August 22, 2012

St. Peter's Prep ace pitcher Ryan O'Connor has committed to Fairfield University. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

The uncertainty of where you're going to college can be a nerve-wracking experience, even for someone as calm and collected on the mound as Ryan O'Connor.

The St. Peter's Prep lefty no longer has to worry about where his baseball future is heading after making a verbal commitment to play at Fairfield University.

"I was talking to (St. Peter's Prep teammate) Jason Uliano over the weekend at a tournament and we both said how relieved we are now going into the season knowing that we have no worries," O'Connor said. "We can just go out and look to get a championship"

O'Connor, who cited the ability to play right away and Fairfield's business program as reasons why he selected the Connecticut school over NJIT and LIU.

This past season, O'Connor, a rising senior, emerged as one of the county's premier pitcher and the ace of the St. Peter's Prep staff. He went 6-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 47 innings as he was often called upon to start the Marauders' biggest games.

"I think he got the ball because he had earned the right to get the ball. I think early in the year he was a model of consistency for us when we really needed it," Prep coach Pat Laguerre said. "When he started to pitch well, the coaching staff and myself had every bit of confidence with him taking the ball. He took the challenge and he rode it."

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound O'Connor mixes four pitches (four-seam and two-seam fastballs, changeup and curveball) and has confidence in all of them.  Of the four, his best pitch is his changeup.

"The ability to throw all the pitches in any count for a strike (is what I've improved on the most)," O'Connor said. "I worked on it a lot over the high school season and into the summer I was able to get it finally."

O'Connor is the second St. Peter's Prep player to commit this August, joining Uliano, who made a verbal commitment to St. John's University.