Max Nielsen strikes out 18 batters to send Ward Melville to the Suffolk County AA Finals ! pic.twitter.com/RtJrqe4y4p
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2019
Max Nielsen announced on IG Live tonight that he will be undergoing Tommy John surgery on Monday by Dr. James Paci. He also said after narrowing down his choices to Maine and Saint Anselm, he has decided to transfer to Saint Anselm from UCONN.
He is the reigning Carl Yastrzemski Award winner – which is given to the top player in Suffolk County. He led Ward Melville to the Suffolk Class AA Finals against Connetquot. He compiled a record of 5-1 with an ERA of 1.44 ERA with 103 strikeouts. He allowed only 19 hits over 49 innings. The high point of his season came in the semifinals against West Islip in which he set a program record with 18 strikeouts.
Over his five-year varsity career, he set the program record for strikeouts with 293 and is second in career wins with 19, behind only Anthony Kay (20). To own a program record in anything is pretty remarkable considering they have two current big leaguers (Kay and Steven Matz), a minor leaguer (Ben Brown) and another outstanding Division-I Ivy League athlete in Joe Flynn.
He pitched in two games for UCONN as a freshman; Vanderbilt and Michigan.
During his announcement, he also noted he wants to attempt to be a two-way player as well which is not far-fetched as he was a major piece of the Ward Melville lineup as well.
