Baseball Underclassmen Head Off to Summer Ball
Jun 04 | Baseball
PISCATAWAY, NJ – Rising juniors Jeff Grose (Iselin, NJ) and Johnny Defendis (Staten Island, NY) will continue a long tradition of Rutgers players in the Cape Cod League this summer, when the pair joins the Chatham A's next week. Grose and Defendis' presence on the Cape marks the eighth-straight year that at least one Rutgers player has participated in the venerable league, joining the likes of Darren Fenster (Bourne, 1997), David DeJesus (Chatham, 1999), Bobby Brownlie (Falmouth, 2000), Val Majewski (Falmouth, 2001) and Jeff Frazier (Chatham, 2003) among others. Grose and Defendis are also two of 21 players with summer league assignments along the east coast.
A trio of hurlers – OJ DeChristofano (Pequannock, NJ), Matt Pustay (Hamilton, NJ) and Chris Rini (Flemington, NJ) – will participate in the New England Collegiate Baseball League while five others have already traveled north to play in the New York Collegiate Baseball League. RU players will also participate in the ACBL and ABCCL, both headquartered in New Jersey.
"The summer is a time for players to continue their development and digest some of the things they learned during the spring season," said head coach Fred Hill. "There are a lot of great summer league coaches out there and all of our kids are fortunate to be playing for them."
Rutgers finished with a 30-23 record in 2004, its seventh-straight 30-win season, and was ranked as high as 29th nationally during the spring, but finished fifth in the BIG EAST standings (13-11) and failed to advance to the four-team postseason tournament for the first time since 1985 – snapping a streak of 18-consecutive postseason appearances.
2004 Rutgers University Baseball Summer Assignments
| Name | Team | League |
| Vic Cegles | Toms River Black Sox | |
| David Williams | ||
| Jason Grover | TBA | |
| Cory Rodriguez | ||
| Jim Jansen | ||
| Jack Egbert | TBA | |
| Ryan Hill | ||
| Matt Pustay | ||
| Colin Gaynor | Toms River Black Sox | |
| Tim Querns | ||
| Tom Malafronte | ||
| Steve Holt | Jersey Shore Tides | |
| OJ DeChristofano | ||
| Johnny Defendis | ||
| Jeffrey Miller | ||
| Tim Woodhull | West Windsor-Plainsboro American Legion | |
| Chris Rini | ||
| Jeff Grose | ||
| Rich Canuso | Toms River Black Sox | |
| Jeff Frazier | TBA | |
| Steve Hook | ||
| Eric Dial | ||
| Bobby Acampora | Toms River Black Sox | |
| Aaron Kalb |
