Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself — where you’re from, stuff like that.
A: I’m from a very, very small town in southern Vermont — less than a thousand people, no stoplight. It’s called Townsend. The regional high school is in Townsend, and I live really close to the school. My dad is a carpenter. Right now he’s mostly retired. He specializes in cabinets. My mom is an artist. She does all kinds of weird art stuff. A big thing she likes to do is use nature in the work. We have a new dog, so she likes to go on walks and pick up things and then find inspiration from them.

Q: So growing up in this little town in Vermont — was it as idyllic as it sounds?
A: As a kid, yeah — it was really nice, because I knew everyone. But as a teenager, I didn’t really like it as much because I knew everyone. The size of the town got to me. The high school, including the middle school, is about 400 kids. There were 86 kids in my class, and I think that was a record. So I went to school with the same kids from preschool all the way through high school.

Q: So how did you hear of Vassar?
A: I was very interested in playing baseball in college. So I looked at Division III schools mainly because I knew I would have a chance to play all four years there, and that’s what I really wanted to do, because I knew once college ended, baseball was basically over. So if you’re interested in playing baseball in college, you go to all of these showcases, where you showcase yourself for coaches. And John Martin, who was the assistant coach then and is now the head coach, saw me there and we hit it off. He seemed like a great guy, and he told me to come visit Vassar, so I came during the summer before my senior year, and I thought it was beautiful. And then I came back for an official visit, and I really liked the guys on the team, and I really liked the atmosphere. I sat in on a couple of classes, and they seemed very discussion-based, which was good because the classes that I had in high school weren’t. At lunch today, my friends and I got into a debate about affirmative action, and we all sounded pretty intellectual about it, and four years ago, I couldn’t have imagined having a conversation like that. After I got in, I came on accepted students day, and it was probably….68, 70 degrees, sunny….everything was blooming. And I was like, I am definitely coming here. I didn’t visit the other schools; I just said, I am coming here.

Q: What do you like about baseball?
A: I’ve played it my whole life. It was a good way for me to connect with my dad, I think. When I was young, we would go outside and he would throw me and the neighbor kid a softball and we would try to swing at it and go chase it. From t-ball to Little League to summer league, my dad was always extremely involved. It’s a great way to be outside. I don’t like just standing outside. I like to be doing something. And playing baseball you get to be outside all day, and a good part of the year, too.

Q: What’s your favorite team?
A: The Red Sox…which is hard coming here.

Q: So you weren’t interested in going to a Division I school?
A: I was at first. But every coach that I talked to said that they would probably red-shirt me a year — that means that you can practice but you can’t play — and you don’t lose a year of eligibility. So you’re basically going to be a fifth-year senior. And then I would probably not really play and make an impact on the team until junior year. And I knew that baseball is not what I’m going to do in 10 years, so I felt like, I don’t want to sit and watch, I want to play. I was looking at pretty good schools — like William and Mary, Davidson, Brown, and Dartmouth. And they all told me the same thing. And for me, the appeal of being able to say “I’m a Division I athlete” is less than being able to say “Well, I actually play baseball.”

I have a friend who’s playing for a Division I school, and he told me that even in the off season, he’s doing baseball stuff six or seven hours a day, so he’s having a hard time just getting his academics in, let alone doing anything else. Whereas today, for instance, I just did my lifting program for the day, and now I’m talking to you, and then I’m going to go to the library to do research for about four hours. And I want to do that — that’s the great thing. One of the Division I schools I visited, the tour guide was like, oh, you want to be an athlete here? The guys are famous for taking “Rocks for Jocks” — which is like Geology 101 — to get their requirement. And I was like — aw, man — I’m going to college to learn! I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, not take Rocks for Jocks!