Edward Kensik, Correspondent
— Maybe it was destiny for Chris Quijano to be wearing the blue and red colors of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck.
The St. Mary ace pitcher has lived just minutes away from the Teaneck campus and for a few summers in grammar school had been part of the FDU summer baseball camp.
“I’m literally five minutes away from campus so I can walk there,” said Quijano who will be living at home in his freshman year. “I thought about (living on campus).”
The Gaels’ 6-foot-1, 190-pound right-handed hurler was so intent on deciding early for his next stage he decided before junior year to head to FDU. He picked the Teaneck school over the likes of Dominican College (Rockland County, N.Y.), Felician (Rutherford), Centenary College (Hackettstown) and Montclair State University.
For the St. Mary graduate, the thought of his family coming over to see him was a big plus.
“I wanted my parents and my grandparents who have liked to see me play and since we live in Teaneck it is so close,” said Quijano, who will be majoring in sports administration. “I would go to (FDU baseball coach Gary Puccio’s) camps during the summers to keep me occupied. … When I was little I had thought about (going to FDU), but I never gave it much attention.”
In his junior season at St. Mary, Quijano was named to the All-Bergen County second team after finishing with an 8-3 record, 61 strikeouts in 64 innings and a 2.39 ERA.
But it was a long senior season with an ominous beginning when he fractured his foot this past March.
Quijano, though, would continue work to get back to the mound in his senior year and he was able to do it with a couple of weeks left in the regular season.
He gave credit to his parents, Victor and Milene, in encouraging him during his recuperation time along with his brother, sophomore Kenny, who filled in as the Gaels’ ace pitcher while Chris was out.
“My mom kept me positive and she kept saying ‘you’re going to be fine,’ ” said Chris earlier this season. “I give a lot of credit to my parents.”
Despite the injury, FDU and Puccio were behind him all the way.
“(Puccio) said to take it easy and take it in stride,” said Quijano.
And Chris’s family was one of the things that Puccio liked.
“He’s a great kid and comes from a great family,” said the FDU coach. “He’s always got a smile on his face.”
Puccio loved all aspects of Quijano’s game, even the intangibles.
“He just showed incredible poise on the mound,” said Puccio, who saw Quijano pitch the 9-1 victory over Hudson Catholic in the North Non-Public B semifinal in June. “He has a big level of maturity and won’t get rattled on the mound.”
In that game, Quijano went five innings allowing three hits and striking out four. Before that big game, he only had a couple of outings on the hill after coming back to pitch from the injury.
Quijano has five pitches, two- and four-seam fastball as well as the slider, curveball and changeup.
“He’s got good movement on his fastball and on all his pitches,” said Puccio, who added Chris will have a great shot at starting with several pitchers graduating from FDU last spring. “I’m always big on the last six feet to the plate (the ball’s velocity).”
In his years with the Gaels, Quijano’s best moment came in his junior year where he started the North Non-Public B state sectional final victory over Morristown-Beard, 8-6, at William Paterson University.
“That was an incredible experience,” said Quijano.
For his toughest loss there was no doubt the next game after the win over Morristown-Beard, a 2-0 defeat to Holy Cross in the Non-Public B state title game when Chris started on the mound.
“We had everything working me and my cousin (catcher Anthony Guarino) behind the plate and we executed the plan very well,” said Quijano.
St. Mary coach Dennis Hulse thinks that Quijano can excel on the college level.
“Chris’ command of every pitch will allow him to outsmart every batter he faces, no matter what level he pitches at,” said Hulse.
And the Gaels coach said that he loved Chris’ intangibles, including a winning attitude and wanting to stay on the hill.
“I never thought I’d coach a player who hated losing more than I do,” said Hulse. “Chris is that player where we butted heads many times because he never wants to come out of the game and that’s what I love most about Chris.”
The St. Mary graduate hopes that FDU will not be the last step in his baseball career, and has always been a Yankees fan.
“That’s been the dream since I was about three or four years old,” Quijano said of playing Major League Baseball. “I’ve always looked up to (Derek) Jeter.”
