Garden City
Garden City Eyes Playoff Run in 2023
by Andy Smith After finishing in second place in Conference A-1 with a 14-4 record, Garden City’s season was abruptly cut short. The Trojans had a surprising and unfortunate “2 and out” postseason run following losses to Seaford and Island Trees. Entering his 7th season as head coach and 25th season with Garden City, David Izzo discussed what the highlight of the season was. “The highlight of the season was a 3 game sweep of previously unbeaten MacArthur in the final series of the year.” Izzo played college baseball at the College of Saint Rose and his assistant coach Ray Chaputian played Division-I baseball at Towson. The Trojans will be without many graduates who have played major roles during their playing time. Leading this group is Pat Heber. Now pitching at Bentley, Heber struck o...
Late Rally Propels Garden City to 9-4 Win Over MacArthur
By Thomas Cregan Garden city strikes first in the top of the 5th with a 2 run single by Braden Soutar who is now 3 for 3 in this game pic.twitter.com/40JrUvYClR — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 11, 2022 Garden City improves to 14-4 in conference and 14-5 overall after defeating MacArthur, 9-4. The Garden City Trojans were led to victory with big performances by third baseman Braden Soutar, shortstop Jack Fanning, and an impressive and resilient outing from starting pitcher Josh Cohen. Soutar was the main standout performer among the three going 4-for-5 with four singles and 3 RBIs. Fanning went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double and two singles. Cohen, who looked as if he had lost the zone early on in his outing after hitting three batters within the first 4 innings and issu...
Garden City Remains Hungry Following First LIC Since 2000
By Michael Malaszczyk We spoke to Garden City Head Coach Dave Izzo about his thoughts following the 5-3 championship victory pic.twitter.com/knlgdqS1AT — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2021 It goes without saying that Garden City’s baseball team knows how to win, especially under the guidance of Coach Dave Izzo. Coach Izzo, while proud of how his team performed in 2021, remains humble ahead of 2022. “Last year we won the Long Island Conference II Championship,” said Izzo. “We were happy with how it ended. It was our first L.I.C. since 2000.” Coach Izzo still wants to keep in mind the blood, sweat, and tears that led Garden City to its championship in order to keep his 2022 team hungry. “We didn’t have a tremendous regular season,” he said. “We went 11-5 in league play....
Catching Up With Ryan Smith
It’s hard enough to play Division-I baseball but doing so while dealing with the workload of Princeton University is no small task. But not only was Garden City native Ryan Smith able to complete that difficult four-year journey, he came out on the other side with not only a degree but a contract to pitch in Major League Baseball with the Los Angeles Angels. The southpaw is blessed with an arm that generates fastballs in the mid-90s, and he has worked his way through the organizational rung all the way to Triple-A. Smith pitched in the grueling Pacific Coast League this season as a 24-year-old. Overall, he compiled a record of 7-7 with a 4.24 ERA over 129.1 IP. He was able to strike out 153 batters and compile a WHIP of 1.15. He will enter 2022 with an outside shot to get the call to...
Up Next Powered by The Yard Sports: Gabe Beschloss
This is the second installment of the popular series “Up Next Powered by The Yard Sports” where we highlight the top underclass on Long Island. Last week, we featured Centereach CF Logan Norman. Thank you to The Yard Sports for sponsoring this series – check them out here. When Garden City was locked in a tight game with perennial powerhouse MacArthur in Game 3 of the Nassau County Conference II semifinals, Coach Dave Izzo made a call to the bullpen. Despite being such a critical moment, he didn’t call on an experienced pitcher. He called on a relative unknown – freshman southpaw Gabe Beschloss. The 6’2 LHP accepted the challenge and all he did was fire 4 hitless innings to earn the win when they won on a walk-off HBP and sent the Trojans into the County...
Garden City Wins Long Island Conference II Championship, Beats Huntington 5-3
by Andrew Connors We spoke to Garden City Head Coach Dave Izzo about his thoughts following the 5-3 championship victory pic.twitter.com/knlgdqS1AT — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2021 There’s nothing better than championship baseball on Father’s Day, and Sunday morning proved that as Garden City and Huntington put on a show that didn’t disappoint. On a day that was as hot as Sunday was, you would expect some teams to come out a little sluggish but that wasn’t the case in this game. The Garden City Trojans jumped on the scoreboard shortly after the first pitch of the game was thrown. They scored two runs in the first inning and showed Huntington that they were going to be aggressive at the plate all day. Huntington didn’t just take the punch and roll over though, they fough...
Calhoun Bounces Back After First Loss, Cruise to 7-1 Win Over Garden City
Final: Calhoun 7, Garden City 1 WP: Matt Kalfas (CG, 4 hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks) Timmy Mack 2 R double Patrick Sanchez: HR Babbo, Koch, Cohen and Todd all with RBI hits. Calhoun improves to 11-1 on the season. pic.twitter.com/P7Uke6njHO — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2021 On the day following the passing of legendary head coach Joe Corea, it’s only right that the Calhoun Colts bounced back from their first loss of the season with a 7-1 win over Garden City. A complete game from sophomore southpaw Matt Kalfas and two runs in the first inning was the winning ingredient. They are now 11-1 on the season and remain in first place in Nassau Conference II. Kalfas took the mound against a tough Garden City lineup that grinded their way to a 3-0 victory over Calhoun on Monday –...
Garden City Ready To Avenge Quick Exit in ’19
In 2019, Garden City entered the postseason flying high as the No. 1 seed with a 14-1 record and the best player in the county playing SS and batting leadoff. Two games later, their season was over in two shocking upsets against South Side and Plainedge. “I’ve had to live with that taste in my mouth for the past two years,” said head coach Dave Izzo, who took over in 2017. “We didn’t play poorly we just got beat both games,” he added. The scores were 2-0 and 5-3. Tommy Reifler went onto capture the Diamond Award for his outstanding play and has since gone to SUNY Binghamton where he is raking to the tune of .350/.426/.450 triple slash line as a redshirt freshman in the America East conference. Additionally, 2018 graduate Mike Handal is leading the 20-0 F...
Nassau County Class A Playoff Preview (Plus Predictions)
As always, the Class A playoffs will be a roller coaster of emotions. It brings high energy, closely contested match ups and upsets. The factor that makes these playoffs so great, is that there’s 18 teams competing for the ultimate goal of a county championship. As we’ve seen in previous years, there’s been clear favorites heading into the postseason. However, this year, it’s anybody’s title to win. With that being said, let’s take a look at the Class A playoffs. Play-In Games: #18 South Side vs. #15 Island Trees For several reasons, this is a great match up. Not only do both teams have great arms, but they both struggle to hit high-end pitching. For South Side, expect Dan Kelleher to take the mound. Kelleher features a lively fastball, along with the ab...
Andrew Zupicich’s Bat Delivers Win For Garden City On Senior Day
Andrew Zupicich is the @BsbLifestyle101 player of the game as he went 4-4 with a three-run moonshot. He talks about how his team held on to win on Senior Day. pic.twitter.com/ZIejngBNUo — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 7, 2019 On senior day, the Garden City Trojans got the best of the Carey Seahawks by a score of 7-5. With the victory, Garden City improves to a county best record of 13-1 on the season. Right off the bat, it seemed as if this was going to be a blowout. In the bottom of the first inning, RBI from Jay Brown, Jake Fraher and a bases loaded walk provided Garden City with an early 3-0 lead. After nearly batting around in the first inning, this meant that the middle of the Garden City lineup was due up once again in the second. With two runners on base, Andrew Zupicich ...
Oceanside Edges Garden City 5-4 In A Thriller
Austin Vlahakis talks about how he worked his way out of a 7th inning jam to propel his team to victory. pic.twitter.com/cvmtqjvbPD — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 4, 2019 On Thursday afternoon, Oceanside survived a late inning surge from Garden City, as they escaped with a 5-4 victory. In the opening frame of the game, Oceanside led things off with back-to-back-to-back doubles from Jake Lazzaro, Noah Eisel and Austin Vlahakis. The string of three doubles provided the Sailors with a quick 3-0 lead. Eisel came through again in the early innings for Oceanside as he launched a solo shot, providing them with a four-run lead in the 2nd inning. He finished 2-for4 on the day and also got the start on the mound, pitching 4.1 innings allowing one earned run. When the Oceanside bats wen...
Nassau County Class A Preseason Power Rankings
Spring has sprung which means the varsity baseball season is officially underway. After Wantagh won their third consecutive County Championship in 2018, things are expected to be a little different in Class A this season. While there will be new teams emerging as contenders, there’s also going to be plenty of teams that come into the season with a chip on their shoulder, ready to prove they are worthy of winning. With that being said, here are the preseason power rankings for Class A. 10. Valley Stream North Competing in an extremely tough conference, Valley Stream North enters the season as “sleepers” in Conference A4. With a lineup consisting of Albany-commit Joe Gisonda and James Saracino, they can give opposing teams nightmares. They also return Chrs Manzi and Colin M...
