The Misericordia University baseball staff saw Ridgefield catcher Santo Guinta play against Dayton in the Group 1 state semifinal last spring, and they were hooked.
Not only did coaches call Guinta the next day and court him over the summer, but they came to a Ridgefield football game in the fall just to remind him how interested they were.
“They loved the way he handled a game,” Royals coach Joe Gambardella said. “They said they hadn’t seen that sort of advancement in a high school catcher in a long time.”
All that attention bore fruit last week when Guinta, one of the top catchers in North Jersey, committed to the nation’s 10th-ranked Division III program, located in Dallas, Pa. He plans to study science with an eye on becoming a dentist someday.
“I always knew it would work out for me,” Guinta said. “But to know they wanted me that much made feel very comfortable about playing for that school.