting the table” at the top of the order. Gallagher scored both Tomcats runs out of the lead off spot in a 2-0 victory. pic.twitter.com/3iGJpR1dsK — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2019 Last season, the Riverhead Tomcats entered play as the only team in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League without a championship. Fast forward a year, and they’re looking to be the only team in HCBL history to win back-to-back titles. “We were the last club to win it,” Tomcats general manger Patti White told the Riverhead Times. “We’re going to be the first club to repeat.” Entering opening day of its matchup with the Shelter Island Bucks, the Tomcats had returned only three players from last season’s champio...
- 1
- 2
