Athens' Perri to play for Ithaca College.
By: Chris Manning | Towanda Daily Review | June 11, 2015 | Photo courtesy Chris Manning
2015 NTL and District 4 News
ATHENS - Another Wildcat will be lacing it up on the baseball diamond in the collegiate ranks next year.
Athens' Sam Perri signed his letter of intent to play for Ithaca College next season on Wednesday.
However, when he started the school selection process playing baseball was furthest from his mind.
"I kind of picked it first as a school," he explained. "Then I looked into the baseball program and saw they had a great program and that it was a fit for me."
Playing ball at the next level was something that grew inside Perri as he played throughout his high school years.
"It was a small thing in my head," he remarked. "The coaches I had and seeing the success people had, I just wanted to get better and I just wanted to improve more."
His first goal going in will be to improve on the mound.
"As a player I want to increase velocity," said Perri. "And go in and try to make the varsity team my freshman year and work on being a contributor to the team."
The Bombers are coming off a strong season where they finished the year 20-14 and took home the Empire 8 Tournament Title.
So making an impact early may be difficult, especially with college baseball where they play in the fall and spring along with working out in the winter, but Perri feels ready.
"I've been doing that for the past two years now so I think it will be an easy slide into playing all year and working out all year long," he explained.
Perri will be majoring in business-finance.
He is the third Athens player to sign a letter of intent to play baseball at the collegiate level this spring along with Tyler Forbes and Zane Vargason.
