McHugh on his heroics and the big victory for Commack pic.twitter.com/iPsFTVnEsG — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 9, 2018 If there was one person to avoid seeing with the bases loaded, two-outs protecting a one-run lead it’s TCU-commit, Tim McHugh, who happens to have the best raw power of any player on Long Island. The 6’4″ slugger took the first pitch for a ball before connecting and launching a go-ahead grand slam over the center field wall to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead for the Commack Cougars, who entered the inning trailing 3-1 with only two hits in the game. Reliever Drew Vincent came on to protect the lead and record the victory with a 1-2-3 seventh inning. The game started out with both pitchers dominating. Jake Krzemienski started for the Cougars and Joey Savin...
Connetquot is the 2019 Suffolk AA Champs ! They will face Massapequa in the Long Island Championship on Saturday pic.twitter.com/DVn38w3IzF — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 4, 2019 When Connetquot made a deep postseason run into the Suffolk AA Final Four last season, many felt that they had overachieved. Everyone except the players, who felt they should’ve won it all. One year later, they have climbed the mountain top and captured the AA County Championship for the first time since 2015. They did so with a 14-1 victory against No.1 seed Ward Melville and ace Max Nielsen. The T-Birds and their high-octane offense had been held in check in Game 1 by Ryan Hynes, but defeated Ethan Farino yesterday. They faced UCONN-commit Max Nielsen, who was coming off an 18-K master piece on Frid...
Massapequa holds on, 7-6, to win the Long Island Class AA Championship for the third consecutive season ! pic.twitter.com/KEF44EkuVo — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 8, 2019 Once again, Massapequa has done it. They are your back-to-back-to-back Class AA Long Island Champions. This time, they defeated Connetquot 7-6 in one of the best games of the year. In a rather curious decision, neither team decided to throw their ace for the Long Island Championship. Connetquot jumped on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd inning, thanks to a Jared Yalon RBI. Yalon came through once again for the Thunderbirds in the bottom of the 4th inning with a 2 RBI double. This put Connetquot in front 5-0. When it seemed like Massapequa was down and out, they most certainly weren’t. With the ...
Connetquot is the 2019 Suffolk AA Champs ! They will face Massapequa in the Long Island Championship on Saturday pic.twitter.com/DVn38w3IzF — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 4, 2019 When Connetquot made a deep postseason run into the Suffolk AA Final Four last season, many felt that they had overachieved. Everyone except the players, who felt they should’ve won it all. One year later, they have climbed the mountain top and captured the AA County Championship for the first time since 2015. They did so with a 14-1 victory against No.1 seed Ward Melville and ace Max Nielsen. The T-Birds and their high-octane offense had been held in check in Game 1 by Ryan Hynes, but defeated Ethan Farino yesterday. They faced UCONN-commit Max Nielsen, who was coming off an 18-K master piece o...
Derek Yalon comes up huge with back-to-back strikeouts with runners on 2nd & 3rd. Connetquot leads 5-3, bottom 6 pic.twitter.com/V9reqOFBQ0 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 3, 2019 In front of a packed house and facing elimination, Derek Yalon came up huge with a six-out save to allow Connetquot to force a decisive Game 3 of the Suffolk County AA Finals, with a 5-4 victory. The T-Birds hung on by the skin of their teeth in a game in which they committed seven errors, but stranded the tying run in scoring position in the seventh inning as Ward Melville threatened to come-from-behind. The first inning featured the most action in the game as the Patriots came out of the gate hot scoring three runs (two earned) against Joey Savino–the top prep pitching prospect on Long Isl...
Coach Rob Burger is going to the Suffolk AA Finals in his first year at the helm for Connetquot pic.twitter.com/0IhOa1ufp0 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 30, 2019 There are a lot of similarities between 2017 Commack and this year’s Connetquot team from the insane amount of talent right down to having a first-year Head Coach. Just as those Cougars did two years ago, the T-Birds are headed to the Suffolk AA Finals, one year after losing in the Final 4 on their home field to Eastport-South Manor. This year’s team was not going to be denied. They defeated No. 7 Longwood, 2-0, in Game 3 of the semifinals. Coach Burger was undecided about who to send to the mound following yesterday’s loss. “We were in the office just sitting around for about 45 minutes and Ma...
Alex Ungar went 3-for-3 and Derek Yalon drove in 3 runs including a 2-R HR in Connetquot’s 7-2 victory pic.twitter.com/0pMIl6xXBo — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2019 With the forecast calling for thunder and rain, there was some doubt whether this game would be played today. It turns out the only thunder came from the bat of Connetquot LF Derek Yalon, who crushed a two-run HR and also ripped an RBI single in the first inning which game the T-Birds an early 1-0 lead. With ace Joe Savino on the mound, they didn’t need much offense today as the T-Birds took Game 1 of the best-of-three Suffolk AA Semifinals over Longwood, 7-2. The Elon-commit making his final start before next week’s MLB Draft was outstanding once again. He carried a shutout into the 7th innin...
May has been an exciting time for the local college baseball teams. We’ve been treated to some great conference tournaments and this past weekend was no exception. The only downside–if any–is that high school coverage has had to take a back seat to events like the Skyline Conference tournament, ECC Tournament and the East Regional. This has limited my time covering the local high school teams but today begins a clean slate–the postseason. There will be no shortage of compelling match ups this week. Additionally, it doesn’t appear weather will be a major factor this week (knock on wood). Remember last year the terrible downpour that caused the games to be suspended on Tuesday and cancel all of Wednesday. We don’t need that. I’m going to go over a fe...
Joey Savino on the 17-1 victory for Connetquot, he went six with eight strikeouts pic.twitter.com/141kSar5GQ — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 8, 2019 In what was actually a rematch from last year’s playoff game in which Bay Shore outlasted Connetquot, this time it was the T-Birds that came out on top. With an offense that is relentless and arguably the top pitcher in the region on the mound, it was an easy 17-1 victory for Connetquot to improve to 5-0 on the season. Joey Savino went six innings, he struck out eight and allowed one run on four hits. “We were awake today, we came out with some energy,”said Savino. “My stuff was on today I felt really good, the warm weather was good. Overall a great team win,” he added. The game was scoreless after on...
The beautiful thing about traveling around to indoor facilities in the winter is that it gives me a chance to see how kids have evolved since last season. Since the Long Island Championship last June, players had additional opportunities to improve their game over the summer and increase their strength over the winter. I feel like with all that being said, I have a pretty good feeling as to who the top players and teams are across Long Island. Today, we will focus on Suffolk Class AA, where many of the top players in our region reside. From a scouting perspective, I’m looking forward to see how those select few players answer the bell and attempt to be this year’s version of Franklin Parra and Logan O’Hoppe on draft day. From a journalistic standpoint, I’m excited t...