James Capellupo serves as the ace for St. Bonaventure University. The right-handed pitcher has the most unique windup in college baseball with a leg kick that resembles Bronson Arroyo and Bob Feller.
Scratch that — he makes Arroyo and Feller’s leg kicks look far inferior.
Capellupo, a true sophomore, began his college baseball career at UMass Lowell and struck out 25 batters in 33.2 innings with a 4-2 record and two saves as a freshman. His performance was so impressive that he was named as the university-wide Rookie of the Year. However, the River Hawks were unable to keep their star pitcher from transferring back closer to home.
As a native of Hilton, New York, Capellupo was named as the All-County Player of the Year as a senior. He did not allow a single run to score with an astonishing ratio of 88 strikeouts to just three walks and at one point threw a complete game no-hitter with 17 strikeouts!
All of this goes to say that Capellupo has been a household name in the tri-state area for a few years now. Thus, it was a big deal when he committed to St. Bonaventure and transferred back to New York.
Although the people of the Empire State were already familiar with James Capellupo when he returned, they had to be reintroduced. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound pitcher added a high-reaching leg kick to his windup. Perhaps it is an homage to the Radio City Rockettes. Perhaps it helps him to tap into additional velocity.
Either way, it became the talk of college baseball over the weekend and for good reason!
James Capellupo is 1-1 as the Friday night ace for the Bonnies with 13 strikeouts. He allowed two runs or less to Gardner-Webb, Morehead State and Old Dominion, but reigning national champion Tennessee knocked him around a little bit in Knoxville.
That didn’t stop him from making a lot of fans along the way!
I immediately thought to compare Capellupo to Bronson Arroyo, but the former actually gets his leg up much higher than the latter.
I was also reminded of Bob Feller, but the same principle applies. Capellupo’s leg still skies much higher than the Hall of Famer.
There can only be one James Capellupo. St. Bonaventure’s ace has the most unique windup in college baseball. He puts the Bonnies in great position to compete for an Atlantic 10 title.