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 made two announcements while appearing on our IG Live back in April. He stated that he was undergoing Tommy John surgery by Dr. James Paci and he was transferring from UCONN to St. Anselm College.
He later changed his mind and has since transferred to UMBC – which competes in the America East.
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.
At UMBC he will be red-shirting for the 2021 season and will be ready to return in 2022. In regards to his rehabbing he said, “I’m a little behind schedule in terms of where I am in the throwing program but I just have so much time that I’m taking it really slow so I can make major changes to help my mechanics and stay healthy,” he said.
