Despite this year being her first at the collegiate level, freshman Alyssa Presutti has been playing like a seasoned veteran for the Geneseo softball team this season. The outfielder has earned her place as the only starting freshman on the team – something she says is the result of a lifetime of hard work and preparation.
“I’ve played [softball] for as long as I can remember,” Presutti said. “I started in T-ball when I was little and I played Little League when I was 8 years old. After I moved from Geneva, [N.Y.] to Buffalo, I started playing travel. I pretty much travelled all over the east coast playing softball.”
While this experience obviously helped Presutti find her bearings, she said playing in college is a totally different level of competition.
The jump from high school to college proved to be a stark difference. “I don’t want to say it was easy, but it definitely wasn’t the same level of playing that it is now,” Presutti said.
After just a few months on the team, Presutti fit in naturally amongst the team’s older athletes, being received warmly as a young, new addition. “I feel a lot closer to [the older girls] than I was toward the beginning of the year,” Presutti said.
“In the fall, I didn’t even know if I was going to make the team and now that we’re into the season I feel much more comfortable talking to the girls and playing with them. They’re all really supportive,” she added.
One of Presutti’s defining characteristics as an athlete is her versatility. At one point or another in her softball career, she has played “pretty much [every position].” So far at Geneseo, she has split her time between left and right field.
What truly earned Presutti her starting spot on the team, however, has been her performance at the plate. Her phenomenal stats include a .387 batting average and a home run, which she hit against SUNY Cortland during the Knights’ 5-3 loss on April 11.
Motivated by head coach David Sylvester, Presutti spent winter break working on her swing. According to Sylvester, “The separating point for anyone who is going to be starting on the team is how they hit the ball.”
Over the course of the season, Presutti emerged as a consistently reliable hitter who has “contributed all the time.”
After achieving so much in so little time, there is no telling what the future holds for Presutti. With such a remarkable start under her belt, she is definitely an athlete to watch in the coming years.