Baseball Feature: Shortstop gains confidence with strong summer play
Brian Bayer
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: Sports
While most other St. Bonaventure students worked their average summer jobs, sophomore shortstop Jesse Bosnik worked as a member of the Brockport Riverbats in the New York Collegiate Baseball League.
The NYCBL, founded in 1978, is a summer wood bat development league for professional baseball. It is funded in part by Major League Baseball. The league gives college players who have not yet signed a professional contract the opportunity to develop their skills at a higher level of play, gain experience with wood bats and be evaluated by MLB scouts.
The league has featured numerous MLB stars, such as Atlanta Braves starter Tim Hudson, Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge and Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence.
Bonnies head coach Larry Sudbrook said his sophomore shortstop struggled with confidence at times during his freshman campaign - at the plate and on defense - but not once did he quit working hard.
"His work ethic is one of the things that we were appreciative of during the recruiting process," Sudbrook said. "Everybody talks about what a good work ethic certain people have, but people just fell all over themselves when it came to Jesse's work ethic."
Bosnik led the Riverbats in almost every offensive category while playing in 41 of 42 regular season games. His .333 batting average, 32 runs scored, 52 hits, 16 doubles, two home runs, 28 RBI and .487 slugging percentage were all team highs. Midway through the season he was selected to the Western Division All-Star Team.
He did all this with a wood bat, instead of the aluminum ones used throughout college baseball.
"It's an adjustment at first," Bosnik said of the transition from aluminum to wood. "It makes you that much better with aluminum because you have to square it up with wood and that's the biggest thing that will help me this year."
Bosnik said his learning of how to deal with the ups and downs of playing college baseball heavily influenced the reason for his success over the summer.
The NYCBL, founded in 1978, is a summer wood bat development league for professional baseball. It is funded in part by Major League Baseball. The league gives college players who have not yet signed a professional contract the opportunity to develop their skills at a higher level of play, gain experience with wood bats and be evaluated by MLB scouts.
The league has featured numerous MLB stars, such as Atlanta Braves starter Tim Hudson, Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge and Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence.
Bonnies head coach Larry Sudbrook said his sophomore shortstop struggled with confidence at times during his freshman campaign - at the plate and on defense - but not once did he quit working hard.
"His work ethic is one of the things that we were appreciative of during the recruiting process," Sudbrook said. "Everybody talks about what a good work ethic certain people have, but people just fell all over themselves when it came to Jesse's work ethic."
Bosnik led the Riverbats in almost every offensive category while playing in 41 of 42 regular season games. His .333 batting average, 32 runs scored, 52 hits, 16 doubles, two home runs, 28 RBI and .487 slugging percentage were all team highs. Midway through the season he was selected to the Western Division All-Star Team.
He did all this with a wood bat, instead of the aluminum ones used throughout college baseball.
"It's an adjustment at first," Bosnik said of the transition from aluminum to wood. "It makes you that much better with aluminum because you have to square it up with wood and that's the biggest thing that will help me this year."
Bosnik said his learning of how to deal with the ups and downs of playing college baseball heavily influenced the reason for his success over the summer.
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