The La Salle University Baseball team recently announced its recruiting classes for the 2008 season, as four players signed national letters of intent. The quartet - three of them pitchers - will look to fill the void of five graduating seniors.
The only one of the four that does not start on the mound is Zack Feierstein, a 5-11 catcher from St. John's High School in Washington, DC. The Silver Spring resident hit .411 with 39 RBI last year, and batted over .300 as a sophomore. He is a three-year starter, earned all-conference honors last year and will captain the team this season in his final season.
The last two years, St. John's has been a top 25 team in the country and won back-to-back WCAC regular season titles and won the Conference Championship in 2005; and. La Salle will be welcoming another player from the school, Jeremy Zarou.
The right-handed pitcher from St. John's is a three-year varsity pitcher who received all-conference honors last year after a 4-1 record and two saves. He has pitched 36.1 innings over the last two seasons, and has 35 strikeouts. Zarou also played for the Cissel Saxon Post 41 last summer, posting a 5-2 record with a 2.69 ERA.
The Explorers will also welcome two other right-handed pitchers to their staff in 2008, as Zach Huff joins La Salle from Penn Ridge High School and Chris Zelko comes to 20th and Olney from Horseheads High School.
The 6-1 Huff was Suburban One National/Bicentennial League Honorable Mention as a sophomore and a Second Team member last year. In 2005, he went 4-1 in league play and had a 2.08 ERA, then threw a four-hit complete game with seven strikeouts in a playoff victory over Coatesville. Huff has also thrown in the Carpenter Cup and was 4-1 with a 2.00 ERA for his legion team last summer.
The 6-4 Zelko is a stand-out in both baseball as well as basketball. On the hardwood, Zelko is the all-time leading scorer in Horseheads school history, was a two-time all-conference selection as a sophomore and junior. On the mound, he holds a career record of 16-4 with a 2.90 ERA and has saved three games, while earning all-conference honors as a sophomore.
The Explorers will look to these four players to contribute next season, as they will lose a strong core of veterans to graduation - pitchers Gerard Breslin and Dan Waters, catcher Rich Prall, first baseman Billy Kern, and outfielder John Vincent.
