Male athlete of the week

Name: Paul Nardozzi Sport: Baseball Class: Senior Age: 22 Major: Marketing Favorite Sport… Name: Paul Nardozzi Sport: Baseball Class: Senior Age: 22 Major: Marketing Favorite Sport Other than Baseball: Golf

Paul Nardozzi has been getting some phone calls from Italy lately. This summer, he’ll make the decision as to whether or not to visit his homeland in person – to play baseball.

Nardozzi is being recruited by the Italian Professional League to join them after the Panthers’ season. Pitt head baseball coach Joe Jordano knows the Italians take baseball very seriously, and says it would be a phenomenal opportunity for Nardozzi to play there.

“I know he’s been in contact with them, and I’m sure that based on how he’s throwing now that some more major league baseball teams will take an interest in Paul as well,” Jordano said.

Nardozzi definitely wants to continue with baseball after college – it’s something he’s grown up with all his life.

“My whole family’s a baseball family,” he said. “That’s all we do, we eat sleep and do everything baseball. My sister played softball, and my two older brothers played baseball in college, so I just followed through the ranks.

“There was a huge hole near some apartment complexes near where my house was being built when we moved to New York,” Nardozzi recounted. “We called it the pit, and we used to play football and baseball there. Someone would say ‘What are you doing?’ and we’d answer ‘Oh, I’ll be down at the pit,’ and that’s where we’d all play.”

Nardozzi’s license plate reads: “Perfect Game” and was a gag gift from his dad back in high school, when Nardozzi almost had three perfect games in a row until the last inning rolled around.

A perfect game for a pitcher consists of no runs, no hits, no errors and no walks. In Nardozzi’s junior year, he almost achieved that in three consecutive games but gave up a hit in the last inning of the first game, and one walk each in the last inning of the second two games.

In his senior year of high school, Nardozzi was also named New York State Player of the Year for both pitching and hitting.

This season, it looks like Nardozzi could be on his way to that perfect game. He’s been off to a great start with two consecutive shutouts from the mound and a team-high 39 strikeouts. He’s also been named Big East Pitcher of the Week twice in his career, including once this week.

“He’s really pitching well this year,” Jordano said. “I’m very pleased with the progress that he has made, and I believe he has some pitching to do, not only this year but into his future, but he’s a kid that really is into what he does and does it very thoroughly.”

The coaches in Italy must think so, too.