Every other week this baseball season, George Washington catcher Nelson Rodriguez will give us an inside look at his team’s quest for a second straight PSAL Class A city title and his mission to get drafted in June’s MLB First-Year Player Draft. In this exclusive diary for NYPost.com, the four-year varsity player talks about last week’s George Washington Tournament, his team’s recent play and possibly committing to Virginia Tech soon.
So far we’re doing good. We’re playing good baseball. The [GW] Tournament was great. We got revenge back in the championship game against Cardozo. We came out on top. We shut them out, 6-0, Edwin [Corniel] pitched a great game and everybody played their role.
This week against Manhattan Center went to extra innings twice. We won the first game on Monday and [Wednesday] we couldn’t finish the game. It got suspended tied at three after nine innings.
We play Beacon on Friday and Poly Prep the next day. We have to play the way we’ve been playing. It’s just another team on another day. We have to do what we love, play baseball. Saturday is the same thing. We’re just facing a good pitcher, [Poly Prep ace Andrew Zapata].
I’m looking forward to facing him. It’s good to face a good pitcher. We don’t see that many. It’s good to face that kind of pitching. I just want to beat those guys. Last year they beat us 1-0 and we want to get revenge back from last year. We can beat Zapata. We’re confident we can beat him if we’re smart, make no errors and have good at-bats.
I like how we’re playing, but we have to take it up a notch, play a little better. We’re playing good right now, but we can play better.
I’m close to committing to Virginia Tech. I’m been talking to the coach for a while. I might visit next week and if everything works out, I’ll commit. I’ve been looking at schools for a long time, like Oklahoma and a few more.
(Rodriguez is committed to Central Arizona, an elite junior college, but baseball players can commit to two-year and four-year schools.)
I’m most interested in Virginia Tech. I like the coaching staff and they have a great baseball community from what I’ve heard. I like the place the school is located at. [Fordham Prep shortstop] Andrew Velazquez is going there. We’re close friends. [George Washington teammate] Fernelys Sanchez might commit there, too.
This week they’re away. The coach is going to talk to [George Washington] coach [Steve] Mandl and we’re going to go visit when we don’t have a game.
Check back with Nelson Rodriguez every other Thursday during the season. His next diary will run May 5