Frank Mozzicato Of Ellington Continues Upward Climb In Pro Baseball

DAVENPORT, IA — Frank Mozzicato, the left-handed pitching phenom from Ellington who was the seventh overall selection in the 2021 Major League Baseball draft, has been promoted within the minor league system of the parent Kansas City Royals.

The 6-foot-3 Mozzicato, who turned 20 less than three weeks ago, has been moved up to the Quad Cities River Bandits of the High-A Midwest League. He will don uniform number 27 and is expected to make his first start Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

He started 12 games this season for the Columbia Fireflies of the Class-A Carolina League. Despite a 2-5 record, he has compiled a sterling 3.04 earned-run average in 56 innings, allowing just 36 hits while registering 85 strikeouts, an average of 13.6 per nine innings. On April 18, he struck out a franchise-record 13 batters in six scoreless innings against Fayetteville.

In 31 appearances over the last two years, Mozzicato has struck out 174 batters, also a Fireflies record, in 125 innings.

He culminated a standout career at East Catholic High School in Manchester with a one-hit, 17-strikeout performance in a 7-0 victory over Northwestern Regional in the 2021 Class M championship game. He threw four straight no-hitters in his senior year, covering a stretch of just over 30 innings, and capped his scholastic days with a streak of over 49 consecutive scoreless innings.

To keep up with his progress through the Royals' organization, Ellington resident Russ Binkowski created a Facebook group called Frank's Fans last weekend. As of early Wednesday afternoon, 356 users have become members of the private page.