Andrew Rogovic, 'The Arm,' signs with Northeastern going into final season as ace pitcher for the Trojans
December 20, 2023 at 11:41 p.m.
Growing up as a pitching whiz on the Rye Brook age group playing fields, the kid was called "The Arm," but now he has grown into the full package as a highly recruited Blind Brook senior student-athlete who is headed for ultra competitive Division One collegiate baseball as soon as he graduates.
Young Andrew Rogovic pitches for the Rye Brook Rebels based out of Pine Ridge Park.Courtesy of Andrew Rogovic Sr.
Trojans All-Star pitcher/shortstop Andrew Rogovic is coming off one of the greatest baseball seasons in Blind Brook history, a season in which he won League and Section Pitcher of the Year awards and was selected to the Lo Hud first team All-Stars, a stellar squad comprised of the best 18 players in Westchester and the Lower Hudson Valley, the elite group chosen from the best of the best players from all public and private schools in all classes, from AA to D.
Stats tell story
And no wonder. Because Andrew went 7-1 as a Blind Brook junior ace with an earned run average of 0.78, leading all of Section One with 115 strikeouts in 52 and two-thirds innings in which he allowed just six runs the entire season. And that was a season that included two playoff shutouts including one of the most memorable games in Trojans baseball history, a complete game in which he struck out 19 of 21 batters in a 2-0 win for the ages.
That kind of performance resulted in Rogovic getting 10 to 12 Division One college offers and countless other invites for campus tours that could lead to more than tours.
The Northeastern lure
When all was said and done on the recruiting trail, Rogovic chose to play for Northeastern in Boston, just a three-hour drive from home and one of the top 35 academic and baseball schools in the country.
Rogovic, who throws in the low 90s, has been compared to Rye's George Kirby who played college ball for Elon before signing with the Seattle Mariners for a $3.4 million bonus and is now one of the best pitchers in Major League baseball. Elon was one of Rogovic's finalists in his collegiate sweepstakes, but he ultimately decided on Northeastern because of its location, the competitiveness of the baseball program and the high level of academics plus the chance to pitch for Mike Glavine, brother of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine.
Roadmap to stardom
Northeastern has mapped out a blueprint for stardom that will have Rogovic playing in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) in New Hampshire for the Nashua Silverknights, a fast-paced league for college players with each team playing 64 games, every day but Monday each week, from Memorial Day through early August. Andrew will be staying with a host family for the summer while basically getting a preview of what will be waiting for him when he gets to Northeastern in the Fall.
He can hardly wait. Because he has been training for that kind of baseball schedule almost all his life.
Andrew first started playing for the Rye Brook Rebels when he was 7 years old. After a few years of learning the baseball ABCs there, he also started playing for White Plains Hit N Run, a team that was coached by former White Plains High School coach and ex Oakland A's Major League Baseball pro player Marcel Galligani. Galligani taught his boys the right way to play baseball and gave them an idea of what it would take to have the makings of a pro. Andrew loved it. And determined to do what it takes to play up, all the way up from high school varsity baseball to college scholarship baseball with a shot at making it into the pros.
The familial blood lines
He had the family blood lines. His mother, Jill Rogovic, is a teacher at Ardsley and a former Hall of Fame athlete at Tuckahoe High School. His big sister Julia, currently a junior at Pennsylvania State University, was a Blind Brook Lady Trojans volleyball and softball ace for both the Lady Trojans and various area travel teams. Julia was a great role model exemplifying what it took to be a top high school student athlete. And his father, also an Andrew, a top tier local real estate broker, is a longtime Rye Brook Rebels board member and coach for the Rebels, Little League district teams and the Westchester Baseball Academy, even one of the prime movers behind starting the Rye Brook Travel Softball Team when Julia was nine. So Dad loved being part of Rye Brook sports. And young Andrew was just doing what comes naturally given his thoroughbred athletic blood lines.
Andrew Rogovic signs to play baseball for Northeastern University after he graduates from Blind Brook High School in June.Courtesy of Andrew Rogovic Sr.
But success didn't come easily. He was part of a Blind Brook varsity made up mostly of kids he started out playing with at Pine Ridge Park as young Rebels. And they didn't exactly set the league on fire as Trojans, winning four and six games during their first two years of varsity ball. But those early losses helped forge the nucleus of the Blind Brook team that won 19 games last season. And that memory of Blind Brook baseball success led to young Andrew thinking about the two turning points that led to that breakthrough, one personal and the other involving the team.
The turning points
Making it even more special was that it was a team made up of kids who had all started playing together at Pine Ridge Park as young Rebels. That same team won four and six games their first two years on varsity and then won 19 last season.
The personal turning point came in November 2022 when Rogovic went to a baseball prospect camp at the University of Rhode Island and threw 88 miles per hour for the first time. That gave the kid already called "The Arm" the extra motivation to up his speed to 90 mph by the spring, amping it up to 92 mph by August, Kirby-like numbers before the Rye kid went to Elon and caught the Seattle Mariners’ eye.
The other team turning point came during an early season Blind Brook game against Briarcliff and the Cliffies’ Division One caliber pitcher Dylan O'Malley who was headed for Ivy League baseball at William and Mary. Rogovic matched zeros with O'Malley for seven shutout innings and the Trojans went on to a walk-off win in the eighth inning that helped them believe they had a chance to be something special. And they were. And so was young Andrew. who wound up winning all those All-Star awards mentioned earlier, including those playoff wins over Pawling where he struck out 19 of 21 batters and his complete game shutout over Croton with 14 strikeouts.
The make or break summer
That led to Rogovic catching the college recruiters' eyes. But they hadn't really seen anything yet. Because during the summer, he pitched for the Taconic Rangers showcase team under coach Bob Fletcher. That, in turn, led to Andrew's being invited to pitch for the Wow Factor in major tournaments in Alabama and Georgia. So the Rangers got him big time exposure in the Northeast, the Wow Factor placed him on the radar for the Southern schools and throwing 92 mph did the rest. Almost before he knew it, Andrew had around 12 D-1 college offers and at least that many invites to tour college campuses that could lead to still more scholarship offers. But once he saw Northeastern and met Glavine, he fell in love with the campus and the idea of playing baseball close to home. So Northeastern won out over, among other schools, Elon. And once he committed to Northeastern, Rogovic decided to take the Fall off from baseball so he could rest his arm while getting back into the gym to shape up for 2024 baseball. He is getting ready for one more final go round with the Trojans and the kids he grew up with at Pine Ridge Park back in the day when they were young Rebels dreaming the dream.
And now the best is yet to come for the kid they call "The Arm" who has developed into the whole package with the sky the limit and the high 90s yet to come. Young Andrew can hardly wait for what comes next. Because not everybody gets a chance to live the baseball dream. He has worked hard to get there. And maybe even has a shot at the pros. After all, if George Kirby from nearby Rye could make it into the pros with Seattle as a multi-million-dollar bonus baby out of Elon, why not Andrew Rogovic out of Rye Brook by way of Northeastern to wherever?
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