CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Perfect Game, one of the leaders in baseball scouting, released their annual summer collegiate league All-American teams. Rising senior Vince Apicella (Dillsburg, Pa.) was named to the second team after a lights out season for the Geneva Red Wings of the New York Collegiate Baseball League.
The southpaw went 7-0 with a 0.29 ERA in eight games racking up two shutouts during the 2015 summer. Among players honored by Perfect Game across three teams and an honorable mention group, Apicella had the lowest ERA for hurlers that tossed at least 50 innings.
The Dillsburg, Pa. native struck out 77 batters in 61 innings including four games of double-digit punch outs. His season high came on June 20 at Syracuse as he fanned 13 in a complete game, six-hit shutout. Only two players named by Perfect Game had more strikeouts than Apicella over the summer.
The Coastal Carolina transfer yielded a .192 batting average against allowing 30 hits while walking just 20 batters during his stint in the NYCBL. Apicella allowed just two earned runs all summer with the Red Wings winning seven of the eight games he pitched.
Five starting pitchers were named to each of the three All-American teams with Apicella being the lone NYCBL player to garner recognition. The lefty was one of two South Atlantic Conference players to earn the accolade as Wingate outfielder Shane Billings was placed on the third team after hitting .418 with 15 RBI and 21 stolen bases in the Valley Collegiate League.
The plaudit is yet another in the last six months for Apicella who was a second team All-SAC selection as well as an All-Southeast Region pick by ABCA and the NCBWA.
During the 2015 season in a Carson-Newman uniform, Apicella matched C-N's Division II (since 1994) record of six complete games in a season matching Ben Deaton (1998) and Brett Hontz (2008). The flamethrower piled up 111 strikeouts, the second-most in a Division II season, seven behind the record.
The full list of Perfect Game Collegiate All-Americans can be found here with a breakdown by league and summer statistics.
- CN -
