All-Area baseball player is headed to Lehigh

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/ FROM KEITH GROLLER As part of my weekly Mountain Valley Conference football preview, I taked to Lehighton's Jacen Nalesnik on Wednesay night and while discussing the Indians' big win over East Stroudsburg South last Friday and looking ahead to the rest of the season, Nalesnik revealed something. He said he has verbally committed to continue his baseball career at Lehigh University.Mc-2012-all-area-baseball-team-04 I have covered Nalesnik playing for the Northern Yankees and his Lehighton coach Brian Polaha in the Tri-County League where he helped the Yankees win back-to-back Tri-Co crowns. I know he is going to be a big addition for Sean Leary's Mountain Hawks' program. The official signing won't come until mid-November, Nalesnik said. "I'm excited about it," Nalesnik said. "It's a great school and I connected with Coach Leary and the guys the first time I visited. I pretty much loved it from the beginning." Nalesnik, who also plays basketball at Lehighton and is ranked No. 1 academically in his senior class, said he didn't get as much recruiting interest in baseball as he did for football. "I got interest from Ivy League and Patriot League schools for football," Nalesnik said. I asked him if he might be tempted to walk over to the football team and see if Andy Coen could use him on his nationally-ranked squad. "No, no ... I gotta focus on baseball and school," he said. "I focus on school mainly and just do what I can do on the field after that. I loe each sport, " Lehigh has recruited as a general athlete. Nalesnik's best position is catcher. Nalesnik is a three-time Morning Call all-area selection, all on the first team. Last year, he hit a team-best .425 with four doubles, three triples, five home runs, 35 runs scored and 25 RBIs in helping Lehighton make the District 11 3A finals for the second time in three years. He had a .543 on-base percentage and a .767 slugging percentage.