With all the distractions that come along with playing under the the spotlight of Div-I baseball, it would be easy to understand if a player got caught up in the hoopla. Most players are constantly on social media and can allow outside talk to effect their play.
Most players are not Jesse Berardi.
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The St. John’s SS is having a season for the record books. The slick-fielding Commack native has compiled a triple slash line of .385/.497/.519 and is on the draft radar of at least 20 of the 30 Major League teams. Every move from this point on will most likely be recorded by a scout either on video or timed with a stop watch. It will be sent to the regional supervisors and national crosscheckers and Directors of Scouting and possibly, the General Managers.
This is not uncharted territory for him, though, as he was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 40th round of the 2014 draft after winning the Carl Yastrzemski Award.
“It’s all about the team winning,” said Berardi. “Anything that happens after the season, happens after the season and that’s not up to me. I try not to pay attention to that stuff,” he added.
Watch him play enough, and you are guaranteed to appreciate him more than the last time you saw him. Scouts love his hustle, his grit and, of course, his tremendous defensive abilities and plate discipline. He has improved each of the three seasons he’s played for Head Coach Ed Blankmeyer–whom he called “the best,” and he’s appreciative of him always “giving him a fair shot. One scout had this to say about him:
“His biggest improvements since high schools has been his approach at the plate…aggressive in the right counts…not missing pitching to hit. His walks outweigh his strikeouts….and in this day in age of analytics, it makes for better OBPs,” he added.
Berardi is as humble as they come, and he will never toot his own horn–but it is clear he worked tirelessly to return from the foot injury that sidelined him for the end of the 2016 season.
He noted that he used that time to “observe the game and learn as much as I could off the field.” He added, “when I got back it wasn’t a tough adjustment.”
According to Berardi, his biggest influence has been one of the St. John’s coaches, Matt Wessinger. “He’s like another brother to me. He helps me every single day and he helps a lot of our guys who aren’t hitting so well.”
You won’t get him to make any proclamations, but he stated that the team’s goal remains the same as always “we are just trying to win the Big East tournament, make it to a regional–win that–and make it to Omaha.”
Despite being a modest, low-key individual, Berardi’s performance has been impossible to ignore. He has been the best player on one of the best teams in the nation. He has forced every decision-maker in baseball to pay attention to a shortstop from the northeast–something that is very difficult to do.
While pitching has dominated the northeast for many years, Berardi can become the highest drafted positional player from Long Island since Frank Catalanotto.
