Pedro Beato wasn’t hitting 93 mph on the radar gun like he did as a sophomore and his control wasn’t quite as precise as he would have liked. But that didn’t matter much to the Xaverian senior.
What was important was that on a cold, windy day in Coney Island, in front of a dozen major league scouts, the 6-6 right-hander was on the mound at KeySpan Park getting batters out less than a year after he was left unsure if he would be able to again.
He lasted four innings and surrendered just one run in an early-season victory over Molloy and is now 3-0, barely 12 months after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Beato was only three pitches into his first regular-season start of his junior year when he felt something go wrong.
“That pitch was a fastball and I felt a pop in my arm,” said Beato. “I didn’t think anything of it, but then I threw a curve on the next pitch and felt even worse.”
But he was only 17 and just beginning what figured to be a dominating season for CHSAA powerhouse Xaverian. He wasn’t about to let some soreness knock him out of the game against McClancy.
So he threw another curve – just the fifth pitch of the game – and this time, he couldn’t ignore what was happening.
“My arm felt like it cracked,” Beato said. “I hit the guy and that was it.”
Beato had torn a ligament in his elbow, and after seeing three doctors, it was determined that he needed surgery, which was performed by the Mets’ David Altchek.
“I was just heartbroken for the kid,” said Xaverian head coach Dennis Canale. “He’s one of the best kids we’ve had here, so mature. And he’s the only one I can think of who was on the varsity as a freshman.”
His rise had come quickly since he emigrated with his family from Santo Domingo, in the Dominican, to Ridgewood, Queens, when he was 13.
“He was 6-4 and a hard thrower when I first saw him as a freshman,” Canale said. “That hasn’t changed.”
He impressed his coach nearly as much off the field. He gets solid grades and speaks English not only well, but virtually without a trace of an accent.
“I didn’t just come here to play baseball,” Beato said. “The injury taught me even more that you can’t rely on just sports.”
That work ethic paid off in his rehab, which was headed by his summer league coach, Youth Service’s Mel Zitter. He worked out occasionally with former Clipper Danny Christensen, a pitcher in the Kansas City farm system who underwent the same surgery.
Christensen is back on the mound and Beato shouldn’t have much to worry about, either. One scout at a recent game expected Beato to be selected in June’s amateur draft in a draft-and-follow. The team would keep his rights for a year and should he stay healthy during a year at a junior college, likely get a lucrative signing bonus.
“You take a chance on a kid and hope when you start drilling, you get oil,” the scout said. “I think there will be oil there. His arm just has to stay right.”
Canale expects even more.
“He’s on his way to getting into the mid-90s,” Canale said. “I find it hard to believe if he’s throwing that hard in June, someone won’t want to sign him right away.”
