The East Stroudsburg University baseball program held its third annual scout day on Tuesday as the Warriors worked out in front of scouts from 15 Major League Baseball teams and one from the MLB scouting bureau at Mitterling Field.
ESU, coming off its second-ever trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament and a third-place finish in the Atlantic Regional, opened its six-week fall practice schedule on Saturday, Sept. 10. The fall season will continue through Sunday, Oct. 16 with the conclusion of the three-game Red and Black Series.
The Warriors’ offensive players ran the 60-yard dash, took infield and outfield and batting practice, and the pitchers threw 12-15 pitches each in front of representatives of nearly half of the teams in Major League Baseball.
ESU has had two players selected in the MLB Draft in the last three seasons. Left-handed pitcher Jeremy Gigliotti was picked in the 19th round of the June 2011 draft by the San Diego Padres, and third baseman Mark Angelo was a 44th round pick of the Seattle Mariners in June 2009.
Last spring, Gigliotti and redshirt sophomore Andy Noga pitched the Warriors to the PSAC Tournament for the second straight season. ESU is the only PSAC East school to qualify for the conference tournament the last two years. Gigliotti led Division II with 4.57 hits allowed per 9 innings and ranked third with a 1.04 ERA on his way to All-America honors from Daktronics, the ABCA and NCBWA. Noga led the country in fewest walks per 9 innings (0.62, five walks in 72.1 innings) and had a 2.61 ERA.
In the NCAA Tournament, the Warriors opened with a 6-5 (11 inn.) win over Seton Hill and beat Concord, 17-3, to finish third in the region.
The Warriors open the 2012 season at Saint Augustine’s at the USA Training Complex in Cary, N.C., the site of the NCAA Division II College World Series. ESU swept all three games in its opening series last season on its way to school record starts of 10-0 and 16-4 and the first national ranking in school history.