Prep Baseball Report

Villanova University Announces 2014 Early Signing Class



By Greg Williams
PA Director of Scouting

Head Coach Joe Godri enters his 13th season guiding the Wildcats' program and has developed a plan for recruiting in the northeast portion of the country. While continuing to recruit locally, Godri was again able to land a large number of prospects from outside the immediate area.

According to Godri, "I was very pleased that we were able to secure local players quickly from PA, NJ and NY, while continuing our traditional momentum in Chicago, IL and Florida. I believe we were able to bring quality power arms into the program which should be able to fill innings that may be potentially lost after the 2014 MLB Draft. The position players recruited all are versatile, athletic players that will provide offense, speed and solid all-around defense to the club."

Godri has seen at least one Villanova player drafted in 11 of his first 12 years with the program. He had the following advice for underclassmen just beginning the recruiting process. "Players must have a balance between going to national and regional showcases, and also going to camps that universities run in which players have the most interest. Villanova recruits on the national level and a good portion of our recruits come out of our clinic systems. Coaches can't be everywhere, but players can specifically seek out recruiting opportunities at universities they have the most interest in. I promise you that if nothing else, it gets a prospect his quickest and most specific yes or no answer."

This year's early singing class has just one prospect from Pennsylvania, OF David Gulati (Spring-Ford HS) - pictured at right. Gulati is a 5-foot-9, 180-pound OF/SS that hit .263 with three doubles, a triple and 11 RBI in 2013. He runs a 6.68 60-yard dash and has an 82 mph arm from the outfield. Gulati, ranked No. 65 in the PA Class of 2014, was a member of Team Pennsylvania in last summer's Big 26 Classic.

Additional Early commits

INF Brady Action (St. Thomas Aquinas HS, FL)
RHP Louis Beck (American Heritage HS, FL)
RHP James Coyne (Kellenberg Memorial HS, NY)
OF Lucas Derenzi (Seton Hall Prep, NJ)
RHP Conor McCarthy (Glenbrook South HS, IL)
RHP Andrew Owen (Loyola HS, IL)
RHP/OF Trevino Rodriguez (DeLasalle HS, IL)
LHP Mike Sgaramella (Seton Hall Prep, NJ)



           McCarthy                          Owen                           Rodriguez

additional pa news: