By: Kevin Huebler
Rob Dadona walks into practice on a Thursday morning, a change in the Seton Hall baseball team’s practice routine during finals week. It is the day before the Pirates are set to take on perennial Big East powerhouse St. John’s with just two weeks remaining in the season. Typically practicing in the afternoon, with finals on-going the Pirates slowly gather in the crisp, early May shadow of the parking deck along the left field line.
While everyone else has put their bags down between the dugout and the bullpen, lacing up their spikes, the senior second baseman makes his way through the crowd and into the dugout with shoes in hand. Greeting head coach Rob Sheppard who sits on his perch in the far-right corner of the dugout, Dadona gets the game plan for the day.
Dadona, who Sheppard describes as “hard-working,” exudes a quiet confidence about him as he rejoins the rest of the squad in the bullpen area to get ready for the day. The senior is used to the early mornings, as his daily routine typically starts around 8 a.m.
“I’ll wake up around 8-8:30 and then get some breakfast,” Dadona said. “Then class usually from 9:30 to 10:45. From 11 until 12:15 I’ll run over to the [cafeteria] to grab some lunch quick. Then I’ll make sure I get in the training room, I’m getting old (laughs) and need to make sure I’m ready for the three-hour practices or our long game days.”
A well-liked player in the clubhouse, the senior has let his play do the talking this year, boasting a .320/.425/.386 line in his final campaign. He makes solid defensive plays on the right side of the infield as well, scooping up nearly everything that is hit in his direction.
“He’s a high-energy guy, electric,” said senior catcher Mike Alescio. “Everyone loves him on the team and he really does a good job of bringing everybody together. I’m really happy for him and the year he’s having.”
Alescio knows Dadona better than possibly anyone on the team having lived with him throughout their time at Seton Hall, and playing on the same summer team in 2015.
But a year like this seemed like a distant goal entering the year. With one last go around on the diamond looming, Dadona entered the 2018 season with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove.
A rocky freshman year only playing 12 games was followed up by back-to-back down years in years two and three for Dadona. He entered The Hall in the same class as star pitcher Shane McCarthy, a consistent hitter in Alescio, three-year starter Ryan Ramiz, and Zach Schellenger and Chris Morris, both of whom were drafted in 2017. Dadona will be the first to admit that the first few years of college ball were a struggle for him.
“The first three years were definitely a big learning experience,” Dadona said. “The hardest thing in this sport is learning to fail, because you’re going to fail the majority of the time. I spoke with Coach (Giusseppe) Papaccio a lot about the mental side.”
The leadoff hitter all season long in the lineup, Dadona has flourished in an unconventional way. No. 1 hitters typically take a few pitches before taking the bat off of their shoulder, but for Dadona his ability to jump on the first pitch has been a key to his success.
“There would be times where I would fall behind in the count and be like ‘alright this isn’t going to work out,’” Dadona said.
That aggressiveness has led to Dadona raising his batting average by nearly 100 points this season, which is one reason why he was named Seton Hall’s male breakthrough athlete of the year at its annual SHUcademy Awards ceremony. A career .265 hitter, this season is the first season where the Staten Island native will bat over .230. His best season to this point was his sophomore season when he batted .224 in only 76 at-bats. This season he has 153 at-bats.
“I think he’s always had the talent to do it,” Alescio said. “I think this year he has just found a role that he has really flourished in. All of the hard work is finally paying off, there’s no one else on the team I’d rather have leading off.”
While it hasn’t always been easy for Dadona, but one thing that has resonated throughout the locker room and with the coaching staff has been Dadona’s work ethic.
“Robbie is just a hard-working young man,” said Sheppard. “His development has been tremendous. He came in as an infielder but he had the ability to move around because of his athleticism. He’s been willing to do anything we’ve asked him to do to get better.”
The struggles for the second baseman weren’t always in his control however, as he has battled injuries over his four years at Seton Hall.
“He’s gotten stronger, but one of the things early on was his durability was a factor,” said Sheppard. “He plays hard and he takes his share of lumps. He’s a lot healthier now and his swing has been a lot more consistent.”
“We’re always ragging on him for getting hurt all the time,” said senior shortstop Al Molina, who transferred to Seton Hall from Brookdale Community College in 2017. “Sometimes it can get to him but he’s a good kid, he can take a joke.”
Molina described Dadona as his “best friend,” working as a duo up the middle as well as rooming together on the road.
“We know what each other can do and pretty much where we’re going to be at each point, we just have a really good connection,” Molina said.
But it isn’t just Dadona’s work ethic that has allowed him to thrive this season, it’s also his ability to soak up the game and further advance his understanding of it.
“Coming from high school you’re the guy and everything come easy playing the game in high school,” said Dadona. “Instead of getting overwhelmed with (not playing as a freshman), and just picking the brains of the older guys to see how much of a step up the competition is.”
One guy who Dadona leaned on in his first two seasons at The Hall was another middle infielder in Chris Chiaradio, who played in the fourth-most amount of games as a Pirate with 58, just three behind Craig Biggio for most all-time. Chiaradio typically found himself at the same position on the right side of the infield as Dadona, totaling the fifth-most defensive assists by a Pirate with 413.
“He went about his work like he was a professional,” said Dadona. “You couldn’t tell the difference if he was having a great day or a terrible day. He was a guy who was always in the weight room or the training room making sure his body was right.”
Chiaradio’s demeanor has been one of the biggest influences on Dadona.
“Just taking little pieces of that and just the way he carried himself, I’m grateful to have known him,” said Dadona.
Sheppard knew that Dadona had the ability to play the game at the next level from the first time he saw him play at Tottenville as a junior.
“We went to see him play and he was a scrappy young man,” said Sheppard. “He was playing shortstop and there was a man on second base with two outs. There was a ball hit in the hole, he backhanded it and faked a throw to first that faked the third base coach out, and he sent the runner around third, so Dadona was able to get the kid at third base.”
It was that kind of baseball IQ and style that Sheppard likes to have on his team, which is also why the 15th year head coach didn’t lose confidence in Dadona.
“His work ethic is tremendous, scrappy and he competes on every pitch,” Sheppard said. “He doesn’t give any at-bats away and he has an infectious quality about him that the guys feed off of. He’s a gamer.”
On and off the field, Dadona also knows how to let loose.
If you’ve been to a Seton Hall baseball game this season, you’ll notice after a double or a big hit the Pirates strum an air guitar. When Dadona laces a double, he’ll stand on second base and channel his inner Aerosmith.
This is how @SHUBaseball’s @RobDadona celebrates a double. Slideshow of the game by @chrismachian —> https://t.co/QbvqTDiz5Zpic.twitter.com/BRJC3RcXop
— World-Herald Photo (@OWHpictures) May 5, 2018
Speed kills! Rob Dadona steals 2nd, takes 3rd on the error and scores on a Molina sac fly! We’re up 3-2 in the bottom of the 6th! Watch on FOX Sports GO! https://t.co/Z22l3Fydo9 #HALLin pic.twitter.com/WUpVHLClmW
— Seton Hall Baseball (@SHUBaseball) May 11, 2018
“I don’t know where it came from,” Dadona said. “It might have happened in the locker room with Connor Hood. He doesn’t have the most rhythm on the team but he did some fiddling thing and it just stuck.”
Beyond the diamond, it’s all about finding the time to cut loose. The life of a college baseball player is time consuming, with all of the practices, long games, classes and homework, there’s not a whole lot of free time left for the athletes. But the little free time that Dadona has, he spends like any regular college student: video games.
“There are a lot big Fortnite players on the team,” Dadona said with a laugh.
It’s even gotten to the point for the team where they’ll bring it on the road with them.
“We get some games in on the road, we’ll watch movies, just trying to take as much down time and use it to relax as possible,” according to Dadona.
For Dadona, while this season has been his best one at The Hall, there’s one more thing he wants to accomplish this season.
“I remember my freshman year losing in the Big East tournament and seeing the seniors have to stand up there and talk about their experience,” said Dadona. “That’s tough. Ultimately our goal is to win a Big East championship.”