All eyes were on Gerrit Cole Friday night at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y.
The pitcher who signed with the New York Yankees for $324 million this offseason took the mound for the final time before the 2020 Opening Day. While Cole impressed fans striking out the side opening the contest, the opposing pitcher matched the ace throwing zero’s on the scoreboard.
West Islip High School (’08) and Stony Brook (’11) alum Nick Tropeano battled Cole on the pitching mound in the Yankees intrasquad game on July 17th. Tropeano, representing the ‘Bombers,’ gave up two singles and struck out three batters in three innings of action.
The opposing Yankees threatened the ‘Bombers’ with a scoring opportunity in the second after a runner reached scoring position. But, Tropeano got out of trouble by forcing Gio Urshela out with a groundball to shortstop.
Most pitchers would agree facing the 2-3-4 of Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton is a daunting task– the trio combined for 64 home runs last season after all. However, Tropeano survived the inning unscathed. The pitcher threw inside the hitter’s sweet spots, but they did not capitalize. Judge did slap an infield single to shortstop with two outs. However, Tropeano struckout Stanton looking with an offspeed pitch upstairs closing the top of the first.
The right-hander started off hot in the third inning, striking out Thairo Estrada and Aaron Hicks in consecutive at-bats. He did lose the full-count battle against Judge by walking him, but the inning wrapped up after the at-bat.
Tropeano signed a minor league contract and participated in spring training with the Yankees. The 29-year old surrendered five runs, eight hits and struckout seven batters in 8.2 innings of work. The pitcher appeared in five games and earned one win and one loss before the season was postponed earlier this spring.
The West Islip native spent the prior five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. He averaged a 5.50 ERA in 195.2 innings pitched, but missed the 2017 season with a right shoulder injury. Tropeano was drafted by the Houston Astros in the fifth round of the 2011 MLB Draft.
He set the Stony Brook Baseball program’s single-season record with a 1.84 ERA in 2011. Tropeano’s 25 wins are the fourth-highest in the program. The right-hander led his West Islip High School team to a Suffolk Class AA championship in 2008. He went 8-1 and struck out 83 batters in 64 innings as a senior.
The Yankees will play three exhibition games, starting with the New York Mets on Saturday, July 18th. They will open the season versus the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. Thrusday, July 23rd. Tropeano is hoping the pitching performance earned him a spot on the team’s Opening Day rotation.
