Ready for Wednesday’s matchup? Let’s see what we have:

  • Shay Maltese was on his way to Cal State Northridge when he showed up in the Valley in 2012. Pitching for Haymarket, Maltese was the top reliever in the year of the offense, going 2-1, 0.44, with five saves, a 0.837 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9, and crazy 17.7 K/9 in 20 1/3 innings. He walked six and struck out 40 in those 20+ innings. Returning to college, he pitched quite well for Northridge for two seasons, going 2-3, 2.88, with seven saves in his senior year, but he was not drafted and did not pitch in pro ball. But he was named to the VBL All-Decade first team!
  • Kevin Becker-Menditto will go down as one of the best Division-III players in the Valley League. Coming from Alvernia, Becker-Menditto was the second-best reliever in the league in 2014, going 2-0, 0.93, with seven saves, a 0.725 WHIP, 3.3 BB/9, and 6.5 K/9 in 19 1/3 innings for Front Royal. He also had a .117 batting average against, proving to be exceedingly difficult to hit. After graduation, Becker-Menditto went on to pitch one season for the Garden State Grays in the independent CanAm League. He was also named to D3baseball.com’s All-Decade first team.

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And by the way, if you want to read a ton about either the 2015 or 2019 VBL season, be sure to check out this post on the 2019 Valley League Annual.

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  • Maltese
  • Becker-