When Jeff Towle set the single-season HR record at Suffolk CC with 10 in 2018 it was an exciting moment for the Ward Melville grad. He was able to accomplish the feat in a mere 28 games.
To make it more impressive, Towle graduated high school in 2015 with no intention of playing another game. He had been committed to Pace to play football and did not play even a summer ball game since the county championship against Connetquot.
The Early Days
Jeff was born and raised in Stony Brook to a sports-loving family. His grandfather coached varsity football at Newfield HS for 15 years, his uncle played baseball at Suffolk CC and his younger brother would grow up loving baseball.
For Jeff, his favorite sport was football, calling it his “first love.”
When it came to baseball, he grew up admiring the intensity of Bryce Harper and emulating the catching styles of Joe Mauer and Matt Wieters.
“They were both taller, bigger catchers and that wasn’t common to have over 6’0 catchers. The best catchers when I was growing up were guys like Ivan Rodriguez.”
While he didn’t take private lessons when he was very young, he began to take private catching lessons with Charles Galiano in high school.
“I give him all the credit,” said Towle. “He’s been an unbelievable role model for me. I am still learning things from him now at 7 Tool,” he added.
Towle played travel ball for the Steelheads, the LI Storm and the Long Island Titans. He noted that he was never on the top teams, because his focus was always on football in the summer but he said in regards to his Steelhead team, “most of us played ball in college.”
Ward Melville
The Patriots were riding an incredible wave of momentum by the time Towle got high school. They won the Long Island Championship in 2013 against Massapequa at Dowling College. The following year, Towle’s 11th grade year, they won the League 1 Championship but was defeated by Commack in the playoffs.
They still had an incredible strong team led by arguably the best 2-way player on Long Island – Joe Flynn. They also had senior Joe Barbieri and – unbeknownst to them at the time – future draft pick – Ben Brown.
Towle was tasked with handling the talented pitching staff, but he made no bones about it – Flynn was the guy.
“I played with Joe since 2nd grade. He was the captain of our team. His work ethic was great. When he was on the mound, he didn’t think anyone could hit him – which was great because that’s how I felt too. At the plate, he was frustrated because nobody would pitch to him. But it was really great to be part of a team like that. There wasn’t a lot of ‘me guys’. We meshed really well. We hung out before and after practice. There was a bunch of unselfish guys. Coach Lou and Muscarella gave us a ton of confidence. We just ran into a Connetquot team that was just as loaded as us and we didn’t get it done,” he added.
The Patriots started the season off 11-1, finished 18-2 to set the program record for single-season wins. They were of course led by the pitching staff which featured the Paul Gibson Award winner in Joe Flynn but also featured Brown who went undefeated as a sophomore in League 1 which is incredibly difficult to do.
In the Suffolk County Class AA Finals, Connetquot ultimately won the series in 3 games but Towle described it as the “most intense series ever.” In Game 2, they won on a walk-off HR by Dom Lamonica to force a do-or-die Game 3 in which Travis Bruinsma won his record-setting 12th game of the season.
Pace
Following that County Championship, Towle was under the assumption his career was over. In fact, he didn’t even play summer ball that year. He went to Pace with the intention of playing QB which he did in the fall of 2015.
Life has a way of throwing you curveballs. Towle said “it wasn’t the right place at that time” and he was looking at other options. After his grandpa got sick, Jeff wanted to be close to home to be with him. Additionally, his grandpa told him he wished he would go back to playing baseball.
Honoring his grandpa’s request, he transferred to Suffolk CC to play baseball. Unfortunately, his grandpa lost his battle with cancer in August just before college began.
Back to the diamond
Towle credits much of his success to his coaches at Suffolk CC – Eric Brown & Heath Terry in 2017 and Brian Klammer in 2018.
“Coach Brown made it easy to transfer. He impacted my life so much. I came in as a hot-head football player and he didn’t tolerate that. He told me ‘it’s not about you – you can’t play this game like football.’ It was his way or the highway – and sometimes you need that. Between him and Coach Terry – they really molded me,” he added.
Despite the positive outlook, Towle still considered hanging up the cleats following the 2017 season, but his mom convinced him to give it another year.
Towle had a career resurgence in 2018, posting one of the finest offensive seasons in Suffolk CC history. He batted .468 with 10 HRs and drove in 46 runs while leading the Sharks to another Region XV Championship.
Speaking about his new coach, he said “Klammer gave me so much confidence – we meshed really well.”
“That group of players was incredible. Everyone was there for a reason. Nobody wants to be there, but we came together very well. When you have success as a team, you don’t have a lot of ‘me guys’. My teammates were fantastic.”
They ultimately lost in the Super Regional at Northern Essex where they lost both games. They had an outstanding pitching staff of Nick Morena, Ryan Steffans, Tyler Schmid and Chris Berte but they did not reach their goal of the College World Series.
While Towle had 0 baseball scholarship offers coming out of HS, he noted that he had 20 following his breakout offensive season.
Limestone College
After much deliberation, he chose to head to Gaffney, SC to attend Limestone University “because they play in arguably the best Division-II conference in the country.” He added that it “was a really good fit for me.”
Although he didn’t know them going in, he became close with fellow Long Islanders Brennan & Kyle Strovink as well as Brian Forbes who were all at the school.
“Brennan and Kyle are two of my best friends and I consider them family.”
In 2019, Towle struggled to adjust to the pitching and batted .199 over 41 games. but he had high hopes for the 2020 season. In another cruel twist, he endured a 75 percent tear of his UCL and was unable to play the field but he was able to hit. He was off to a great start offensively – batting .290 with 9 RBIs in 8 starts but obviously COVID had other plans and cancelled the remainder of the season. He came home and didn’t throw for 6 months to heal his arm.
Towle came back in 2021 with one year remaining. After two of the team’s catchers went down with injuries, Towle was asked to return behind the dish. The UCL tear, however, reared its ugly head and he endured excruciating pain and that was it as it resulted in a season-ending injury.
Jeff was able to focus on school and he received his MBA in 2021. Upon graduation, he moved to Charleston where he lived for a year before heading back home to Long Island.
Present Day
Jeff moved back to Long Island in May 2022 and began coaching with 5 Star National. Additionally, he worked as a catching instructor with Charles Galiano’s 7 Tool Catching clinic and private lessons at Dedication Sports. It was Galiano who gave Towle lessons when he was in high school and Towle spoke very highly of him.
Towle also coached the middle school football team this past fall and helps out the baseball team when he’s available.
“Whenever Coach Petrucci needs me I’m around. I love that program,” he said. His younger brother graduated in 2020, but was robbed of his senior season due to COVID. His cousin, Matty Maurer also played at Ward Melville and plays college ball in Georgia.
Lastly, Towle began his own personal training company called JDT Training Corp where he trains athletes with powerlifting.
“It’s my passion – I want to help as many people as I can.”
Towle is a story of perseverance. He’s endured loss of a loved one, he dealt with the grueling elbow injury and he’s managed to come back each time. And his commitment to helping out the next generation of athlete is what it’s all about.
