The Long Island Empire State Baseball has just returned from Rome, NY with the gold medal for the second straight year. This year's team compiled a 5-1 record and impressed both the college coaches and pro baseball scouts with their solid play all weekend as they played six games in three days.

On Thursday morning Long Island opened up the tournament with an 8-1 victory over the western region. Longwood High School's Dave Wood was the winning pitcher, as he pitched a strong game allowing only three hits, and one earned run to the Westerners. Big hitters for the Islanders were George Athanasopolous (Eastport) with 2 hits, and Mike Affronte (Commack) added 4 hits, while Craig Cooper of Chaminade added a key 2-run double to break the game open in the 4th inning.

At noon on Thursday Long Island won game two with an 8-3 victory over Hudson Valley in a rematch of the gold medal game of the previous year. MacArthur High School's Jayson McCorry was the winning pitcher as he scattered 5 hits while striking out 8 batters. Big hitters for Long Island were: George Athanasopoulos with 4 hits and 2 RBIs; Mike Affronte added another 2 hits; designated hitter Keith Connors (of Commack) added 2 hits and an RBI. Tom Penino (of St. John the Baptist) added a 2-run hit, as did Dave Woods.

In game three on Friday morning Long Island played a tough Adarondack team in a battle of the undefeated teams. The Islanders lost a tough 5-4 game with the final out coning with men on 2nd and 3rd. Losing pitcher Tim Wakefield (of Connetquot) pitched brilliantly and allowed only one earned run as he went the full distance. Tim deserved a much better fate, since he did pitch so well. Once again Mike Affronte and Craig Cooper combined for two hits apiece to pace the offense.

Friday in game four Levittown Divisions Josh Flinn got the nod against the Central Region and posted a win by the margin of 13-3. Josh allowed 3 hits while striking out 8 batters in his 6 innings of pitching. Dan Weingart also of Division came in to pitch the 7th inning, and struck out 3 batters to conclude the game in a strong fashion. The Islands bit hitters in this game were: St. John's Matt Gidaly, who had 2 doubles, 2 RBIs, and 2 runs scored. George Athanasopoulos had 2 hits with 3 RBIs; Mike Affronte had 3 hits (including 2 triples), 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs, while Chris Joachim (of Massapequa) had 3 hits with 2 doubles with 3 RBIs.

This win set up game five against the New York City team and a victory would guarantee Long Island a shot at winning the gold for the second straight year.

Long Island started John Jata from Nassau County Champions Oceanside High School. Long Island got off to an 11-1 start after two innings when John got into trouble in the 3rd inning. Long Island had to bring Division's Dan Weingart in with 2 outs, and the bases loaded. Dan got the 3rd out and coasted along with 4 more innings of shutout baseball as he allowed only 2 hits, to earn the victory in this very pivotal game. Big hitters for the Islanders were George Athanasopoulos with 3 hits and 3 RBIs. Tom Penino walked 3 times and scored twice. Dave Woods had 2 hits, scored 3 runs with 3 RBIs. Scott King (of Connetquot) had a 2-run double; Craig Cooper scored 3 runs, and St. Dominic's Jim Basknight scored 3 runs and blasted a bases loaded triple. Long Island went on to win 17-3.

This win put Long Island into the gold medal game again this year as they had to face the Hudson Valley team. Jon Burke of Garden City was announced as the starting pitcher and promised the coaches and his teammates that, "he would pitch a gem." True to his word, Jon did just that. Jon got off to a shakey start, giving up to runs on 4 hits in the 1st inning. After that he settled down and was in complete control the rest of the way pitching shutout ball the final 6 innings, as the team went on to defeat Hudson Valley 11-2. The big offensive guns in the game were: Rich Bianculli (of St. Doms) with 2 booming doubles off the centerfield wall, Scott King (of Connetquot) with 2 hits, Chris Joachim with 2 hits. Craig Cooper, Matty Gidaly, and Tom Penino all added big RBI hits, and George Athanasopoulos who hit the only homer at Mutnae Field in the entire tournament.

This victory gave Long Island the gold for the second straight year. This is the second time that the Island has won the gold back to back, doing it in '94 and '95 when other Levittown players Dennis Schneidler, Steve Robins, James Bailin, Shawn Fagan, Rob Bosworth, Ian Beller, and Tony Balcan all played on the team in one of those years.

Levittown should be extremely proud of the three Levittown High School players who participated in this year's Empire team - Jayson McCorry of MacArthur, Josh Flinn, and Dan Weingart, both from Division, did a great job pitching in the games as they combined for 18 2/3 innings pitched of the 42 innings pitched by the entire Long Island pitching staff. Not only did they combine for almost one-half of the innings pitched but they also had a combined earned run average of 0.00.