D'Annunzio Commits to Rutgers

The Raiders' two-sport star gave a verbal committment to play baseball at Rutgers University in Piscataway. D'Annunzio is also an outstanding soccer player, but said that baseball is his true love.

"I will miss soccer to some extent, but baseball is my true sport,'' D'Annunzio said. "I'm
more talently gifted in baseball. But I love both sports."

D'Annunzio batted .494 last season for the Union County Tournament champions. He stole 20 bases, drove in 30 runs and slugged five homers. He's an outfielder.

"I saw myself possibly going south or west, but I visited the school and it was a lot
different than I thought,'' D'Annunzio said. "It has a great business school and it's more of an engineering type of school. If baseball doesn't work out long term, I'd like to fall back on my dad's family business. It's also close to home and if I need anything they're close by. They can come watch me play. That was a big part of it."

Rutgers is also a member of the Big East Conference along with schools like Villanova, St. John's in New York City, Syracuse, and West Virginia. The league has a reputation of grooming Major League talent.

"They play incredible baseball; it's (the Big East) top-of-the-line baseball," D'Annunzio
said.

D'Annunzio's homer against John F. Kennedy ace Brian Schroeder kept the Raiders in the North 2 Group III title game in the spring. The Raiders lost 6-3, but have many of the same players back. He led his team in batting average, runs (43), RBIs, triples and hits.

"He's one of the better athletes to come through our halls," said Scotch Plains-Fanwood
coach Tom Baylock, who's had two other players — James Dinizo (Northern Iowa University) and Kevin Maroney (Monmouth University) sign with Division I schools the last two years.

D'Annunzio, a center back in the fall, said his focus now is on helping the Raiders win
soccer games. The Raiders open the season Saturday morning at home against Summit.