Vinny Messana (VM): I just wanted to address Section VIII and Section XI canceling the remainder of the 2020 season, which was not a shock but not what we wanted to hear. Heart goes out to all the seniors that lost your senior year. [Jimmy], do you still keep in touch with any of your former Wantagh teammates?
Jimmy Joyce (JJ): I keep in touch with all of them honestly. The whole 2016 team, we talk at least once a week, still. That’s what memories will do for you.
VM: At least you guys got to have a little bit of a season. The high school guys obviously– don’t want to pour dirt on the wounds– they were robbed of a season. You guys got 14 games in. The last game you guys won in LIU, and you actually got the save, how would you characterize the brief season.
JJ: I would say we were on our way. It was a very short season but in the fall we had a special squad of 75 percent seniors and guys who played college baseball before. We started off with a few tough games, we probably blew like five or six one-run games in that short span. But, the record doesn’t tell you who we were. We were going to be special, we were finally figuring it out and its a shame everything got cut short.
VM: And that one series in New Mexico is going to stick with you guys for a little bit. I have never seen anything like that, each game you guys scored double-digits but still lost by one run. That had to feel pretty cruel on the trip back, no?
JJ: It was crazy. I personally had never seen anything like that in a baseball weekend in my life. It’s an experience and in the end your grateful because you learned a lesson from it. Each game was crazy in so many ways. We scored 11 runs in that last inning and they scored the last two. It was crazy.
VM: It seems like [Hofstra] is very ahead of the curb in analytics. What has that done for you and the rest of the pitchers?
JJ: They get really heavy into Rapsodo. [ Hofstra Student Manager Charles St. Clair] is doing great and coach Blake Nation is helping us out explaining things and bringing guest speakers. It’s worked out for us since each pitcher gets their own time on Rapsodo and we are developing pitches, seeing what pitches work with your spin axis.
VM: Is that a case where you see a pitcher throw a curveball or slider not to well and decide to scrap it?
JJ: It’s not instant but is defiantly recommended. There has been a couple of times this year where you can have a decent slider or curve but why not scrap one of them to have one great pitch. We have had guys do that, guys switch up curveballs into changeups because of the information we got back. It helps a lot.
VM: Your former Wantagh teammate Anthony D’Onofrio was off to a scorching hot start this season. You know him better than anybody so were you expecting that from him?
JJ: Yeah, he’s crazy. I remember saying when I was a sophomore in high school ‘the blue-chip prospect Anthony D’Onofrio is the best hitter on the island’ to his face. I still believe he is the best hitter on the island. The amount of barrels he is smashing each game– what he did in Purdue was crazy. He was leading the country in hits through the first weekend. Who knows if anyone could keep it up at that rate.
(Editors note: D’Onofrio batted .688 (11-16) with a double, triple, and six RBIs in Hofstra’s four-game series with Big Ten foe Purdue. He was named that week’s CAA Player of the Week.)
VM: You were a two-way guy through your first two years and that is not easy to do for anybody. I felt like if anyone could it was you because of what you showed in high school. You were the 2016 Class A Player of the Year, led Wantagh to the state title. In 2017, you were first team All-State and you hit .495, six HR’s, 39 RBI’s and 11 stolen bases and went 9-2. It probably wasn’t your decision to switch to just pitcher, do you think it was the right decision?
JJ: So, its funny. Freshman/Sophomore year I was stuck on being a two-way player. I didn’t want to give it up because I loved playing in the outfield. Something switched this summer and I had to make some changes. In the end it was my decision, I called coach over the summer and said ‘Is it cool if I stuck to pitching.’ They kind of wanted it a little bit. Do I have any regrets? No. I never really loved pitching but this summer I fell into love with pitching so we’ll see where it takes me.
VM: Logistically, how does that work in your schedule?
JJ: This year, I actually realized if what I was doing last year what I was doing this year with pitching, there would be no way I could get all of that in. It was real tough to get all that extra work in at both ends.
VM: How did you enjoy the competition at [Mohawk Valley]?
JJ: It was fun. We played some really good teams– Amsterdam always brings in some really good players. Utica turns it up. Having the family there helped me out.
VM: Do you know which seniors at Hofstra will be back or is it still up in the air?
JJ: It’s still up in the air. Some are a definite but others are still up in the air. But it’s been tough to deal with due to the virus. Just a lot of stuff to think about.
VM: What was your favorite memory from high school?
JJ: Just hanging out with the buddies who I played ball with for life. Every Tuesday we would go mini golfing and go out to eat. It was a family, every team was close in its own way. That I could take with me for my life.
VM: How about the game winning home run for the state championship? I’m sure that has to rank up there, take me through that moment.
JJ: A lot of people don’t know this but I threw the helmet when I hit it because I thought it was a walk off. I was so locked in, we were in extra innings. Two outs, top of the ninth but I thought it was the bottom of the ninth for some reason. So it was a 2-0 fastball from Charlie Mack– he was a great offensive player who got drafted in the fifth round [with the Minnesota Twins]. I saw it well the whole time and got some good barrel on it, honestly the wind helped me out a little bit.
VM: That year was pretty impressive. You guys went in as the seventh seed. What clicked in the playoffs for you guys?
JJ: We never had our minds on losing, we held faith the whole time. We trusted everyone and knew the next man up. Everyone was a part of it and we stayed in the moment. We controlled what we could control at the time.
VM: 2017, You guys win the Long Island Championship over Shorem-Waning River and that had to be the most highly-anticipated game I can remember. There were over 1000 people at SUNY Westbury, the expectation was you would pitch that day. Three years later, are you able say why you did not?
JJ: I was never hiding it, not that I had elbow troubles, I threw a lot of pitches that year and by the end my elbow was hanging a little bit. Some people along the way said not to do it. I was fine with it. What mattered was the guys that were out there and people looking out for me making sure I didn’t get hurt.
VM: Anthony Fontana is on the mound and throws a complete game, shutting down a team who had a 20-game winning streak entering. Did you have the utmost confidence in him?
JJ: Yeah. It’s crazy because through high school I can’t remember ever doubting our team. We never had a losing mentality. The chemistry, we’ve been laying travel ball since we were 12-years old, the coaches and what they built with us. Wantagh baseball camp– a bunch of us were there since eight years old.
VM: Why has Coach Keith Sachs had so much success? 26- straight playoffs, two state titles, I don’t even know how many league championships.
JJ: He cares about you like he is son for all 30-kids on the team. He loves all his athletes and he’s been doing it so long. He’s so smart he knows the moves before it happens. Especially with his sidekick Mike Ninivaggi, they are unstoppable.
VM: Take us through your college recruiting process.
JJ: It was between a few Northeast schools. Nothing too far away. Hofstra, Stony Brook, UConn, St. John’s were my visits. It was between Stony Brook, Hofstra, and UConn because of financial reasons. I always grew up saying I would never go to Hofstra because all I knew from it was driving up on the Turnpike. I said I would never go and I took my visit and it was so different. I fell in love with the campus and my coaches and I wouldn’t change a thing.
VM: Favorite Players in MLB?
JJ: Mike Clevinger, Mike Lorenzen, Tim Anderson
VM: Favorite pre-game hype music?
JJ: I listen to a lot of NF before I pitch only, though. Day-to-day I listen to anything from goth to rock.
VM: Favorite App on your phone?
JJ: Actually not a phone guy. I went the whole summer without my phone. It got stolen and I never got a new one. It was great.
VM: Biggest life influences?
JJ: My mother and father. My father played at Tech.
VM: Player you could be quarantined with?
JJ: Defiantly not D’Onofrio. Frankie Gomez, Steve Hall, Lucas Boscha
