The process of completing UnipolSai Fortitudo continues, in view of the second phase of the 2022 baseball season, the Scudetto Pool, to which the biancoblu, still undefeated, qualified last weekend. Once the first phase has been completed, the tournament will continue with the increase to three of the weekly races, which will pass to the duration of 7 rounds of play. For this reason it is necessary to adjust the mound, with the inclusion in the biancoblu pitching staff of Christian Scafidi, Italian-American right thrower with an imposing physique (193 cm by 120 kg), born in Camden, New Jersey (USA) on August 5, 1997, therefore just 24 years old. A quality athlete, who comes from five seasons at the American college level and who can be used in one or both of the two games in which there is no requirement for Italian-trained pitchers. The boy will arrive in Bologna this week and will be available as early as next weekend.
After attending the Highland Regional High School in Blackwood (NJ), where he distinguishes himself in both basketball and baseball, holding the role of captain for two seasons, in the five years played at NCAA level, Christian Paul Scafidi is mainly used as a pitcher departing, except for the year of his debut, when he is employed as a relief by the Penn Quakers, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Ivy League, a team with which he plays for four seasons, concluding his university experience in 2021 with the Fighting Irish, University of Notre Dame of South Bend (Indiana). For him, in 5 years of college, 35 games played, of which 23 as a starter, totaling 12 wins, against 6 defeats, ERA 3.40, average strikeout 8.0 every 9 innings, against an average bases per ball of 3.1 and of valid of 8.5. Among his records, 3 complete games and 11 strikeouts in a single match, a complete one launched in 2020, suffering only one unearned point, without conceding a single base per ball. In 2019 he closes with a ranking of 6 wins and 1 defeat, ERA 2.62 and also plays 8 matches as a starter in the summer league, with the Vermont Mountaineers (New England Collegiate Baseball League), closing with a budget of 4-3, ERA 3.10. In 2020, the year of his graduation, in full pandemic, he closes with ERA 0.00 in 15 rounds before the championship is interrupted, while in 2021, after 2 starts with a win and ERA 1.50 in 6 rounds, he ends the season prematurely due to injury. In May he obtained a master’s degree in management.
Endowed with a strong personality, in the course of his sports career in the university field he obtains numerous honors, including pitcher of the year and member of the first team of the Ivy League (2019), in at least a couple of occasions pitcher of the week, as well as captain of the Penn Quakers and participates in numerous initiatives in both Colleges. Last summer he rejoined the Penn Quakers, joining the technical staff, as head of the sector dedicated to the growth and technical development of the College’s young pitchers.
Equipped with the outstanding characteristics of a starting pitcher, thanks to his qualities of control and resistance, with his fast ball he is able to surprise the batters he faces, making himself useful in the same way to the team also employed in the important role, allowing manager Frignani and to the biancoblu technical staff to have an additional weapon of all respect, in addition to Rivero and Gouvea, in the sector of non-Italian training pitchers, also bringing the enthusiasm and freshness of an athlete eager to test himself with baseball European.
Photo Hunter Martin/pennathletics.com
