Iona College is coming off a season in which they made a great playoff run in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), rattling off three consecutive wins in elimination games before having their dreams dashed by No. 2 Marist. Additionally, lights-out closer Jared Finkel (11 saves, 1.41 ERA) was selected in the 23rd round by the Minnesota Twins.
Today was another positive day for the program as OF Dan Palermo (Sachem East 2018) accepted their offer and announced his commitment.
He spoke to Vinny Messana and here’s what he had to say…
Talk a little about your recruiting process and how the commitment to Iona came to be.
My recruiting process involved a lot of top JUCO teams and I figured I would be going in that direction until I met Coach Carey from Iona and took a tour and fell in love with it. The East Coast Lumberjacks’ staff is one of the best coaching staffs I’ve played on. They teach you how to play for a college team and they can put you in front of every school in the country.
Who have some influential people in your baseball career been?
Since a young age, I’ve try to model my game around Brett Gardner, a guy who never was known for the long ball but was a gap-to-gap hitter, got on base and never let anything fall in the outfield.
2017 was a great year for Sachem East. What will you remember most about that team?
The 2017 Sachem East team was easily the best team I’ve ever played on in regard too being a family. We all had one goal in mind and it was to win. We didn’t give up and it showed in our last playoff game that even though we are down nine runs we are going keep it interesting, which we did.
2018 is setting up to be another great year with a strong rotation led by Roman Dorosh and a handful of promising position players. What are your goals for the season?
I personally believe that Long Island should watch out for Sachem East this year. The chemistry of this team is unmatched and is already showing throughout the fall.
Who have some influential people in your baseball career been?
My parents have been my No.1 fans since I first started playing. My dad has taught my from a very young age “walk on the field like you own it”, and I’ve played that way my whole life
