Jesse Izzo, of Lake Placid, walks off the mound after getting the final out during the Blue Bombers’ playoff victory over Bolton-Schroon Lake in the Section VII, Class D semifinal round in May 2018. Izzo signed with the Saranac Lake Surge and joined the Empire Professional Baseball League on June 26.
(Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
SARANAC LAKE — When Jesse Izzo was just a high school student he played varsity baseball at Lake Placid Central School. He never fully envisioned himself playing at the professional level. Izzo was more worried about just getting to the next level — or even the next pitch.
“It was always ‘I want to play high school and then I want to play college,’” Izzo said. “Then in college, you’re like, ‘Well maybe one day I could play professional baseball.’”
To this day, Izzo hasn’t stopped climbing the ladder in his baseball journey, and on June 26, he took the biggest step of his career so far when he signed with Saranac Lake Surge and joined the Empire Profesional Baseball League as a pitcher.
Izzo described his experience so far as a fever dream. He was even more excited to join a team just 10 minutes away from his house.
Much like Izzo, a group of baseball players from around the region signed with the Surge, including Northern Adirondack graduate Stephen Peryea, Jr. and Zack Marlow, who graduated from Saranac Central.
Jesse Izzo, of Lake Placid, comes up throwing in an attempt at a double play after forcing out Northern Adirondack’s Kayden Guerin at second base during the Section VII, Class C semifinal game in May 2019 in Lake Placid. Izzo signed with the Saranac Lake Surge and joined the Empire Professional Baseball League on June 26, becoming the third Lake Placid Central School graduate to sign a professional baseball contract
(Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
The list of regional recruits isn’t exclusive to the Surge — Zach Miner, who graduated from Peru, plays for the Plattsburgh Thunderbirds; Evan Keegan, who attended Franklin Academy, plays for the Malone Border Hounds.
Izzo said it’s telling of the competitiveness of baseball in the area and it’s an overall great sign moving forward.
“I think it’s going to be huge having people in the community be able to play in this league,” he said. “It’s going to allow more community outreach with more fans coming to the games and stuff like that.”
The opportunity to join the Surge came when Izzo’s coach in the Champlain Valley Baseball League was informed that the EPBL needed pitchers. His coach recommended him.
“They gave me a tryout and I went there and did my thing,” he said.
(Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
During the tryouts on June 26, he had a bit of time to warm up, before facing live hitters.
“That was an experience,” he said. “I’ve never faced hitters that good before in my life.”
Izzo said the tryout was a bit nerve-wracking, but he stayed confident and didn’t allow the hitters any cheap pitches.
“I thought I maybe did well enough, but I wasn’t exactly sure because I’m not exactly of the stature and maybe I don’t have all the skills that the other pitchers do,” he said. “But I did well enough in my tryout that they wanted to take a chance on me.”
While it was a surreal moment, he didn’t have a whole lot of time to celebrate. Just a few hours later, he was thrown into action against the Plattsburgh Thunderbirds.
“All you really can do is put your head down and do what you have to do because if you don’t, then you’re not going to be there long,” Izzo said.
In his first outing, he tossed 1 1/3 innings while giving up two hits and four runs. The Surge lost 12-11.
“My arm was a little tired after that,” Izzo said. “But in the second (game), I threw a scoreless inning with a strikeout and closed the game against the Islanders. That was definitely a stepping stone in the right direction from the first outing.”
As of Monday, Izzo had only played in just two games, but he said that the EPBL batters are the toughest he has ever faced.
“They practice their craft. Way more than anything you’ve ever seen in college,” he said. “They are all committed and they want to make it to the next level. They are all there to keep their job, so everybody is scrapping and the hitters, they smash the ball. It’s crazy.”
For Izzo, baseball has always been a passion of his, but it wasn’t until he started playing baseball for Franciscan University when he first started taking baseball seriously.
“I was a little undersized when I went to college and I had to get in the weight room a lot to be competitive at that level,” Izzo said. “I was a cross country runner my whole life and a three-sport athlete so I had to really focus on baseball a lot more than I originally had.”
During his tenure with the Lake Placid baseball team, Izzo was a two-time Champlain Valley Athletic Conference all-star and a sectional champion in baseball, while leading the team in strikeouts in his senior season.
At Franciscan, where he attended college, he made eight pitching appearances, which included seven starts. He led the team in wins while recording 21 strikeouts.
Izzo isn’t the first Lake Placid graduate to sign a professional baseball contract. William “Tubby” Colby was the first when he signed with the New York Yankees organization in 1947. Jeremy Nugent was the second, when he signed with the Altoona Rail Kings of the independent North Atlantic League in 1995.
Izzo said that it meant a lot to him to become the third Blue Bomber to sign a professional contract, especially since he has never shied away from the school’s baseball program.
He has previously helped coach the modified team and helped out with pitching and in May, Izzo called pitches during the Lake Placid varsity baseball team’s Section VII, Class D semifinal shutout win — the Blue Bombers pitcher, PJ Colby, tossed 13 strikeouts while giving up just two hits in that game.
While becoming a baseball coach isn’t out of the question, Izzo wants to see where his professional baseball career goes first and see what happens this season.
While Izzo clearly knows his stuff when it comes to pitching, he’s taking the time with the Surge to learn from other pitchers to expand his baseball IQ.
“They all have different journeys. They all have different ways that they became the pitchers that they were and the hitters that they were,” he said. “They all have different stories. You can basically build on that using their knowledge.”
With the Surge slated to play 13 more games before wrapping up the regular season on July 19, Izzo will have plenty of opportunities to pitch again this season.
