Photos courtesy of Marist College

Alex Pansini will be back on the mound today fresh off an excellent start to his season when Marist College travels to D.C. to take on George Washington in the Red Foxes’ second weekend series of the season.

Pansini, a junior righthander, was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday after an outstanding performance in his team’s season-opening victory over South Florida, last Friday.

Pansini pitched six shutout innings and left the game with the Red Foxes leading 4-0. South Florida would rally against Marist’s bullpen to tie the game and send it into extra innings before Marist (1-2) would prevail, 6-4, in 12 innings.

“I was excited to get back on the field with my teammates,” said Pansini. “We’ve been practicing all fall and winter to get to this point and I’m glad my team has enough trust in me to pitch the season opener and try to help us win.

“As soon as we arrived at the field you could see the team was ready. The energy immediately changed because we’ve been preparing for that moment all year. We were locked in from the start.”

The 6-1, 170-pound Pansini, a Westfield High School grad, limited South Florida to two hits over his six-inning start, struck out seven, walked three and hit a batter as he threw 100 pitches. He faced just four batters over the minimum.

“I had great location of my fastball on both sides of the plate, as well as my changeup,” said Pansini. “I struggled with my breaking ball in the beginning but was able to make the adjustments later in the game. Since the beginning of the spring, the pitchers have been building our pitch counts for the season, so I was glad I could go deep enough into the game to give the team the best chance to win.”

Marist opens its three-game series at George Washington (2-1) at 2:30 p.m. today. The series continues with a 1 p.m. game on Saturday and concludes with Sunday’s noon series finale.

Pansini appeared in 16 games as a sophomore in 2019, 13 of which were as a starter. He pitched 83.1 innings and posted a 4.10 ERA. Alex struck out 70 and walked 18 while registering a 1.25 WHIP. He permitted a .259 batting average against. He appeared in seven games as a freshman.

Diamond Nation’s recruiting coordinator, Steve DiTrolio, has watched Pansini’s growth from a young ballplayer to a Division 1 college pitcher.

“It’s great to see Alex developing into the pitcher we knew he would be,” said DiTrolio. “We are excited to watch him lead the Marist pitching staff this year.”

Pansini gets his second shot today.