STAFF

To schedule a lesson with one of our professional instructors, please call 973-777-BATS.

Robyn Baron

Robyn provides both Fastpitch pitching and hitting instruction.  She has been giving pitching instructions for the past 10 years and hitting instruction for 2 years.  She can provide individual and well as group lessons and clinics.

Robyn has a BS degree from Montclair State University in Recreation and Leisure Studies.  As a student athlete at Montclair, she was twice selected All American and is also a two time recipient of the "NJ Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year."  Montclair selected her as "Athlete of the Year" during both her Junior and Senior years.  Prior to Montclair, she played softball for West Milford High School where she was elected "All Conference," "All County," and "All State."

Robyn has also served as an assistant Softball coach at both Seton Hall University and Union County College.  She has helped to organize as well as run numerous camps and clinics.

Tim Bausher

Tim played four years at Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, where he earned his B.S. in Sociology.  As a senior in 2001, he set a school record by throwing eleven complete games. That same year he was named Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Athlete of the Year as well as 3^rd Team Division II All American. Tim was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2001.

In 2003, he signed with Berkshire of the Independent Northeast League before quickly being signed by the Milwaukee Brewers. Tim was a member of the Brewer’s major league roster until June of 2004 when he was then claimed by the Colorado Rockies.  In December of 2004, Tim was acquired by the Red Sox and assigned to Pawtucket for his first taste of AAA.  He was called up to Boston on April 29^th, 2005 during a series with Texas.

Tim continued his professional baseball career within the Cincinnati Reds Organization (AAA Louisville Bats) and went on to play with the Nashua Pride Baseball Club. In June of 2007, Tim was acquired by the Kansas City Royals and played with their AA Wichita Wranglers.

Tim Bausher has been both a starter and a reliever.  He has been clocked in the high 90’s and has an excellent curve ball.  In addition to his outstanding pitching, Tim is currently the Alliance Manager for the Radial Bat Company.  Lefty’s is proud to add Tim to our fine roster of instructors!!  Tim is now available for pitching and hitting instruction for all levels.

Photo Coming Soon!

As a young ball player, Luis Colon was selected to play for a US Team in Europe and traveled extensively within the Caribbean each summer.  He  played for Puerto Rico where he traveled to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Venezuela. Luis was a four year varsity player at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, NY.  He was selected to All Conference and All City as a shortstop three times. 

Luis then played four years at Caldwell College on Scholarship where he  was Team Captain for 2 years and the recipient of Caldwell’s Senior Athlete Award.  He  earned his Bachelors Degree from Caldwell College and furthered his baseball career by playing professionally overseas in Japan’s Pacific League for two years.  Through the years, Luis has volunteered for the United Youth Little League Organization, has coached the Bergen County Bombers AAU Travel Team and has earned his certification as a Personal Trainer and Infield Instructor, specializing in middle infield. Luis continues to play semi-pro and he is currently the Assistant Varsity Coach at Paramus Catholic High School. He is available for infield and hitting instruction. Luis truly enjoys sharing his knowledge and love of the game and helping young players to achieve their goals both on and off the playing field.

Nick DiGiacomo

For the past fifteen years, Nick has been specializing in batting for those individuals from age 7 through college level, in both baseball and softball.  His accomplishments include:

* Five years as a batting instructor for the New Jersey Panthers, one of NJ's top 18 (AAU) teams, and winners of 7 major tournaments

* Ten years working with Nutley High School's varsity baseball players

* Specialization in hitting instructions with high school players throughout the state, producing many All-County and All-State Players.  In 2005, one of Nick's students, formerly of St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals

* Batting advisor for the "Lefty's Lightning Elite" 16 and 18-year old teams

Beginning with the 2008 Season, Nick will be working as a batting instructor for both the North Arlington Boys' Varsity Baseball and Nutley High School Girls Varsity Softball Team.

Ish Falcone

Kim Higgins De-Jianne

Kim Higgins De-Jianne joined the Seton Hall University softball staff in the fall of 2001. A former standout pitcher at Caldwell College, Higgins brings a gift for teaching and an unmatched enthusiasm for the sport. She coached first base this season for the SHU Pirates and works closely with Seton Hall's pitchers, among numerous other duties.

Kim was the junior varsity coach at Nutley High School in 1998 and 1999 as well as the coach of the Clifton Cobras summer club team in 1995. Kim also played for the Cobras and was the first player inducted into their Hall of Fame.

Kim graduated from Caldwell College in 1997 with a degree in education and psychology.  She was a three-time all-conference performer and was twice named to the league's all-tournament team. She was an Academic All-American as a junior and a member of the Kappa Delta Epsilon Education Honor Society.  Kim is also a professional healthcare representative and resides in Nutley, NJ.

Amanda Jones

Amanda is a recent graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey  where she received her BA degree in History and Secondary Education.  Amanda was a starter at Ramapo College and was named Rookie of the year her Freshman season.  She also led the team in walks (17) and had a .316 batting average. Both Freshman and Sophomore years, Amanda was named to the NJAC All-Academic Team.  In 2006, she was a member of the Ramapo College Women’s Softball Team that went on to win the Atlantic Regional Championship and took part in the Division III Women’s Softball College World Series.

Amanda attended Rutherford High, Rutherford, NJ, where she was a four-year starter and Captain of her softball team.  She has also coached and played for the Clifton Cobras and directed softball camps for youths.  Amanda has been giving personal softball instruction here at Lefty’s Sports Academy for the past 3 years and is currently one of the Assistant Coaches of the Lefty’s Lady Lightning 16U Fastpitch  Softball Team

Matt LoCarro

Matt is a graduate of perennial powerhouse Seton Hall Prep where in 2004 and 2005 he was a member of the New Jersey State Champion Baseball squad. Matt is known for his speed on the bases: he has a career stolen base percentage of .947.

Matt specializes in all areas of training including Pitching, Hitting and Catching. He is currently coach of the Lefty's Lightning 18U squad and assists on the Lefty's Lightning 16U Travel Team. Matt graduated from Marist College in 2009.  Currently, he serves as the Freshman Baseball Coach at Paramus Catholic High School.

Matt's passion for the game of baseball is unmistakably demonstrated through his effective   coaching and training of ball players of all ages and levels.

Scott Luna

Coach Luna was an "All Area" Player at Lodi High School and played several years of "Semi Professional" baseball.  He also received an invitational tryout with the Boston Red Sox and the NY Yankees.  Coach Luna is an insured, certified personal instructor with over 29 years of coaching experience at various levels of the game.  He is currently the head Varsity Baseball coach at Paramus Catholic High School as well as a Northeast Regional Representative and Lead Camp Instructor for Ripken Baseball in Aberdeen, MD.  Coach Luna also has 9 years of experience working as a MLB Talent Evaluator for 3 Major League teams.  He is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association and the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation.  In the Summer of 2008, Coach Luna had the opportunity to instruct a special televised infield clinic featuring the 11u NJ Mariners at the MLB Fan Fest Celebration with Bill and (HOF) Cal Ripken, Jr.  Coach Luna's unique style of coaching and his firm belief in the repetitive training on the basic fundamentals of the game earned him an appearance on XM "Ripken Talk" Radio as a guest of Baseball legends Billy and (HOF) Cal Ripken, Jr. to speak about the importance of teaching fundamentals in youth baseball.  Coach Luna's innovative "Keep it Fun/Keep it Simple" coaching techniques have resulted in praise from parents and coaches in the Metropolitan area.

Steve Markovich

Steve Markovich is a professional MLB Scout. He started his scouting career working  for the Kansas City Royals and was with them for  more than 15 years. For the past 6 years, he has been the NY Yankees’ Scout for the New Jersey area.  As a coach, Markovich specializes in the art of Catching and Game Management.  Steve has lead many programs in the tri-state area sharing his tremendous wealth of knowledge and skill  with young catchers eager to learn the details behind the sport and position they want to be the best in.

Javier Martinez

Javier Martinez is a graduate of Fordham University where he was a three-time Atlantic 10 pitcher of the week and Co-MVP of the team in 2006.  Javi was selected by Washington in the 42 round of the 2006 June draft, but chose to return to school for his senior season.  In 2007, the Seattle Mariners selected Javi  and he his currently playing in their minor organization with the Everett AquaSox.

Javi is also a graduate of  Seton Hall Prep High School.  Javi played baseball for the Prep as their  number one starting pitcher.  He led the Pirates to county, conference, and state championships.  During his senior year, the Pirates achieved a #1 ranking in the state, the Star Ledger Trophy, #11 ranking in the nation by USA Today and #10 in the nation by Baseball America. 

Javi ended the Prep's baseball season 9-0 with a .88 ERA.  He received honors for 1st team all county, 1st team all conference, Essex county player of the year, 2nd team All State all groups, 1st team All State Parochial, Worrell Publications player of the year and 1st team All Area.

Joe Martinez

Lefty’s is proud to add Joe Martinez to our coaching staff.  Joe is a graduate of Seton Hall Prep where he was 3rd Team All State twice, State champions 2001. Joe attended Boston College where he majored in Finance and Human Resources.  At Boston College Joe was a unanimous selection to the “All Big East First Team after leading his team in innings pitched, strikeouts and complete games (6). He threw four straight complete games from 4/9-5/1… was 5-4 with a 5.71 ERA in 28 games over three years at BC from 2002-2004.  He was an “All Star” for Hyannis in the Cape Cod League in 2004. Upon graduation from Boston this past May, Joe was drafted by the San Francisco Giants and is currently playing in their organization.

J.J. started at shortstop at the largest high school in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, Wheeling Park (West Virginia) High School which is also the largest high school conference in the U.S. 

He earned All-State honors and was selected for the Ohio Valley All-Conference team for 3 years.  Newman was highly recruited in high school and accepted a full scholarship to D-1 Youngstown State University in Ohio.  As a freshman, J.J. was the starting Short Stop.  J.J. transferred to Erskine College (South Carolina) and had an outstanding 3 years at second base.  In his senior year, J.J. ‘s batting average was .390and he led the team and league with 15 home runs, 47 RBI’s, 18 doubles and was named 1st Team All-CVAC and 2nd Team All South Atlantic Region.

 J.J. was drafted by the NY Mets on June 7, 2006 and finished his first year of professional baseball with the Gulf Coast League, St. Lucie Mets, in Florida.  J.J. earned a starting position at second base at the beginning of the season and had a great season going until he hyper-extended his knee.  After a summer of rehabilitation, J.J. earned his spot back in the lineup.   In just his first 12 games, J.J. had 42 At-Bats, 11 hits, scored four runs, he had a .262 batting average and an on-base percentage of .354!

 J.J. Newman is an enthusiastic player who truly enjoys sharing his knowledge and love of the game with ball players of all ages.  In addition to coaching the Lefty's Lightning 18U team, he is also available at Lefty’s for instruction in hitting, fielding, base running, and all-around training.  

Katie Pierce

Katie Pierce is a 2006 Seton Hall University Graduate where she holds the records in: Hits per Season, Hits per Career, Doubles per Season, Doubles per Career and Triples per Season.

In her senior year of High School, Katie was named to the 2002 NFCA 1st Team All-American Softball Selection and was nominated for Softball Captain, elect.  Katie’s College softball career took off and in 2003, Katie was a member of the NCAA Big East All-Rookie Team.  In 2004, she was named to the NCAA Big East 2nd Team, NCAA Big East Academic All-Conference, was Seton Hall’s Female Sophomore Athlete of the Year, and 2004/05 NCAA All Northeast Region 2nd Team. In her senior year at SHU, Katie was once again named Seton Hall Female Athlete of the Year, achieved NCAA Academic All-American status and named to the 2006 NCAA All Northeast Region 1st Team. Lefty’s Sports Academy is extremely proud to add Katie Pierce to our fine staff. 

Katie is available for instruction for fielding, hitting and base running skills. 

McKenzie Richards

McKenzie played at Seton Hall University from 2001-2004. She was a four-year starter and starting right fielder on Seton Hall's first-ever Big East Conference championship team in 2004... The all-time leader in Seton Hall history with 192 hits and 612 at bats and 191 games played... Second all-time in runs scored with 104 and stolen bases with 52... Her 61 hits in 2004 were a single-season record, as were her 197 at bats... Also has the single-season stolen base record with 22 in 2003... All-BIG EAST First Team honoree in 2004... BIG EAST All-Rookie Team in 2001... 2003 Seton Hall Junior Female Athlete of the Year and 2002 Seton Hall Sophomore Female Athlete of the Year... BIG EAST Academic All-Star as a sophomore, junior and senior... Led the team in hits as a senior and junior... Led the team in stolen bases as a junior and sophomore... Career .314 hitter. McKenzie returns to Lefty’s this year working with numerous softball hitters and fielders specializing in slapping.

Joe Rivera

Joe Rivera is a graduate of Clifton High School where he was named All League, All County and All Area as a pitcher and outfielder.   He also helped Clifton in back to back County and Group IV Sectional Championships.

Coach Rivera continued playing for Kean University, where he received a BA in Physical Education and Health. During his first year at Kean, he received All-Conference, All State, All Tournament Team, and All Region Honors as an outfielder. Joe still holds the school record for doubles in a season.  Along with the doubles record, he is in the top 5 for runs, home runs, RBI's and hits in a season, and most doubles in a career.

Joe received a Masters of Science in Health at New Jersey City University.  He started his first coaching job as Kean's outfield coach.  The following year he was the hitting coach at Union County College.  Currently, he serves as the Head Varsity Baseball Coach in Clifton, where he also teaches Physical Education and Health.  Coach Rivera is also the coach of the 17U Lefty's Lightning Travel Team.

Joe is an enthusiastic coach, who teaches the fundamentals, rules, and safety of baseball in an atmosphere that promotes sportsmanship and fun.