by Nick Vecchione
On a gorgeous afternoon in Uniondale, NY, St. Thomas Aquinas took on LIU Post for a chance to punch their ticket to the ECC championship game on Saturday. Coming into the game, the powerful STAC lineup had accumulated 40 homers in the season! YES, 40 HOME RUNS! And they lived up to their calling card as they added to that total fairly quickly.
Setting the table for the star studded lineup was 2nd basemen, Nicholas Lucchese. Now the box score 100% tells the story that Nick is a coach’s dream at the top of the lineup, reaching base 4 times. However, his swing is far from fundamentally sound. He for sure found something that is unorthodox, and may not be conducive to success for many, but hey, it obviously works for him, as the stats speak for themself! He brings to the box a wide stance and a compact swing which seemed pretty prototypical given his stature. What makes his swing approach unorthodox, however, is that his weight is transferred from his lead leg to the center of his stance, and back forward again, drifting heavily in the process and never having a true break at the conclusion of his swing, losing a ton of momentum. Also his load with his hands comes straight down from his helmet to his torso, which goes against most schools of thought for successful hitting. Given all these factors, I was kind of surprised to see 3 homers this year on his stat line. Although with that said, he is a true top hand dominant kind of hitter. You can see he consistently beats out choppers in the infield, and has a knack to find green grass over the infielders heads, but in front of the outfields faces. A true definition of what old time Baseball teams wanted their leadoff hitters to be. He works the slap hitting technique basically to perfection.
Next up is, in my opinion the most important cog in the wheel for STAC, Joseph Pena. I say this because you know exactly what you’re going to get from the Big boppers behind him, but what Pena brings to the game for his team is truly invaluable. Let’s just start by stating that his BA is .394 and his OBP is .514, what?!?! Those numbers are crazy, no matter what level of baseball you’re at. The versatile shortstop only offers at pitches that are conducive to his success with an extremely balanced and patient approach. He brings a calmness and confidence to the batters box, and probably the most impressive part of his game are his takes on quality pitches offered at him outside of the zone. This is, I think, the best way to differentiate a good hitter from a great one! Furthermore, Pena sports a little bit if a unique load with his hands as his bat come from a parallel plane with the ground to a perpendicular angle with the ground so ready his hands to explode towards the Baseball. The momentum that is stored in the top of his load is extraordinary, and that is complimented by great use of his lower half in which he generates a ton of momentum as well. He is a complete bodied swinger with hands and legs all in sync. He picks his spots to throw his hands violently and explode, but most of the time he stays within himself and takes what the pitcher gives him. He is the definition of letting the game come to him, as he churns out quality at bats like his life depends on it. Moreover, when I saw Pena go up there with no batting gloves to the dish, I got a little giddy inside, I can’t lie. That type of stuff can tell you a lot about a player. He exemplifies grit, doing all of the little things, and not being afraid to get his nose dirty, and I believe he is capable of reaching every bit of his untapped potential. Pena is without a doubt one of my favorite hitters I’ve covered thus far, and STAC should consider themselves lucky to have a Division I type hitter at the top of their lineup.
Giovanni Dincong sits right in the heart of the Spartan lineup, and by far has the most buzz surrounding him. Before seeing him step foot up at the plate, my first reaction was; “damn, this kid definitely looks the part!” A big burley intimidating presence is brought with him when he digs in, and the crowd in attendance salivates as they await what this kid is going to do next. It didn’t take long for Dincong to flash his brilliance as he wasted no time depositing a changeup on the outer half into the right center field gap for an RBI double. Letting the ball travel just like how you draw it up. The ball just sounds different when it hits this kids barrel. The most surprising characteristic of his swing is that he has zero leg kick. How can someone with his sort of power, and the slugging numbers that he puts up have zero leg kick?!?! It’s unbelievable, as he just works with a partial heel up (if you want to even call it that). The natural strength and power that he possesses in his upper body and hands doesn’t just grow on trees, and it was a pleasure to witness it up close. As the game wore on, LIU Post adjusted as to how they attacked Dingcong. He seemed to sit soft away early in the count, as he put good swings on those pitches, seeing as he probably saw that same pitch sequence this season a majority of the time. However, Gio seemed to be fooled by that same soft away pitch late in the count, not being able to generate that same power he did in his initial at bat. As a player that looks to do damage on every pitch he sees, it’s easy to fall in love with what he can do, because he is capable of fireworks on every single at bat. However, I still think there is room for improvement with his swing and approach because as he moves to higher levels of Baseball, there is potential for him to get somewhat exposed, as he has a tendency to become over-zealous and chase bad pitches, and to become off balance and uncomfortable at times. With that said, I expect this kid to carry this Spartan team past the ECC championship and beyond, and for him individually to experience success and growth at the next level of the game.
Penciled in at the bottom third of the STAC lineup is outfield Juan Adorno. With a big, smooth free and easy flexible swing, Adorno has quite a bit of fine tuning to do. With probably one of the prettiest swings in the lineup, the left fielder is overly aggressive, very much to a fault. He has super quick hands and explosive hips, but they are quickly canceled out by the fact that he doesn’t pick up the Baseball or see the spin very well, and he drifts out and front and cheats to pitches instead of trusting in his natural ability. It’s obvious that he tries to play the part of hero every single at bat and bails out opposing pitchers by offering at non competitive pitches consistently, putting himself behind the 8-ball. It’s hard to be successful when the count is constantly in the pitchers favor, which is a real shame in Adorno’s case because he flashes awesome ability. He’s an extremely flashy player with no substance at the moment, sad to say. With proper coaching and adjustments, sky can be the limit, but I’ve seen far too many kids comparable to Adorno that fail to scratch the surface of what they can really do.
Last but certainly not least is one of the more polarizing talents on this Spartan team, Anthony Shkrelja. Very much like his teammate Dincong, the Spartan 3rd basemen possesses a ton of power as well. However, how he obtains that power is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum compared to his teammate. Shkrelja’s power was quickly on display as he blasted a rainmaker home run over the left field fence on the very first pitch he saw on Friday afternoon. This power is truly self generated. You can tell that a lot of work and technical fundamentals were built up and put into his swing so that he is capable of possessing such power. He really gets into his legs, and aims to see the ball down in the zone. Again, not much load in the hands as most of it is done with his lower half, featuring a launch angle swing featuring great pop that he aims to achieve. On impact, Shkrelja creates a stiff font leg, with all his weight put on the heel of his opened front side. This characteristic allows him to remain balanced and have every bit of momentum that he generates to be transferred to his barrel, allowing him to drive the Baseball to all areas of the field. Like many of the Spartan hitters, he comes off as a bit over ambitious trying to push the envelope and forcing the issue, leaving him susceptible to swings and misses and soft contact on anything soft to the outer half, which seems to be a theme with this lineup. However, it’s no fluke that all this success is coming STAC’s way this year especially with a hitter of Anthony’s caliber hitting behind one of the most feared hitters on the Division II level. As a guys that can carry and lineup, I expect him to do just that the rest of the way.
