Player Name: Rich Ciufo
School: Pat-Med ’15, Brown ’20
Position: SS
Rich is a 2015 graduate of Pat-Med. He is 5’11” 200 lbs.
Offensively: Very solid approach at the plate. He stands with his leg slightly wider than shoulder width. He has his legs bent just a bit and keeps his back elbow up. He employs a toe tap as opposed to a leg kick. This limits the power potential but also enables him to have a balanced approach and not strikeout very often. He has very quick hands that allows him to wait that split second longer to read the pitch as it enters the hitting zone. The ball travels deep on him and he has his weight distributed directly down the center of his body so that he can drive the ball to all fields. His head is directly down on the ball and he gets good extension/lift on his swing. He can run into some home runs on pitches that are up in the zone.
Defensively: At 200 lbs, Ciufo is built more like an outfielder but he still has the prerequisite agility and lateral movement to play the position. He has a very quick first step, tremendous hands and a very quick transfer. These are skills that can’t really be taught in a fielder. That God-given ability to be soft on your feet and corral any ball that is within reach is truly something that you can do or cannot do. As shown in the above video at 0:40, he quickly moved to his right and got himself in position to field the ball without even having to backhand, this saved him the split second of having to transfer from backhand to throwing position. This type of ability allows him make both the routine and spectacular plays.
He is also a very heads up fielder. In the first round of the 2015 playoffs, he tagged out a runner at third base to end the game on a play in which most infielders would’ve tried to do too much and make the unnecessary throw to nab the runner at first. Instead, he identified that there was no play, faked the throw and ran at the runner who took a hard turn around third.
