For Bryce Molinaro, a wait years in the making came to a happy ending on Monday.
The Washington Nationals made the former Hazleton Area two-sport standout and All-Big Ten baseball player at Penn State the 501st overall pick in the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft.
The same National League East Division team which took shortstop Eli Willits, a Fort Cobb-Broxton, Okla/ prep phenom, No. 1 overall one day earlier, chose Molinaro in the 17th round.
The heavy-hitting third baseman thrust himself into palpable conversation as a highly-touted prospect for the draft with his gap-to-gap power and smooth right-handed swing, showcasing both from a young age.
The Drums product entered the season ranked as the 143rd overall college prospect by D1Baseball.com and sat 380th in the Baseball America top-400. Despite the external accolades, Molinaro said his conversations with second-year Nittany Lions head coach Mike Gambino relaxed the inherent pressure that coincides with being an elite prospect.
In May, Molinaro said the idea of being drafted didn’t creep into his mind and recognized that he didn’t let the looming draft alter how he played.
However, Bryce knew that one phone call could change his life forever and said it’s been an incredible journey from the mat to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park where he’s built a legacy.
“It would mean the world,” Molinaro said of the possibility of being drafted before it actually happended. “It’s the thing I’ve been doing since I was a kid and it’s been what I’ve been working for. It’s always been a dream of mine and that’s what I’m trying to work for. Hearing my name get called in a few months would definitely be a huge stepping stone, a huge thing to cross off the bucket list. It’d be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for sure.”
That call came late Monday afternoon.
In the meantime, Molinaro has showcased his skills in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League this summer and recently joined that league’s top players for Fenway Day at the venerable ballpark in Boston. There, he smacked several balls over the infamous Green Monster in left field. He also took part in the Chicago Cubs’ pre-draft workout in South Bend, Ind.
Molinaro had come a long way from Hazleton Area, where he was a two-time Standard-Speaker Male Athlete of the Year after brilliant junior and senior seasons in baseball and wrestling.
His tenure as a high-level wrestler molded his baseball mentality which consists of an unrelenting approach at the plate and an unwavering trust in his work ethic, both forged during his formative days in the Valley East Little League and fire-hardened through his time as a star baseball player for the Cougars.
“My wrestler mindset, that person stepping across the mat from you knowing they could beat you, trusting their work they put in to beat you and in the back of my head I’m like, that guy is not beating me,” Molinaro said. “I’m way stronger, way tougher, way more mentally tough than him and I just kind of have been that out in the field too like this kid’s not going to get me out. I’m going to do what I need to do. I’m gonna get my job done.”
On the diamond, he was a top-of-the-lineup fixture, power-hitting force and smooth-fielding shortstop on two Wyoming Valley Conference and District 2/4 Class 6A championship teams that lost only a combined three games in two seasons.
He batted .546 (65-for-119) with 14 home runs and 65 RBI and had a slugging percentage well above the 1.000 mark over those seasons.
“One of the most talented players I’ve ever had the privilege of coaching – whether on the high school field or he travel ball circuit,” said Hazleton Area head coach Russ Canzler, himself a 30th round pick of the Cubs in 2004 who eventually worked his way to the majors in 2011 as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. “More than the talent, it’s Bryce’s character that stands out above all.”
Canzler called Molinaro “a true leader” on and off the field, demonstrating leadership skills as far back as his freshman year in 2019.
“Bryce plays the game with humility, grit and accountability,” Canzler added. “He gives everything he has on the field and set the example of how hard to play hard-nosed winning baseball for future generations of players from our area.”
Perfect Game ranked Molinaro as the No. 348 shortstop in the nation and No. 12 in Pennsylvania in the Class of 2022. He originally attended St. John’s (N.Y.), where he redshirted as a true freshman and did not play in 2023.
He transferred to Penn State that summer and made an immediate impact with the Nittany Lions. Against UMass Lowell, he went 3-for-4, scored four runs and ignited a decisive rally in a 21-14 victory. Later in the season, he delivered a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning of a 9-5 win over Michigan in the Big Ten semifinals.
Molinaro then started in all 56 of the Nittany Lions’ games this past season, batting .267 (60-for-225) with eight doubles and team highs in triples (three), home runs (13) and RBI (61). He also scored 46 runs. His hits and runs totals were third most on his team.
“So incredibly proud of the player Bryce has become and even more proud of the young man he is,” Canzler said. “This is only the beginning!”
Molinaro was the second local player taken in this year’s draft. The World Series champion-Los Angeles Dodgers made Tamaqua superstar Mason Ligenza their sixth-round pick earlier Monday.
Both Molinaro and Ligenza will have a choice to make: stay at Penn State and enroll at the University of Pittsburgh, respectively, or sign their first professional contracts and embark on a path that each hopes leads them to the majors.
“What a day for baseball in our area!” beamed Canzler, who also managed Ligenza on the travel ball circuit. “It’s an honor to get drafted. Teams aren’t wasting picks on just any player. They’re taking players who have the potential to Be developed into major leaguers. … To have two from our area drafted on the same day, not only says a lot about them as players, but also as people.”
The Nationals chose only one other third baseman in the draft, Texas A&M’s Wyatt Henseler in the ninth round.
Originally Published: July 14, 2025 at 9:24 PM EDT