All-Region Pitcher Eric Santaella Returns To Nighthawks

By Thaddeus Sawyer

The postseason awards have been flooding in this month for Pace University starter Eric Santaella, who will be rejoining the Upper Valley rotation this summer for a second season with the Nighthawks.

One of the best Division II pitchers on the East Coast in 2026, the right-hander earned a spot on the Division II Conference Commissioners Association’s All-East Region Second Team after making 11 starts in 12 appearances and posting a 2.77 ERA across 65 innings. He struck out nearly four batters for every walk.

“It feels really good to be honest,” Santaella said. “I also feel like I could have done better throughout the year, so I know there's still room to get better and improve. That's just my goal this summer, to grind and get better.”

The sophomore was also named to the Northeast 10 Conference’s First Team and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s All-East Region Second Team.

Those honors came just a year after Santaella was the best freshman thrower in the Southwest Division of the NE10, being named the division’s Rookie Pitcher of the Year after making 18 relief appearances to the tune of a 1.51 ERA in 2025 with a perfect 4-0 record.

Despite the dominance, it wasn’t always a certainty that Santaella would end up on the mound. A two-way player in high school, the former shortstop holds the single-season hits record for Arlington High School in LaGrangeville, New York, according to his player bio on the Pace University website.

He even took nine at-bats as a freshman, notching a pair of hits with a double and an RBI. Ultimately, though, it seems that Santaella has found a home on the hill.

“I’m just doing whatever the team needs me to do to win,” Santaella said. “

We didn’t really need infielders at the time. We needed some arms, so I stepped up, got a few innings under my belt and rode it out.”

Even if he’s no longer spending his time on the infield dirt, Santaella said that he still tries to maintain the mindset of an infielder.

“I try to stay athletic as possible,” Santaella said. “On the mound, I try to make every play that I can make. If it's a soft ground ball, a bunt down the line or a pop-up that I think might be a tough play for the catcher, I try to stay athletic, stay in my old infield ways and just go make a play.”

Santaella, who will be turning 20 later this summer, said that he learned a great deal from older players on the Nighthawks roster last summer that later helped him excel on the mound for the Setters this past spring.

“The guys really helped me out with tips and stuff to make me better,” Santaella said. “I was one of the youngest guys on the squad last summer, so just taking what they got for me, what they learned from their D1 schools, and just putting that into my game.” 

Though he learned a lot from his teammates, Santaella said that he believes he can hang with the best that the NECBL has to offer.

“I think I can compete with the best guys in the NECBL to be honest,” Santaella said. “I'm not scared of anyone. It's my best against your best. If you happen to beat me, tip my cap, but I'm not going to be scared of any guy out there. It's just me against them.”

The results from last summer back that up.

Before battling an illness that sent him home before the end of July and missing most of the month, only playing a few road games closer to his home state of New York, Santaella made the most of his time with the Nighthawks. In addition to taking 67 at-bats and reaching base at a .395 clip, Santaella took the mound twice in July and tossed a combined six innings with a 3.00 ERA.

His best outing came on July 29 against the Danbury Westerners. Serving as the bulk reliever, Santaella tossed 4 ⅓ innings of one-run baseball and struck out five batters, keeping the Nighthawks in a game that eventually went down as a 9-6 loss.

Though he departed the team before the start of the NECBL playoffs last August, Santaella hopes to be pitching big innings for the Nighthawks by the time the calendar flips to August.

“I think this year, our goal is to win it all of course and just get better as much as possible,” Santaella said. “I think with most of the guys returning, I think we're pretty confident that we could get there again.”