Once A Hockey Prospect, Eric Cerantola Unlocks Upside On The Mound

Revue de Web

By Alexis Brudnicki on March 10, 2021

Eric Cerantola wasn’t born to pitch.

Though it’s easy to forget when the 6-foot-5, 220-pound righthander takes the mound as Mississippi State’s Saturday night starter, as yet another pitcher in the SEC throwing in the mid-to-upper 90s and hitting triple digits, Cerantola grew up in the way stereotypical Canadians do—in hockey.

The Quebec-born, Ontario-raised hurler can certainly give credit for his athletic prowess to his parents, Lucy and Franco, and he can thank his gene pool for his size, too. But the transition from the ice to the diamond is all due to his arm.

A year before Cerantola would be selected in the eighth round of the 2016 Ontario Hockey League draft, former big leaguer Adam Stern—also director of player development for the Great Lake Canadians program, as well as Canadian supervisor for the Kansas City Royals—got a glimpse of the then-15-year-old playing the outfield for his local baseball team, and what he saw intrigued him from the start.

“There was a ball hit to right field and a play at the plate,” Stern said. “I saw this tall, lanky kid pick up the ball in the outfield and throw a screamer to home plate. At his age, 15-year-old players don’t often throw the ball like that from the outfield. … We brought him in and he had pitched a bit, but obviously we wanted to see the arm more. The minute he picked up the baseball, it came out of his hand differently. Obviously he had limited baseball miles under his belt, but it was special.”

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