Mom helps Savastano dish it out at the plate
Plymouth’s Scott Savastano
took his mother’s advice to regain
his stroke at Franklin Pierce University
By John R. Johnson, GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
QUINCY — Scott Savastano is smart enough to know that mom
still knows best. As a junior at Franklin Pierce University, it
would be easy for the Plymouth native to shut his mother out of his
decision-making, as so many college kids do, but Franklin Pierce
baseball coach Jayson King is glad that his star shortstop
hasn’t taken that path.
Savastano caught fire early in the season, hitting seven home runs
in his first 23 games. Then, the home runs suddenly became long
fly-ball outs.
Savastano’s average dropped, and his production started to
tail off.
That’s when the phone rang, the message from Debra Savastano
being a simple one — stop trying to hit for power, and go
back to spraying line drives.
Savastano listened, and his average climbed over .400 before
settling at .388 as the Ravens hosted the opening round of the NCAA
Division 2 Northeast Regional championships Thursday with a 16-2
rout of CW Post.
Savastano led the Raven’s 20-hit attack with three hits,
including a home run and a double to continue his season-long power
assault at the plate.
“Last fall, Coach King said he wanted me to start hitting
more home runs and that I should have better power numbers,”
Savavastano said, “so I worked on getting my hands out and
extended, and I worked on driving the ball.”
Savastano hit four homers as a freshman, but only one in an injury
-shorted season last year.
“When I had seven (home runs) this year, I was so amped up
to keep hitting them that I was flying out a lot. That’s when
my mom gave me a pep talk about my average being low and going back
to hitting line drives.”
Savastano’s emphasis on making contact helped the Ravens to
overcome a mid-season stretch where they lost five of six games.
Franklin Pierce enters the NCAAs on a nine-game winning streak.
This week, Savastano was named to his first all-Northeast-10
Conference first team. He was a second-team pick as a freshman.
Last year, he missed 41 games because of a hand injury.
Savastano has started all 51 games at shortstop for the Ravens,
and leads the team in batting average, home runs, runs scored (53)
doubles (15), triples (2) and RBI (38).
Savastano has posted those numbers despite not seeing the best
pitches for much of the season — his 44 walks set a new
single-season record at Franklin Pierce.
He also leads the NE-10, and is 18th in the nation in walks per
game. His .506 on-base percentage is also tops in the NE-10.
“I don’t know if pitchers are throwing around him, but
they are definitely careful with him,” said King, a Canton
native in his 10th season at Franklin Pierce. “He’s
pretty selective and doesn’t swing at too many pitches
outside the strike zone. He’s an all-around excellent player,
but the best thing is, when he’s at bat, he’s just a
tough out.”
Savastano is confident that the long ball will return during the
postseason playoffs after a 28-game drought. However, he is more
than just an offensive threat. His diversity on the field allowed
him to move from third base to shortstop this season.
“I’ll do whatever is best for the team,” he
said. “My teammates say that I look more and more like a
shortstop every day, but at the next level, I know I’ll be
playing third base. Learning these reads from shortstop will help
me get quicker at third base.”
Savastano has already been chosen twice in the Major League
Baseball draft, as a senior in high school (a 33rd-round selection
by the Chicago White Sox) and again last year, when he was a
28th-round selection by the Cleveland Indians. He likely would have
been chosen much higher if he were not injured.
This year, projections are that he could go as high as the fifth
round. But his first task is getting Franklin Pierce back to the
college baseball championships.
“I’m playing it day-by-day. I hope I get drafted high
but right now the focus is on winning the college World
Series,” said Savastano. “Anything less than that is
unacceptable.”
