5/18/2020 baseball Edit

Diamond Hogs 2020 Signee Spotlight: New York RHP Louis Stallone

Louis Stallone is a 6-foot-9 right-handed pitcher who is signed with Arkansas. (Twitter/Louis Stallone)

Andrew Hutchinson • HawgBeat

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This is the fifth story in our series spotlighting members of Arkansas baseball's highly touted 2020 signing class, which is ranked third nationally by Perfect Game and Baseball America. Links to previous profiles can be found below.

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When Louis Stallone first popped up on Arkansas’ radar as a recruit, he was a self-described “super skinny” kid.

At 6-foot-6, he was just 175 pounds, but his velocity had jumped from 79-81 miles per hour during the winter of his sophomore year at St. Anthony’s High in New York to 83-84 mph the following summer and touched 85 mph at an Arkansas camp in August.

That was enough for Stallone to earn an offer from the Razorbacks and then he got to work packing on the weight. A gallon of milk each day and five or six raw eggs every morning helped him get up to 226 pounds in November and he’s currently floating around 222.

“I eat everything in the house,” Stallone said. “I’m sure my parents could vouch for me. They’re going to the grocery story every couple of days.”

As expected, the additional weight has increased Stallone’s velocity. The last time he threw with a radar gun was during basketball season and he was sitting 87-90 mph, but he said he feel like he’s touching 91 and 92 now.

Having grown to 6-foot-9.5, Stallone still doesn’t look as heavy as he is. He’d like to add another 10 pounds before arriving in Fayetteville and thinks his frame could “pretty easily” support 250 pounds.

He hasn’t hammered out a specific plan with assistants Nate Thompson and Matt Hobbs, but knows it’ll involve extensive work with strength and conditioning coach Blaine Kinsley. The hope is to continue the upward trajectory with his velocity.

“I really don’t see the reason why I can’t be throwing mid-90s by my sophomore or junior year,” Stallone said. “We have the best coaches, trainers and facilities in the country and I’m one of the hardest workers I know. I’ll be living in the Jones Center, eating all of the food there. I’ll be in the weight room and working with Coach Hobbs to throw harder.”

Stallone throws a two- and four-seam fastball, but he considers his changeup his best pitch. He also added a curveball a couple of years ago, which has developed thanks to a couple of pitch-design sessions at Driveline Baseball, the data-driven “pitching Mecca” in Seattle.

That wasn’t the first time he ventured outside of the northeast for baseball.

With goals of playing in the SEC or ACC, Stallone knew he needed to get in front of coaches at those programs. To do that, he joined Team Elite, a well-known summer ball team based out of Georgia.

One of his teammates was Max Soliz, a catcher committed to Arkansas in the 2021 class, so then-pitching coach Wes Johnson stopped by one of their games at the WWBA national championship. He liked what he saw from Stallone on the mound and invited him to Fayetteville for a camp.

A tall, four-year letterman in basketball, he had drawn some looks from local colleges on the hardwood and wasn’t sure until that summer that his future was as a pitcher. Some Ivy League schools recruited him for both sports, while programs like St. John’s, Pitt and Maryland were interested in him for baseball.

None of those programs stood a chance once he stepped foot in Arkansas, though.

“I honestly had no clue what to expect,” Stallone said. “I’d never been to Arkansas before, so I came in with an open mind and as soon as I got down to campus, I fell in love instantly. I think I had the offer for four seconds before I decided to commit. I saw how great everything was and I just wanted to be there.”

Naturally, his friends back home in the New York City area teased him about his future school being in a state full of farms and camouflage, but Stallone always responded by telling them how beautiful the Natural State is.

However, he did acknowledge - with a laugh - that Fayetteville was “a little bit different” than the big city environment he was used to.

“I flew into Northwest Arkansas Airport and we got in and out of the airport in like 20 minutes,” Stallone said. “At JFK or LaGuardia, it takes about two or three hours, so that was nice. Then we drove out and it took 20-30 minutes to get to campus and I was like, ‘Oh, this is pretty easy. I didn’t have to sit in traffic or anything.’”

As a junior, which was his first season after committing to the Razorbacks, Stallone posted a 2.69 ERA with 37 strikeouts and 11 walks in 39 innings for St. Anthony’s.

After leading the Friars to a 21-6 record and appearance in the CHSAA Class A semifinals as a team captain in basketball, his senior season for baseball was wiped out by the coronavirus before it ever began.

New York City has been hit particularly hard and is considered the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. Although he’s thankful his family is healthy, Stallone has seen friends lose family members.

Masks are required any time he leaves his house, but he said he’s still found ways to stay in shape. In addition to the dumbbells he owns, Stallone has a friend with a full barbell set that allows him to get in squats, deadlifts and other workouts.

The field in his hometown of Kings Park, N.Y., has also remained open, so he and the other seniors in the area have formed a sandlot team that gets together for batting practice and scrimmages.

That work will be vital for Stallone as he prepares for what is expected to be an ultra-competitive fall in Fayetteville. The NCAA granting eligibility relief across the board and MLB Draft being shortened to five rounds means roster spots and innings will be tough to come by with the Razorbacks, but Stallone said he’s willing to fill whatever role get him on the field.

“I’ll do anything to help the team out,” Stallone said. “I don’t really have a preference, starting or bullpen. If they need me for a batter, I’ll go in for a batter and get him out and do my job.”