PLAYER OF THE SUMMER
Andrew Pedone was seeing ‘beach balls’ at the plate this summer for the Amsterdam Mohawks
AMSTERDAM, NY » “This has been the kind of summer where I’ve been seeing beach balls at the plate.”
When Andrew Pedone said that he was seeing beach balls at the plate after a game in mid July, everyone around the Independent Collegiate Baseball League knew that he was a dangerous hitter. What not many expected is for the Shenendehowa alum to finish the summer with an even .500 batting average.
It was after a double header against Glens Falls, where he compiled four extra-base hits, that Pedone first made that statement. For most, that night would have been the highlight of their season. For Pedone, that was just the beginning and the reason why he deserves the Player of the Summer honors.
Pedone walked just five times all summer long and struck out a measly seven times. Opposing pitchers knew that when the Mohawks’ left-handed hitting, middle infielder from Saint Rose came to bat, he was going to put the ball in play.
“Pedone always has good at-bats,” said Wayne Jones, the Head Coach of Saint Rose’s baseball team. “We stress having quality atbats as a program and he has done a great job over the last three years of doing that. He’s one of the best I’ve seen at having a quality at-bat almost every time he’s up.”
As he goes into his Super-Senior season on the baseball team and first year of graduate school at Saint Rose, Pedone is looking to carry over some of his hot hitting. A season where he had more extrabase hits than he did singles is going to be tough to replicate.
His .500 batting average broke down to 30-for60 at the plate, including 12 doubles, a triple and 3 home runs, totaling 16 extra-base hits. That was good for a slugging percentage of .833. To put that in perspective, a slugging percentage from .450-.550 is typically seen as very good. Pedone blew that out of the water.
It was not just one team’s pitcher’s that Pedone took advantage of. He hit over .400 against each of the teams in the ICBL, hitting .563 against Glens Falls, .520 against the Dutch, and .421 against the Athletics.
Jones knows that it is tough to evaluate stats from a short summer league, compared to what will actually happen next spring in NE10 competition.
“I don’t put too much stock into it other than I’m glad to see that he had a great summer, but it’s expected at this point,” Jones said. “Andrew’s been one of the better hitters that we’ve had since he walked on campus here. I expect him to excel wherever he plays. Every league he’s played in he’s hit really well, whether that’s the New England League, the Perfect Game League, the NYCBL and this one, so it’s not a surprise to me.”
Normally when you see a player has a batting average like that, the first thing you do is check how many at-bats they have, expecting it to be two or four. Even still, his video-gamelike numbers can still be hard to believe. Rest assured, there is video proof. His stats are legit.
It wasn’t just hitting that Pedone excelled in this summer. He was widely regarded as one of the best infielders in the league.
“Andrew’s a great defender. This past summer he was playing second base, but he’s been our shortstop the past two years here,” Jones said. “No matter where you put him on the field he’s excellent. He has great hands, a strong arm and he gets the job done, no matter where you put him.”
While Jones couldn’t go to any of the ICBL games in person, he was keeping track of how his Golden Knights were doing.
“I actually watched a lot of the games on the live stream, so it was great to see them all play. I’m glad they got the experience since I was worried they would go all summer without playing at all. It’s good for the guys and our program to get them out playing. It was good for me too since it gave me something to watch,” he said.
RUNNER UP: Tommy Kretzler
The Albany Athletics and Albany Dutch had quite a few battles all summer long. Late in the season, the Dutch were hoping to finally sweep the Athletics. Tommy Kretzler was having none of it, robbing Nick Melillo on an absolute bomb to right field, with a full, layout diving catch on the track near the wall.
Kretzler did it all for the A’s, hit, pitch, and play great defense.
“Tommy was incredible for us this summer. You would never know he missed the first few games of the season due to summer classes, as he hit the ground running and was one of the most difficult outs in the league,” said A’s manager Joe Altieri.
Kretzler hit .380 this summer (19-50), and allowed only one earned run in 15.2 innings one the mound, good for a 0.57 ERA.
“We could count on his power and production at the plate every game and in big spots. I could also pull him in from the outfield for short or long outings on the mound, and count on him to throw strikes and shut down our opponents,” Altieri said.
“Most of all, he was a true pleasure to coach, always open to play wherever we needed him and quietly went about his business.”