Post's Luisi has been a hit with wood bat

Switching from aluminum to wood bats has been known to hamper the careers of many baseball players.

That hasn't been the case for Post University (Conn.) senior Dan Luisi. The Holy Trinity graduate has thrived since having to make the switch his sophomore season.

Luisi recently broke the school's all-time hit record as he collected the 156th of his career three weeks ago.

"The hardest thing was getting the timing down,'' Luisi said. "In the end, it was all about making adjustments."

Those adjustments didn't take long for Luisi, who hit .303 with 22 RBIs in 49 games his sophomore season. It was only a slight dip in average for the second baseman, who hit .308 his freshman year.

He is hitting .325 in 32 games this season through action Saturday and has 178 career hits for Post (16-18).

"The wood bats are a little heavier,'' Luisi said. "But I've been using them all my life. So I think it gave me a little bit of an advantage.''

Post is part of the ECAC, which is one of only three conferences in Division II baseball that use wood bats.

Defensively, the switch has made things a bit easier for Luisi and the rest of the Post infield.

"I had to back up a little more with aluminum bats,'' he said. "With wood, you have to hit the ball on the right spot of the bat. The balls come off aluminum bats a lot harder.''

Post coach A.J. McNamara had plenty of praise for Luisi's record-setting performance.

"I'm awfully proud of Dan's accomplishment. For the amount of work that young man puts into things, there is no more better deserving player than him,'' McNamara said. "He's such a humble individual because he refuses to put his personal goals before the goals of the team, but I'm so happy and proud of him as a baseball player, a student and as a person.''

Luisi was reluctant to talk a lot about setting the hit record, citing the importance of putting the team first. But he admitted it was tough blocking out that he was so close to setting the mark.

"I didn't find out until after I read a season preview that said I was 18 hits away,'' Luisi said. "Everyone was keeping count for me. It got harder to get hits as the record came closer.''