Brookline Alum to Take His Pitching Prowess out West

After a successful campaign pitching at Brookline High School, Kyle Kazanjian-Amory is taking his baseball talent to the West Coast.

The recent graduate will attempt to walk-on at the University of Redlands in California, where he would be joining a team that had an impressive 2010 season. The Bulldogs just completed a 29-11 season but just fell short of a NCAA tournament bid.

Kazanjian-Amory visited family in the area when he was looking for schools and said he was hooked from the second he saw the campus. It didn't hurt that the baseball team was pretty good too.

"I was brought to the campus and loved it the first time, so I figured I'd apply," said Kazanjian-Amory, who plans to study business when not on the mound. "The second time I realized that I really liked it a lot. They have a great baseball team, which was a plus."

Kazanjian-Amory said he spoke to the head coach a couple of times about playing for the baseball team when he arrives on campus, where the Brookline native would have a chance to play baseball all year in sunny California.

The right-hander had a spectacular season for the Warriors on the mound in 2010, sporting a 5-2 record and a solid 1.97 ERA in 10 appearances. He also batted .337, which led the team.

Kazanjian-Amory has been working with Tom Landry at Batter's Alley in Woburn to improve his mechanics and "sharpen up some things."

The right-hander will have to work on all things baseball, because unlike high school where you can thrive at multiple sports — Kazanjian-Amory is also a skilled golfer — he will be focusing on baseball 12 months out of the year.

"It's going to be a lot more work," he said. "High school baseball isn't nearly as intense as college baseball. It's going to be really tough with working out everyday and focusing all my energy on baseball, not other sports or activities."

But with no frigid winters to shut down baseball season, he believes his game would only improve.

"I think it will really enhance," he said. "I knew I wanted to play a sport in college, but I also play golf and I'm a pretty good golfer. I was thinking about originally playing golf at school but I started working harder at baseball and I realized that's what I wanted to follow."