Aug. 23, 2007

NEWARK, NJ - New Jersey Institute of Technology junior-to-be PJ Saporito was voted onto the New York Collegiate Baseball League all-star second team in postseason voting announced in mid-August.

PJ Saporito, who pitched for the Brockport entry in the NYCBL, made history late in the season when he tossed the first perfect game in the history of the New York Collegiate Baseball League, a summer circuit that was founded in 1978 as a development league for Major League Baseball.

Saporito spun the perfect game in an 8-0 win over the Elmira Pioneers, who won the league's playoff championship nine days after Saporito silenced their bats on July 26.

A league that is similar in mission to the older Cape Cod League, the NYCBL includes college stars from all over the country who compete on teams based in towns throughout upstate New York.

The NYCBL had 27 players taken in the June 7 Major League Draft. Four 2007 or past members of Saporito's Brockport Riverbats teams were among the 27 players selected by big league teams last month.

Saporito was one of two Highlanders on the Riverbats, as NJIT classmate Matt Melody served as the team's closer.

The all-star showing by Saporito followed a fine college season at NJIT, as he went 6-5 with a 5.95 ERA in the Highlanders first season of NCAA Division I competition. The southpaw struck out 62 in 75.2 innings for NJIT.

Included in his 2007 collegiate accomplishments were the school's first complete game shutout in Division I, a 2-0, five-hit, nine-strikeout effort against New York Tech on May 4 that earned him New Jersey Division I Pitcher of the Week honors. He closed his sophomore season on May 25 with a 7-4 win over South Dakota State, which came in with 34 wins, including a nine-game winning streak and which had scored 50 runs in its previous three games.

As a freshman, he was the starting and winning pitcher as NJIT captured the 2006 ECAC Division II championship in the Highlanders' final game at that level.

The 21-year old Saporito helped New Milford High to the state Group I title as a junior in 2004 and he was named North Jersey Player of the Year. He was a two-time all-Bergen honoree and was all-state first team in 2004.

Ranked in the top 10 of his high school class at graduation, he is an engineering major at NJIT.

The Highlanders are tentatively scheduled to open the 2008 season in a late February tournament hosted by the University of South Carolina Upstate.