Jaspers’ freshman catcher is a rising star

It was an extraordinary first season at Manhattan College for Fabian Pena, and the accolades just keep coming.

In a season that saw Pena earn a slew of awards after his first season with the Manhattan baseball team, the Jaspers’ freshman catcher just added yet another honor when he was named a D1Baseball.com Second Team Freshman All-American this past week. It’s just the latest honor for the 5-9, 190-pound Pena, and Jaspers head coach Jim Duffy thinks this is only the start of a brilliant career in the making.

“His expectations are to just keep growing and keep getting better and better as he goes,” Duffy said. “From the time he showed up on campus, he showed that he had leadership qualities and his [offensive] skills are now really now starting to shine through. But it’s really his character and his work ethic, and he is mature beyond his years. He carries himself like a professional, and for a freshman to do that is really rare. It’s a really big jump going from high school to Division I athletics, probably the biggest jump in the progression of someone’s career. So for a young kid like him to transition like he did is pretty amazing. He did a great job for us.” 

The list of accomplishments by Pena this season is extensive. He was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association’s (ABCA) Northwest All-Regional First Team, selected as a Collegiate Baseball/Louisville Slugger All-American, and landed East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) Rookie of the Year honors.

During his first season with the Jaspers, Pena posted some prestigious numbers on the diamond. His .350 batting average was good for fourth in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), while his 75 hits placed him third overall in the conference. He was also among the MAAC leaders with doubles (first with 22), home runs (third with nine), runs batted in (first with 54), total bases (first with 128) and slugging percentage (first with .598). He was equally adept on defense, where the strong-armed Pena threw out 51.9% of would-be stealers (27-of-52).

Pena continued his hot play in the MAAC tournament, where he logged hits in all four games the Jaspers participated in, while recording multi-hit outings in three games. Not surprisingly, he was named to the MAAC All-Tournament team, while also landing MAAC Rookie of the Year honors.

“I knew when we were recruiting him that he was a player, and that’s why we really wanted to have him,” Duffy said. “But him and his family really respect and value his degree, so he does a good job in school, but athletically I knew he was going to be able to come in and catch and handle the pitchers and throw guys out and do a good job defensively. Then it was going to be, ‘OK, how is his transition offensively going to be coming from high school baseball to the MAAC?’ I will say that was something of a surprise for me, because I’d be lying if I told you I expected him to swing the bat like he did. I didn’t anticipate him showing up and hitting .350.”

Pena is the latest in a long line of players Duffy has recruited from South Florida. Pena hails from Miami.

“There are a lot of good players down there and I find that there are a number of players that value their education and they are interested in leaving the state of Florida and coming up and experiencing what we have here in New York,” Duffy said. “Pena had never been to New York before he showed up last year.”

Judging by his first year in Riverdale, Manhattan’s MAAC opponents may be wishing Pena had remained in South Florida.