Baseball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the fall championship last year for North Penn
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Dropping a popup last year during a jayvee game.
Music on iPod: Anything country
Future plans: Go to Millersville and get a degree in engineering.
Favorite motto: “Work harder than the person next to you, and you will be the best you can be.”
One goal before turning 30: Graduate from college with an engineering degree.
One thing people don’t know about me: My favorite subject is math.
By Mary Jane Souder
Brad Bertucci, according to Kevin Manero is the kind of player any coach would love to have on their team.
“This kid is a gamer,” the North Penn baseball coach said of his senior third baseman. “He plays hard, he gets dirty, he sticks his nose in every ground ball, and he’s the first one on and off the field every inning.
“He’s the first one to pick somebody up when they’re hanging their head. He’s the first person to get on somebody a little bit if you have to, and he does it in a very matter-of-fact and very consistent way. He’s the kind of guy that every team needs.”
Manero goes on to talk about Bertucci’s eight-year-old brother A.J., who loves nothing more than to go out on the field after his sibling’s American Legion games to pitch or field ground balls.
“He would probably stay out there all night if it wasn’t for the fact that his parents would say, ‘AJ, we have to go home,’” Manero said. “Brad, as a high school kid, still has some of that in him.
“Every time he takes ground ball reps when we’re doing defensive work – before we stop and move to the next thing, almost every single time I hear him say, ‘Give me one more. Give me one more.’ He always wants one more, and that is maybe one of the best qualities somebody can have. They want to work a little harder, and they do it because they love it, because they challenge themselves. He wants one more tough one, he wants to make one more great play before he goes to the next drill. That’s a big part of why he is where he is right now.”
Where Bertucci is right now is a position few high school athletes ever find themselves in. The senior captain and his Knight teammates are one win away from capturing a state championship, and win or lose in the title game, it’s been quite a senior year.
“A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t think we would be in this position,” Bertucci admitted. “We weren’t playing good. We lost to Pennridge (18-8) right before the playoffs – it was probably the worst game of the season, and we barely got into the playoffs, but once the playoffs started, we started playing really good as a team and doing the little things right.”
Doing the little things right has made Bertucci a standout third baseman.
“He has quietly become one of the best defensive third basemen in the area,” Manero said. “He’s the only guy who’s hit in the same exact spot in the order and played every inning of every game from the beginning to the end of the season.
“He just does everything right. He’ll listen to you, he’ll adjust. He has fun, but he’s not goofy. He’ll put pressure on guys, but he’s not cocky. He just has a way of commanding himself and having the respect of teams that you just don’t see in too many kids these days.”
Bertucci has been playing baseball for as long as he can remember although football was his sport of choice as a youngster growing up. As his baseball skills improved, that sport moved to the top of his list. He continued playing football through his sophomore year but then gave it up in favor of baseball.
“Once I started playing better, I just got a lot more confidence, and I started liking the game, and it got a lot easier,” Bertucci said. “I always loved football, and it was really hard walking way. I still regret it a little bit now, but I think it made me 10 times better at baseball because I had more time to devote to it.”
A pitcher and shortstop in his early years on the diamond, Bertucci began playing third base in seventh grade.
“My coach threw me there one game, and I just liked how the ball comes at you quick and you don’t have much time to react,” he said. “Ever since then, I’ve been in love with the position.”
Although he did not crack the varsity lineup until this year, Bertucci caught the eye of Manero as a sophomore.
“I liked him from day one, and, of course, any coach is going to say ‘I always knew this kid was going to be good,’ but I really did,” the Knights’ coach said. “I remember wanting him to play legion for us as a sophomore because I liked his swing. I liked his mannerisms, and he just looked like a kid who could become a really good player.”
It might have been easy for Bertucci to get discouraged as he bided his time at the junior varsity level last year, but that didn’t happen.
“Playing jayvee and legion got me more game experience, and from then on, I became so much more confident,” he said. “I saw so much improvement, and coming into the year, I just knew I could compete for a spot and go from there.”
After a summer of playing third base for Nor-Gwyn’s American Legion team, Bertucci served notice during last year’s fall ball season that third base belonged to him.
“He was tremendous,” Manero said. “Not only was he hitting for the most part over .400, but he also was making every play at third base, and he started to turn some heads. People started to comment about, ‘Who’s that good third baseman you have?’”
The coaches named a junior and senior captain but allowed the team to elect a senior captain. Bertucci was the overwhelming choice.
“That in itself speaks to the amount of respect the guys on the team have for him,” Manero said.
Bertucci has been an effective leader.
“I just try to keep the guys into the game, make sure they know what’s going on, make sure they’re studying the pitchers, studying the outfielders’ arms and just try to keep everyone involved no matter if they’re starting or don’t play much,” he said.
Bertucci had been a study in consistency in the field and at the plate for the Knights this season.
“He can do so many things for us, whether it’s small ball or coming up big with a two-strike hit,” Manero said. “He’s come up with a lot of big two-out hits.
“He puts the ball in play a lot and puts pressure on the defense. At the high school level, that’s one of the biggest keys to success offensively, just putting pressure on the defense.
“He’s also been outstanding at third base. He gets the ball, he has good feet and good hands. He’s not the fastest guy in the world, he’s not the most athletic guy in the world, but he plays the game well. He gets in good position, he gets good approaches, he gets good reads off the bat, and he always just seems to be at the right place at the right time.”
In the Knights’ 1-0 win over highly regarded Parkland in the opening round of the state tournament, it was Bertucci who drove in the game’s only run.
“I got up there with a guy on second, and I got down in the count,” he recalled. “I just tried to hit the ball hard, put it in play and let the defense work. It went in the hole between short and third. It was intense.”
The Knights’ journey to the state title game, according to Bertucci, didn’t just happen.
“We just worked really hard as a team,” he said. “We would wake up in the morning at 5:30 and have lifting and have baseball after school.”
The team survived the late-season loss of several veteran players, pulling together to reach unexpected heights.
“We just had so many new kids step in and play really good,” Bertucci said. “Everyone is friends, everyone is close. Everyone is part of the team and wants to win so bad and gives everything they have the whole game.”
This fall, Bertucci, who enjoys working with numbers and equations, will enroll at Millersville where he will major in engineering. He hopes to walk on the baseball team, knowing there are no guarantees.
“I go out to practice and take every rep like it could be my last,” he said. “I could go to Millersville and might not make the team, and these would be my last playing baseball.
“I just want to keep working so when I go to Millersville I can try out and show the coach I should be on his team and I’m worthy of a spot on the team. I might not start right way, but I’ll work as hard as I can to get there.”
It’s the type of approach that has made Bertucci such a valued member of this year’s North Penn squad.
“When he runs the 60, you’re not going to have scouts and coaches running like crazy to get his phone number,” Manero said. “When he throws the ball, you’re not going to have anybody say, ‘Wow, look at that arm.’ When he hits the ball, you’re not going to have anybody say, ‘Boy, that ball really explodes off his bat.’
“He doesn’t have the qualities that maybe would get him a Division One scholarship, but when you put everything he has together, he’s the kind of guy that any coach would love to have on his team.”
