When he was a sophomore at Tyrone Area High School, Jordan Faretta knew it was going to take some work to develop his baseball skills in order to play at the next level.
Now a senior, Faretta knows the hard work he has put in the past two years has paid off.
Faretta recently informed coach Jeff Messer that he will accept a scholarship to play baseball at Slippery Rock University beginning in the fall of 2011.
"It means a lot," Faretta said of the opportunity to play for a nationally-ranked Division II program. "It makes me feel good about myself. I've worked hard to make myself better. I knew I had to get stronger and better. It will be a privledege to put on a Rock jersey."
Faretta selected The Rock over a list of schools that included Mount Aloysius, Shippensburg, Millersville and Misericordia, mainly because of Messer's guidance.
"I went to a clinic [at SRU] and ever since Day 1, they've just been in my top picks," Faretta said. "I made a better connection with [Messer] than I did with any other coach. He helped me with every step of the process."
And if it wasn't for his experience with the NorCal East travelling developmental program, Faretta feels that he may not have received the looks he did from college coaches.
"If I didn't play on the travel team, I wouldn't be where I'm at today with the opportunities I have," he said.
With the Golden Eagles, Faretta maintained a .369 batting average, had 13 RBIs, scored 13 runs and was 7-for-7 on stolen base attempts as a junior. According to MaxPreps.com, he led the state in fielding percentage and had the fewest errors of all second basemen.
