Analytical insights aren’t available for every Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball game, but coach Bill Walkenbach remembers the numbers from an Andrew Mazzone swing more than a year after it happened.
In late February at Southwestern University, the Belmont native slugged a home run ball with a mind-boggling exit velocity of 118 miles per hour.
“Seeing him in person will open your eyes,” Walkenbach said. “It sounds like a shotgun blast. It’s a very different sound.”
Good luck finding a college baseball player with a mightier hack than Mazzone. In nearly two decades as a college head coach, Walkenbach has never seen someone hit the ball like the lefty-hitting 6-foot designated hitter.
“It comes down to understanding how to rotate violently and using all your mass getting into the ball,” Mazzone said.
An opponent once wrongfully accused Mazzone of doctoring bats because he hit the ball with such ferocity.
A move to the West Coast last year unlocked Mazzone’s prodigious power. After a record-setting campaign last year, he picked up where he left off to start his final season in a longer-than-expected college career. In theory, he’d be nearly two years past his baseball career by now. In reality, it’s the 25-year-old’s final go-round.
Born in New York City, Mazzone, known as “Mazz,” moved to Belmont at age 5. He attended Belmont Public Schools through junior year of high school before transferring to Phillips Academy in Andover and reclassifying.
A torn labrum in his right (throwing) shoulder during his junior year at Belmont essentially ended the pitching part of his baseball career, the aspect of the game Mazzone considered a Division I-level talent. At Phillips Academy, he played only football. Summer travel baseball for Team Boston and hitting lessons with instructor Bobby Tewksbary in Nashua, New Hampshire kept him sharp.
“I was really lucky. . . to have my dad (John) drive me and another one of my buddies from Andover up to Nashua at least once or twice a week,” Mazzone said. “I would hit for hours and hours, just focusing on how good I could get.”
Mazzone played well enough to pique the interest of college coaches, including belting a 109 mile per hour shot at a showcase at College of the Holy Cross. Dickinson coaches first saw Mazzone at Headfirst Honor Roll Camp, where top academic schools recruit. Dickinson’s offensive line coach at the time convinced baseball coach Craig Hanson to let Mazzone enroll at Dickinson in the fall of 2019 as a dual-sport athlete.
He played football—on the offensive line–as a freshman at Dickinson. The COVID-19 pandemic ended Dickinson’s 2020 baseball campaign prematurely, ditto for everyone else across college sports that spring, resulting in an extra year of eligibility.
All college athletes active during the disrupted 2020-21 academic year got another year too. Mazzone, who decided not to continue with football, developed into a reliable on-base threat for Dickinson, batting .398 with a .428 on-base percentage, 21 doubles and 13 home runs in 74 career games across parts of four seasons. The Centennial Conference recognized Mazzone with All-League honors in each of his three full seasons, one year apiece on the first team, second team and as an honorable mention.
“I remember standing off to the side like 10 feet away from everybody, watching offensive line drills and thinking baseball might be more worthwhile for me,” he said. “With the COVID eligibility, I decided to go all-in because I wanted to play past Dickinson.”
Mazzone graduated from Dickinson in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in international business and management, with minors in economics and Japanese. With two years of eligibility remaining, he entered the transfer portal. He considered some Massachusetts schools, but a friend who went from Worcester State to a school in Georgia encouraged Mazzone “to expand his horizons.”
“Through that inspiration, why not look at Division III schools with great graduate programs in other parts of the country?” Mazzone said.
Walkenbach and staff monitor the transfer portal consistently. Hanson, the Dickinson coach and one of Walkenbach’s “best friends in the world,” gave Mazzone a glowing endorsement.
“The pitch to Andrew was playing ball in the sunshine, really, and not having to fight Mother Nature every day,” Walkenbach said. “He came out and loved the guys on the team, loved Claremont and seemed like it was a good fit.”
Mazzone chose Claremont Graduate University, part of the prestigious consortium of schools in southern California, and its MBA program. Athletes can play for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps or Pomona Pitzer athletic programs.
The change of scenery served Mazzone well. He led Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (which includes Claremont McKenna College and Harvey Mudd College) to its first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance since 1996, swatting a single-season program record 20 home runs in the process. He batted .404 with a .509 on-base percentage and 55 RBI en route to first-team ABCA All-America, All-Region X, D3Baseball.com regional, All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) and SCIAC academic team honors. He reached base via walk (33) or hit by pitch (9) more times than his 34 strikeouts.
Talkative in the dugout and the team’s elder statesman, Mazzone takes on a pseudo-coaching role.
“He’s like a second hitting instructor in the batting cages,” Walkenbach said. “He really knows a lot about the craft, and he’s done a great job of mentoring young players and getting them into a better place.”
Through his first 21 games this spring, Mazzone batted .493 with eight home runs and 25 RBIs while continuing to walk often. The Stags (17-3, 7-2 SCIAC) ranked No. 12 in the most recent D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 and eye another NCAA Tournament appearance.
Walkenbach hopes Mazzone can play professionally, but having no defensive position may limit teams’ interest. The coach loosely compares him to Daniel Vogelbach, who played in parts of nine Major League baseball seasons until his retirement last year. Starting a job as an area manager with Amazon in August, Mazzone isn’t sure about pro ball, but relishes his final months in the sport.
“If you look at how much guys are being paid in those independent ball leagues, it’s not sustainable unless you have another source of funding,” Mazzone said. “I’m kind of at a point where I’m really deciding to move on with my life and start something new.”
