_________________ WANTAGH ________________
CoMMUNITY UPDATE Infections as of July 12
2,114
Infections as of July 8 2,109
$1.00
HERALD
Movie night at Wantagh Park
Vaccination site closes down
Trio open Irish pub in Wantagh
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Vol. 69 No. 30
JUlY 22 - 28, 2021
Wantagh’s Joyce selected by Seattle in MLB Draft By ToNY BEllISSIMo tbellissimo@liherald.com
Former Wantagh High School baseball star and Hofstra University senior Jimmy Joyce was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 16th round of the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft on July 13. Joyce, who helped Wantagh capture consecutive Nassau Class A championships as a pitcher and third baseman, and won the Diamond Award as the best positional player in the county as a senior in 2017, was the 474th overall pick in the draft. “I thought I had a 50-50 chance to get drafted, and I’m extremely grateful,” Joyce said. “There were only 20 rounds this year, so it was getting late, but I kept the faith. It’s a wild feeling, that’s for sure.” In upstate New York for summer ball while the draft was being held, Joyce was working out that afternoon with some friends, including University of Maryland-Baltimore County’s Keegan Leffler, who broke the news while following the draft tracker on his phone. “I got the call from the Mariners just a few seconds after Keegan saw it,” Joyce said. “Then my phone just started blowing up immediately with calls and texts. I took a few quick calls, and then I called my family.” Joyce is the 14th MLB Draft selection in Hofstra history. This marks the third time in the past four years that the Pride has had at least one player chosen in the draft, and a total of five players have been picked over the last four drafts. Joyce earned AllColonial Athletic Association Second Team honors as a pitcher this season, and was an All-CAA Second Team honoree as a utility player in 2019. He made 42 appearances on the mound for the Pride during his career, with 15 starts. He earned six victories. All 11 of his appearances this spring came as a starter, and he pitched a career-best 73 innings in 2021. He tallied double-digit strikeouts in five of his last six starts, and had 89 of his 125 career strikeouts this year, as well as a 3.70 ERA. “Jimmy has a closer’s mentality of toughness, but really found his niche as a starter,” recently retired Hofstra coach John Russo said. “I never worried about pitch count with him because I knew how well he prepared. He typically throws harder in the sixth and seventh innings than he does in the first three innings.” Russo said that the Mariners were one of five teams to contact him in recent months to discuss
Jeff Wilson/Herald
A PITChEr AND third baseman, Jimmy Joyce led Wantagh to a state title as a junior in 2016 and was Nassau County’s top position player in 2017. Joyce. “Seattle is getting a classy kid with high character,” Russo said. “Analytics are a big part of professional sports these days, and Jimmy’s analytics are strong. I got the feeling a handful of teams really liked him.” Joyce joined Bill Cheslock (1966), Ken Singleton (1967), Donald Ruris (1967), Pat Wallace (1982), Mike Miller (1995), Ricky Caputo (2006), Ethan Paquette (2010), Danny Poma (2012), Bryan Verbitsky (2013), John Rooney (2018), Teddy Cillis (2018), Parker Quinn (2019) and Vito Friscia (2019) on the list of Hofstra players selected in the MLB Draft since its inception in 1965. Joyce was a three-sport athlete at Wantagh, and was a member of its 2016 Long Island championship football team as a senior. He won a baseball state championship as a junior, pitching a one-hitter in the state semifinals and hitting a walk-off home run in the title game. As a senior on the diamond, he went 9-2 on the mound with a 1.27 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 66 innings, and helped lead the Warriors to state runner-up status. He starred at third base on non-pitching days, and hit .495 with six home runs, 39 RBIs, 40 runs, and 11 steals in 11 attempts. “Jimmy is such an unbelievable person and athlete,” Wantagh baseball and football coach Keith Sachs said. “He’s a hard worker, humble and a tremendous leader. He’s the complete package.”
Courtesy Hofstra Athletic Communications
JoYCE, A 2017 Wantagh High graduate and a senior at Hofstra University, was a 16th-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in the Major League Baseball Draft on July 13.