FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            Contact: Chuck Paiva

February 18, 2020                                                                               President & General Manager

                                                                                      401-845-6832// gm@newportgulls.com

Righty to stay in Rhody 

Liam LeVangie of Bryant University Signs to Gulls 

Newport, RI – Liam LeVangie is a Right-Handed Pitcher currently in his freshman year at Bryant University. He stands 5-foot-11 and attended East Bridgewater High School in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts prior to becoming a Bulldog.

LeVangie was a three-sport athlete at East Bridgewater, selected as an All-League performer in football and basketball as well as baseball. He chose to skip his senior year of basketball to focus on baseball after signing with Bryant in November of 2018. In four years on varsity, LeVangie captured three league titles and was a four-time Brockton Enterprise All-Scholastic selection. Although his entire high school career was impressive, LeVangie's junior and senior seasons ranked among the best in Massachusetts. He finished with an undefeated record of 7-0 with a 0.55 ERA and 88 strikeouts during his junior campaign which led to being named the 2018 Boston Herald All-Scholastic and Brockton Enterprise Player of the Year. In the following season, LeVangie averaged nearly two strikeouts per inning (103 K: 53 IP) and suffered just one loss while winning six games and posting a 1.06 ERA. 

LeVangie decided to play for Bryant over UCONN and URI, stating the Bulldogs had always been his first choice; “They were the first ones to reach out to me,” LeVangie said. “And I appreciated how the coaches would come out to watch the games.”

Upon graduation from East Bridgewater, LeVangie began his taste of collegiate baseball playing for the Brockton Rox of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. He pitched in eight games for Brockton and started three. His ability to strikeout hitters continued into the summer as the incoming freshman struck out 20 batters in 17.1 innings of work- most of which already established college players.

Bryant University has only played four games thus far in 2020, taking on Dayton and UNC- Wilmington this past weekend in Wilmington, North Carolina. They are back in action against Georgia St. this upcoming weekend and will continue to play on the road to start the year, returning home for the first time on Wednesday, March 18 to play Hartford University. The soon-to-be Gull is one of three freshman pitchers for the Bulldogs this season and should see some time on the mound as the season progresses.

In addition to bringing his own successes with him to Newport, he brings with him a winning pedigree as his father, Dana LeVangie is a three-time World Series Champion with the Boston Red Sox. Dana was the bullpen catcher for the Red Sox in 2004 and served as the bullpen coach in 2013 before winning a championship as the pitching coach in 2018. He is currently a scout within the Red Sox organization.

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The Newport Gulls, members of the 13-team New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL), are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded as the Rhode Island Gulls in 1998 in Cranston, R.I., before moving to Newport in 2001. In addition to recruiting, fielding, and developing a team of the nation’s top collegiate baseball athletes and attracting 50,000 fans annually to Cardines Field, the predominantly volunteer organization strives to benefit the community of Newport County via summer camps, reading programs, fundraisers, scholarships, and charitable donations – totaling over $1 million since 2001. The Gulls are six-time champions of the NECBL – the winningest franchise in league history – and were ranked as the overall No. 1 summer collegiate baseball team in the country by Perfect Game USA in 2012. 

For more information about the Newport Gulls, visit facebook.com/newportgulls, follow the Gulls on Twitter @NewportGulls or visit www.newportgulls.com.

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