Matt Rothstein isn’t about personal statistics. But they’re hard to ignore.
The Wheatley ace has a 6-1 record with a 0.60 earned run average and 81 strikeouts in 46 innings. He was the named Nassau Conference BC-I most valuable player.
“Ridiculous numbers. He’s one of the best pitchers on Long Island,” longtime Wheatley coach Paul Paino said. “He’s the guy who dominated this league … the guy everyone said we want if we could pick one guy from this league, it would be him.”
Rothstein is also Wheatley’s captain, a senior who is hoping to lead his squad to the Nassau Class B title. That, above the individual accolades, is what the senior from Roslyn Heights is all about.
“Personal stats are just great, but it’s our senior year and we haven’t won a county championship in a while and that’s our No. 1 goal,” Rothstein said.
With a fastball in the mid-to-high 80s and a quality changeup among his impressive arsenal, Rothstein opened his senior season in style, picking up the win against rival and perennial powerhouse Oyster Bay, the same squad Wheatley is playing in a best-of-three semifinal series.
Rothstein was a solid pitcher as a junior, earning all-league honors. But Paino saw a different pitcher that day.
“He was very good last year, but this year he’s dominant,” Paino said. “When he came out and stuck 13 guys against Oyster Bay on the first day of the season, that’s the day [I saw the difference]. … He came out on fire.”
Rothstein played at Island Baseball Factory for Sean Kammerer, a former Division I player at Sacred Heart Academy and continued his hard work over the winter.
“I was in the cages, pitching in the tunnel five, six days a week, working out of my house every other day, going to the gym every day,” Rothstein said.
The difference was noticeable. Two years removed from being a skinny sophomore, Rothstein is now 6-foot-2, 185 pounds. He picked up about five miles on his overpowering fastball and tweaked his mechanics, working faster on the hill.
“He hits his spots, he paints the outside corner real nice,” Wheatley junior catcher Billy McLean said. “He gets a lot of ground balls, lots of strikeouts. Guys can’t really hit him.”
That was certainly the case on May 6 when Rothstein struck out 17 and walked just two in a no-hitter in a 9-0 win over Malverne.
“In 30 years, top five performances I’ve seen,” Paino said.
Because of his performance over the summer and a recruiting tape on the Internet, Rothstein picked up a number of offers, including a few tempting Division I schools.
“It definitely was hard because my summer coach is a baseball guy and wanted me to go for some of the higher D-I offers I was getting,” Rothstein said. “But the way I looked at it was what if I get onto the field and the first day I tear my UCL or have a career-ending injury, am I going to be happy at this school regardless of baseball?”
Rothstein found that perfect balance at Tufts University, a Division III school outside of Boston where he plans on majoring in engineering.
“I’m going to be able to play the game I love while at the same time getting a great education,” Rothstein said.
Before that, though, Rothstein has some unfinished business at Wheatley. In an 8-0 win over Carle Place Saturday in the opening round of the ‘B’ playoffs, he struck out 11 without a walk in a six-inning four-hitter.
That sets up the anticipated semifinal series against second-seeded Oyster Bay, which started Tuesday. Rothstein might possible start Game 2, which would be on three days rest.
That matters little to Rothstein, as long as Wheatley wins.
“He’s one of the important leaders on the team,” Paino said. “He gets the guys going. They follow him because he’s so good and they want to be like him. He’s a great role model.”
