MONROE COUNTY, Pa. — Tommy Reisinger's path to pro baseball began at Mount Carmel with a mix of sports between basketball, baseball and being the quarterback on the football team.
It was a ton of fun for Tommy and kept him busy playing multiple sports. Once he settled on playing baseball, the college experience began at East Stroudsburg. He had a 4-year career there and, most recently, was the Oakland A's 10th-round draft pick last June in the Major League Baseball draft.
"I actually didn't realize that they were interested in me until a week before the draft. Trip Fall called me up, and he was like, 'Hey, we saw you at Pro Day and a few other days when you were throwing and really liked your stuff. It looked electric," said Reisinger. "A day before the draft, he was like, 'Hey, be by your phone, we're going heavy pitchers, and he was like how much, and we were going over financial stuff and stuff like that, and I was just like told him what I wanted, and then they picked me, and then they called me and a dream came true."
Reisinger still travels to Monroe County to train. With the beginning of spring training, he leaves on March 1st for Arizona.
"Coming out of high school, I really didn't get recruited by any big schools. It was basically Division II and PSAC and stuff like that, so when Coach K came and offered me the scholarship down at the field, I was 100% in from the jump, and I came here. He was talking to me in his office, saying there was a picture up on the wall of people getting drafted here, and I see you being one of them one day," added Reisinger.
"You know, when he first got here, he was super, super talented but didn't really know where the ball was going, the speed of the game, and everything," said John Kochmansky. "But he was the hardest worker that we had, and then he just kept getting better and better, and his junior year, everything clicked, and he was borderline unhittable."
Reisinger wasn't the only Mount Carmel baseball player drafted. In the 9th round the Nationals selected Thomas Schultz out of Vanderbilt University. Schultz and Reisinger were teammates for the Red Tornadoes.
"Thomas, I feel like he was destined right from the jump he was going all over the world playing and competing at the highest level and then going to Vanderbilt, which again is the highest level that you can compete at," Reisinger said.