Sophomore infielder part of UMAC champion, NCAA qualifier
After playing in only eight games last year as a freshman, Jake Casareto worked his way into the starting lineup this season on the College of St. Scholastica’s baseball team.
The International Falls native started in 35 of the 38 games he played in during 2011 when he became a regular in the infield for the Saints as they won the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference and qualified for the NCAA Division III regional in Whitewater, Wis., where his season ended late last month four games into the double-elimination tournament.
“This year was really unbelievable,” he said.
Casareto, who played on the left side of the infield at shortstop and third base, finished the year with a .322 batting average (37-115) and 26 RBI. His multiple-base hits included seven doubles, two triples and two home runs.
The 2009 Falls High School graduate was also a UMAC honorable mention selection.
“I’m obviously pretty pleased of my sophomore season,” he said.
Casareto attributes the work he did in the off-season and doing well early in the season when St. Scholastica was on its trip to Florida to being able to become a starter on a team where winning the UMAC championship has come to be expected.
His road to St. Scholastica was detoured at North Dakota State University, where he said he was recruited for the Division I program as a non-scholarship athlete, but left after one semester because it “didn’t work out” and transferred to St. Scholastica.
Though he didn’t have to sit out a year when changing schools, Casareto said he missed out on the six-week “fall ball” before his freshman season with the Saints, something he was able to participate in last fall as a sophomore.
Casareto said starting on Falls’ varsity team as an eighth-grader was like a “rookie season” playing at that level at a younger age than others who don’t have that opportunity.
“You can build up a lot of confidence in high school,” he said.
Casareto also credits the development of his baseball skills to Bill Sohlman, the father of Rainy River Community College sophomore pitcher Chad Sohlman, for having coached him from ages 9-16.
“I always knew that baseball was my (favorite) sport,” Casareto said.
As a major in Finance and Economics at St. Scholastica, Casareto said balancing academics and athletics requires being well-organized, because it “can get pretty hectic” and result in “some late nights” doing both in college.
He said he would like to fulfill a “huge goal” of his to become good enough to someday play baseball professionally, but realizes, “You’re not going to play baseball forever.”
Though he is not sure right now about a future job with two years left in college before he graduates, Casareto said he likes to follow the stock market, and his “dream job” would be a financial advisor helping people invest money.
As for his final two years of eligibility to play college baseball, Casareto said he is setting higher goals, such as being named to the UMAC’s first team and helping the Saints win an NCAA Division III regional tournament to advance to the College World Series.
Though St. Scholastica is losing about a dozen seniors, including ace pitcher Matt Lewis, Casareto said the Saints’ current sophomore class has a “lot of talent.”
“St. Scholastica is known year-in, year-out to reload,” he said.
As for potential incoming freshmen, Casareto’s younger brother, Dominic, who is a starting outfielder for the Broncos and graduating from FHS this year, recently expressed an interest in playing college baseball at either St. Scholastica or Rainy River.
