Article by: Mike Giannattasio
Rory Gentile has had a tremendous career for the Suffolk University men’s baseball team. Gentile is the senior captain of the Rams, who currently have a record of 14-12 with eight games remaining in their regular season.
Gentile, who is from Gloucester and graduated from Gloucester High School, transferred to Suffolk after attending Merrimack College for one year.
Gentile has improved tremendously in every season as center fielder with the Rams.
During his sophomore season, Gentile started all 41 games for Suffolk in center field and hit four lead-off home runs while scoring 47 runs over the course of the season.
His junior season was spectacular, as he started 40 games in center field for the Rams hitting lead-off while posting a .359 batting average with five home runs, 39 RBI and 27 stolen bases. He was also ranked seventh nationally among all NCAA Division-III players with 43 walks.
After his junior season, Gentile was named to ESPN the Magazine’s Academic All-District team for District I by the College Sports Information Directors of America and was also named to the GNAC All-Tournament team.
Gentile is having another tremendous season for the Rams this year, having started in every game while batting .287 with 25 hits, 23 runs scored, one home-run and nine RBI.
Gentile’s goals for this season are to help the team win games and he also hopes they can go far in the GNAC tournament.
“The place I’m at now has me worrying less about average, because I have experienced failure, and more about winning ball games,” said Gentile. “The team will be only satisfied with a conference championship and a trip to regionals.”
Gentile added that he takes his role as captain of the team very seriously.
“With a team as young as ours, the basic responsibility as a captain is to ease them in and out of new situations,” said Gentile. “The other captains and I have experienced nearly every situation in baseball, so we can offer insight on how to handle failures and successes and what to expect when they get in a game.”
“I had three senior captains my sophomore year that I respected greatly and looked up to,” he continued. “They taught me so much about the game and how to be winner. Coach (Cary) McConnell has also allowed me the opportunity to grow as a player here and I will always remember that.”
Gentile, a Business Management major, chose to attend Suffolk because of the reputation of the baseball program. He said he has greatly enjoyed his time as a member of the Rams.
“The more time you spend with people, the more you become like family,” said Gentile. “I’ve made lifelong friends over the years and we have all been lucky to enjoy the success we have [had] here at Suffolk.”
Gentile added that one of his best memories from playing on the team was last year when the team made it to regionals.
“Obviously it was an emotional time, but in our final team huddle we really got to see the positive impact we had on [Coach McConnell] as a team and it lets you know how important the game and the people really are,” he said.
