Stony Brook’s Trezza Leading Nation With Big Blasts

Alex Trezza hits the type of home runs that cause jaws to drop.

The Stony Brook catcher was leading the country with 23 homers and was among the Division I leaders with 64 RBIs--both single-season school records--entering the weekend.

But it isn’t the number of homers that’s been most impressive, it’s the way Trezza hits them.

“He definitely has hit some big-time blasts,” Seawolves coach Matt Senk said. “He hits them high. He hits them far. Usually when he hits a home run, it’s not a cheap one.”

Trezza, a junior who is already Stony Brook’s career leader in homers (52) and RBIs (172), said his success comes from his approach.

“People ask me if I try to hit home runs, but every baseball player knows that you really can’t do that,” said Trezza, a right-handed thrower who bats left-handed. “I just try to hit the ball to all fields, and it’s been working out so far.”

At 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, Trezza is a presence at the plate. And opposing pitchers have been getting a good look at his home run trot as well.

“In high school, I didn’t hit home runs like I do now,” said Trezza, who was batting .387. “I was more of a line-drive hitter. The power has just come along.”

Trezza, a shortstop in high school, has played catcher, first base, shortstop and designated hitter for the Seawolves (28-14), who are in their second year as a Division I program and will play in the America East Conference next season. But Senk said Trezza’s development as a catcher is what’s creating interest among major league scouts.

“All the tools are there and it’s just a matter of him getting innings and getting more comfortable back there,” Senk said. “There are so few left-handed hitting catchers out there.”

Trezza was both a baseball and hockey star in high school, and was the starting left wing for Stony Brook’s club team during his first two years at the Long Island school. But he decided to concentrate solely on baseball this year.

A 20-year-old political science major, Trezza said many of the body motions in the sports are similar. But he admitted that going from hockey season to baseball slightly threw off his hitting.

“Shooting a puck, you actually are on your front foot when you follow through with your shot,” Trezza said. “In baseball, the big thing is staying back long enough to do what you can with a pitch. I noticed I was a little out in front when I started baseball season. But it’s nothing so major that it wasn’t easily corrected.”

And he’s shown that he’s feeling just fine at the plate.

“The guys on the team always bust my chops and tell me, ‘Oh look, you’re the home run king,’ and stuff like that,” Trezza said. “It’s more of a fun thing, but it’s great and I’m very proud of it.”

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APPEALING WIN: Smart thinking by Louisiana State erased an Alabama run from the scoreboard and sent the Tigers to a wild victory last Saturday.

Todd Linden led off the ninth inning with a home run to give LSU an 8-7 lead. But Alabama got two leadoff singles in the bottom of the inning, and Scott McClanahan sacrificed.

Reliever Brian Wilson came in and Casey Lambert hit a fly to right field. Ray Wright caught the ball and pinch-runner Landon Brazell took off from third and beat the throw home to tie the game.

But LSU appealed the play, saying Brazell left early and third-base umpire Mark McGill agreed -- ending the game.

Linden’s three-run homer in the fifth set off some tense moments. He had words with Alabama players as he rounded the bases, and a warning was issued by plate umpire A.J. Lostaglio.

Alabama’s Mark Carter hit Brian Moore with the next pitch. Moore charged the mound, the benches emptied and it took 20 minutes for order to be restored, although no punches were thrown. Both players were ejected, along with Crimson Tide coach Jim Wells. Under NCAA rules, Wells was suspended for one game, as was Moore, and Carter for four.

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PICKING ON PITCHERS: Kent State’s John VanBenschoten single-handedly inflated a few ERAs last week.

VanBenschoten, a junior outfielder and pitcher, homered in seven straight games before being held without one against Marshall last Sunday. He fell one short of tying the NCAA record for consecutive games with a homer, last done by Duke’s Ryan Jackson in 1994.

VanBenschoten hit .577 (15-for-26) with 16 RBIs and a 1.577 slugging percentage during the power surge. He was hitting .450 with a school-record 21 homers and 54 RBIs and is projected as a first-round pick in June’s draft.

VanBenschoten was also 2-1 with three saves and a 3.86 ERA for the Golden Flashes.

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BLAKE’S BLAST: Georgia’s Blake Bodenmiller picked a good time to hit his first college home run.

The Bulldogs trailed Tennessee 5-3 in the ninth inning last Sunday before rallying to score two runs and tie it. With two outs, Bodenmiller, a redshirt freshman, hit an 0-2 pitch from Will Curtiss over the right-center field fence to give the Bulldogs a 9-5 lead.

Jeffrey Carswell pitched the ninth and sealed the win to complete Georgia’s first three-game sweep at Tennessee since 1987.

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AROUND THE HORN: Notre Dame (41-7-1) was No. 1 for the second straight week in Collegiate Baseball’s poll, and moved into the top spot for the first time in Baseball America’s poll. The Irish moved from No. 4 to No. 2, behind Louisiana State, in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll. ... Jason Kane drove in a school-record eight runs in St. John’s 18-7 victory over Fairfield on Tuesday. ... Kansas State’s three-game sweep of Missouri last weekend was its first since 1974.