Newsday Athlete of the Week is Hauppauge's Stefania Abruscato
Hauppauge softball player Stefania Abruscato. Credit: Frank Bayer Photography/Frank Bayer
Transitioning from baseball to softball shouldn’t be as easy as Stefania Abruscato has made it look.
The Hauppauge junior catcher better known as “Fania” played baseball until seventh grade, when she joined her sister Giuliana on the softball field. Her first softball game came as a seventh-grader on Hauppauge’s varsity. Since then, she’s done nothing but dominate.
Through 15 games this season, Abruscato — Newsday’s Athlete of the Week — is batting .575 with five home runs, 30 RBIs, 27 runs and 18 walks and is 25-for-25 in stolen-base attempts. As incredible as those numbers are, she isn’t satisfied.
“This year, I’m not doing as well as I wanted to,” she said. “I want to get my batting average up a little bit more.”
“She’s a coach’s dream,” coach Eric Ericksen said. “She always has the right attitude. She’s our hardest worker and she doesn’t let her successes get to her head.”
Abruscato credits much of her success to her father and hitting coach, Tom, who is the varsity baseball coach at Clarke. He has helped her develop her swing by breaking down videos of Major League Baseball players’ swings.
“Going from facing baseball pitching to softball pitching was harder than I expected, but I think baseball definitely played a huge role in my success,” she said. “My swing is based off of Bryce Harper’s swing.”
Abruscato is in a four-way tie for Suffolk’s home run lead. She hit four of her five homers in a three-game span against West Babylon, Eastport-South Manor and Comsewogue from April 25-27. That’s still not enough for her, though.
“I had six home runs last year and I was hoping for around 10 this year,” she said.
A catcher since she played baseball, Abruscato has a quick pop time and strong arm. She has picked off 12 runners and caught 7-of-7 would-be base-stealers this season.
Abruscato, who officially committed to Missouri last fall, has wanted to become a Tiger since the end of seventh grade.
“At the time, I wanted to become an orthodontist, and I still do,” she said. “I love how Mizzou is changing things up and becoming a big-time team and they have a really good dentistry school, so I felt like that was the perfect place for me.”
