In 2013, Danny Mendick – 19 years old at the time – was playing shortstop for Monroe Community College in upstate New York when fortuitous destiny altered his baseball trajectory.
Coming out of high school in nearby Pittsford, Mendick had no scholarship offers to play ball. So off he headed to Monroe, which is where he was discovered by Ken Harring and the UMass Lowell baseball program.
“Coach Harring ended up coming out to us one day and watched the way I playing,” Mendick said. “He told me they needed a shortstop badly and I was totally on board with that.”
Thus, Mendick was there in 2014 for UMass Lowell’s first season at the Division I level. He wasted no time making a name for himself there, but he also had a bit of luck in gaining the attention of major league scouts.
