Hendricken’s Martellini tabbed Louisville Slugger Pre-Season All-American

Pete Fontaine
Posted 2/12/15

Even back during his pre-teen years, people sensed that Gian Martellini was a special kind of youth baseball player and carried a certain maturity level wherever and whenever he played the …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Hendricken’s Martellini tabbed Louisville Slugger Pre-Season All-American

Posted

Even back during his pre-teen years, people sensed that Gian Martellini was a special kind of youth baseball player and carried a certain maturity level wherever and whenever he played the game.

“I have never – ever – seen a young man so focused on a sport,” Doug Jeffrey, Chief of Staff for Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena, said Tuesday afternoon. “Even when he was 12 years old, Gian seemed to have the maturity of a grown man.”

And Jeffrey wasn’t just throwing out accolades to Martellini, who just celebrated his 18th birthday.

“I had the pleasure of coaching Martellini for four years in All-Star (baseball) competition,” Jeffrey explained. “And I always knew he would be a very successful young man. I am sure he will make his family very proud.”

Just a few days ago, Martellini – as many players, coaches and fans in Rhode Island know the Johnston resident – had his game elevated to the highest possible rating.

The son of Paul and Gina Martellini and brother of Alessandra Martellini, Gian was named to the prestigious Louisville Slugger Pre-Season All-American Baseball Team by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, the nation’s top amateur baseball voice since 1958.

But Martellini wasn’t just added to a long list of prospective future college players. He was named First Team Pre-Season All-America and joined a rather small and elite group that the nationwide publication called “the 10 best high school baseball catchers in the country.”

“We’re obviously thrilled for Gian,” said Gian Martellini’s father, Paul Martellini, who recently retired as the North Providence Police Chief and is now second in command in the Rhode Island Sheriff’s Department and has been among his son’s many coaches. “He has worked hard and traveled all over the place to reach this level.”

But for those people who know the Bishop Hendricken High School senior catcher, hard work has always been at the top of Gian Martellini’s playbook.

“He works 12 months a year at constantly improving his game,” Jeffrey added. “What a great honor for a great young man.”

It’s an honor, the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper noted during its announcement in Tucson, Ariz., that means the players on the Louisville Slugger Pre-Season All-American Team not only represent amazing athletic ability and talent at their respective positions, but they are also among the most sought after players by pro scouts and college coaches.

And, as the publication so aptly noted, the majority of the Pre-Season All-Americans have already committed to a college or university and have also received other national recognition.

That is, for all intents and purposes, another example of why Jim Corbin, head coach at Vanderbilt University that is the defending national champion and pre-season No. 1 ranked team, has offered Gian Martellini a scholarship to play for the Commodores.

Although Gian Martellini has committed to Vanderbilt, he has not as of yet signed an NCAA letter of intent, but is expected to do so once the talented Hendricken backstop begins the Hawks’ 2015 season and defense of their state championship.

Ironically, four other players on the Louisville Slugger Pre-Season All-America First Team are also committed to Vanderbilt and as Gian Martellini said last weekend: “They’re all pitchers.”

Not since Jim Foster, who is the current assistant coach at Boston College, has Hendricken had such a talented catcher with what scouts call “Major League Baseball make-up.”

Like Foster did during his All-State days at Hendricken prior to going on to become a standout at Providence College and later play 10 years in the Baltimore Orioles organization, Gian Martellini has the tools – and attitude – to reach the game of professional baseball.

“Gian has what the scouts are looking for,” Ed Holloway, Hendricken’s highly-successful and veteran head coach explained. “He’s got a strong body and a strong arm; he’s also a high school player that moves like a college kid.”

Which makes what Gian Martellini has accomplished to date all that more impressive, as he’s only been catching a couple of years.

“And,” as Holloway continued while talking about his All-State catcher and slugger, “there’s a lot of upside for him to improve his defensive skills and he also has everything they’re looking for and that’s not just Gian, it’s those players who have the physical ability and projection to play at the level of professional baseball.”

There’s also another constant about Gian Martellini, as far as Holloway is concerned, and that “is that Gian is a great kid; he’s also a quiet leader on the field who strives to keep on improving his game.”

But that comes as no surprise to people like Doug Jeffrey and Ed Bedrosian, president of Johnston Little League, who have known and coached Gian Martellini since his days of playing inside War Memorial Park.

Bedrosian, in fact, coached the 2011 Johnston Little League Junior squad that won the state championship and won the regional championship when Gian Martellini smacked a walk-off homer that sent his mates to the World Series in Taylor, Mich. and have been the only Rhode Island team to achieve that honor.

Though he’s had near unmatched success through the years, Gian Martellini is the same type of highly-respectful young man he was when he played for the JLL’s White Sox at age 7.

His career has taken him from the Minor Farm Division’s White Sox and Yankees and Reds of the JLL’s Major Division, where he helped his mates win three of four championships.

Gian Martellini has enjoyed super success since his early days at Hendricken, too.

He began his Hendricken career as a freshman and was named team captain and later MVP after leading the Hawk yearlings to a state title clinching triumph against rival La Salle Academy. In his sophomore year, he became the starting varsity catcher and was later named second team All-State after helping the green and gold win the state championship by beating North Kingstown.

He has played summer baseball all over the country and has, at times, traveled by himself to compete on select all-star squads in New Jersey and Georgia, where he was named All-Tournament by Perfect Game.

Gian Martellini also played in the East Coast Pro Invitational for the Philadelphia Phillies’ scout team and for a similar New York Mets squad that played at Citi Field. He also enjoyed playing for the New York Yankees’ scout team against the Chinese-Taipei men’s national team, and with that same Yankees club, played against Cape Cod Baseball League teams loaded with players from the ACC, SEC and other high-powered conferences.

For some players who have attained as much success in a few short seasons, staying focused might come with a price. But not Gian Martellini, as people like Jeffrey reiterated and his father Paul reinforced.

“I’m taking it one step at a time,” Gian Martellini said, while looking over the 2011 World Series program with his father. “And that’s the upcoming season at Hendricken.”

A season during which Gian Martellini will continue his iconic hard work like last spring when he became only the third junior in the past 10 years to win the RI Gatorade Player of the Year and was voted Divisional Player of the Year.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here