Griffin
Conner Griffin returned from a forced break from pitching to make it his specialty on the baseball field.
Increased velocity from a strengthened arm caught the attention of college recruiters and led to Griffin’s decision in late June to give his verbal commitment to a partial baseball scholarship from Binghamton University, which made the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Tournament this spring.
“Taking pitching seriously really only started last fall,” said Griffin, a rising senior at Abington Heights. “Last summer, I hurt my arm and wasn’t able to pitch.
“But, then when I came back from rehab, my arm was a lot stronger. I did a strength program over the winter, my velocity jumped up and that’s when all the colleges started reaching out.”
Already throwing a slider, Griffin pushed the radar gun as high as 91 miles per hour with his fastball. He is also working on adding a changeup to the mix.
Griffin helped the Comets to the Lackawanna League Division 1 title in the spring and is playing this summer with Baseball U, a travel program which he first joined as a 13-year-old. He is also playing first base for Baseball U, but knows his status as a scholarship athlete is because of his future as a pitcher.
At Abington Heights, Griffin batted .341 with six extra-base hits and drove in 14 runs in 14 games. He had a 13-2, strikeout-to-walk ratio in nine innings as a pitcher, posting a 2.33 earned run average.
Griffin was hearing from other schools and had offers from Seton Hall and Fairfield when he decided on Binghamton where he will major in finance.
The Bearcats went 15-15 in the America East regular season and 22-30 overall. They put together three straight wins in the America East Tournament to land their national berth.
