Carmen Fusco Pro Baseball and Softball Academy provides an unparalleled opportunity for players to develop and maximize their potential. Individual instruction is tailored to the players' needs with the purpose of developing their mental and physical skills.
Training takes place in a professional, competitive learning environment with qualified instructors. The challenge for the player is to bring a confident and aggressive attitude, along with a solid work ethic.
Carmen Fusco
Carmen Fusco is the founder of the Carmen Fusco Pro Baseball Softball Academy in New Cumberland, PA.Coach Fusco has over 40 years of experience in baseball as a coach and player scout. He began as a coach for Austin Peay State University in 1975, moving to Middle Tennessee State in 1976.
While coaching at the college level, Carmen also worked as a scout for three major league teams; the San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, and St. Louis Cardinals. In 1980, he earned the position of regional supervisor for the New York Mets where he had a
In 1990, Carmen moved to work with the San Diego Padres as the Special Assistant to the General Manager. In 1993, Carmen returned to the Mets as their Special Assistant to the General Manager. He then became the Director of Pro Scouting in 1994. The team added Assistant General Manager to Carmen's scouting duties in 1995. During this same time, 1995-2002, Carmen also consulted with the Chiba Lotte Mariners, a Japanese Major League team.
Carmen second ring came in 2000 after winning the National League Championship while serving as the Assistant General Manager for the Mets. He left the Met in 2005 after spending a year as their Assistant General Manager/Director of Scouting Development to open the Carmen Fusco Pro Baseball Softball Academy.
While operating the Academy, Carmen was also scouting players for the Milwaukee Brewers and Montreal Expos, which became the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season In 2008, he left the day-to-day of the Academy to serve as Director of Professional Scouting for the Seattle Mariners until the end of the 2010 season. Since then, Carmen has returned to the Academy and served as a Special Assignment Scout with the San Diego Padres.
Lisa Santone Baker
Since 2017 Lisa has been the Owner and Operator of the Carmen Fusco Pro Baseball Softball Academy. In addition to running the facility Lisa gives all the softball pitching lessons and works the camps and clinics. Lisa grew up in Philadelphia where she started playing softball at the age of 4 for the Crispin Gardens recreational league and by the age of 7 began taking private fastpitch pitching lessons from William Gerstadt.
She attended Maternity BVM Grade School where she played on the softball team and then moved on to Archbishop Ryan High School. At 13 years of age while in high school, Lisa began playing for the Philadelphia Spirit, a travel tournament softball team. The team traveled up and down the east coast from Canada to Florida playing softball.
Throughout high school, in between playing on three softball teams, Lisa found time to give back to her grade school and to coach the team. At this time she also began giving fastpitch pitching lessons with her mentor, William Gerstadt.
From 1997-2001, Lisa attended Dickinson College and was recruited as the starting pitcher on the softball team. During her
- Best ERA, Season – 0.68
- Most Strikeouts, Game – 14
- Best Strikeouts per 7 Innings Pitched – 7.68
- Lowest Hits Per 7 Innings Pitched – 3.84
Some of the team records for the 1997 season include:
- Best Team ERA
- Lowest opponent’s batting average
- Lowest walks per 7 innings ratio
- Lowest hits per 7 innings ratio
While at Dickinson College, in 2000 Lisa was one of fourteen in the nation selected to play for USA Athletes International. She spent two weeks traveling through Belgium and Holland playing softball. The competition included local teams to the best competition of the Belgium National team.
In 2006 Lisa was one of sixteen selected to play for World Sport International. This time she spent three weeks traveling through Germany, Belgium, Holland, France and England playing softball.
Lisa has coached every level of softball from college, high school, tournament
Christopher Abner
Christopher was born in Hamilton, Ohio and grew up in Mechanicsburg, PA where he attended Mechanicsburg Area High School from 1983-1986. While in high school he was an All-star 2nd basemen for Upper Allen and selected to participate in the Pennsylvania American Legion East West classic in both 1985 and 1986.
Christopher played at Georgia Southern University 1987-1990 under legendary coach Jack Stallings who won 1,258 career games, which was the most in D1 at the time of his retirement in 1999. Stalling was also the Head Coach for the US Olympic team (1984) and Assistant Coach (1988 and 1992).
Some of Chris’s accomplishments while in college include
- All Trans American Athletic Conference selection in 1989 while hitting .326.
- Topped league in hits with 79 and stolen bases 39 which broke the single season record for Georgia Southern University.
- 2nd in runs scored with 53.
- Earned TAAC All-Tournament honors hitting .353 with 3 stolen bases in 3 games
- Played Centerfield going errorless with 119 PO and 3 assists
In Chris’s senior season at Georgia Southern in 1990 they went to the College World Series for only the 2nd time in school history.
https://news.georgiasouthern.edu/magazine/2010/03/19/dream-season/
They had won regionals beating Wichita State (winner of 1989 CWS), South Alabama twice and UCLA. Chris hit .333 going 8-24 in 5 games with 4 SB's.
He had the game winning hit vs South Alabama in regional championship game.
During the college World Series Chris hit .333. He ended season hitting .301 with 29 SB's and 59 runs scored.
Christopher has more than 20 years-experience coaching AAU and Little League Teams.
Chris also hails from a great baseball family as his brothers Ben and Shawn were both drafted in 1984. Shawn went #1 overall to the Mets and Ben went in the 5th round to the Montreal Expos.
Hunter Breon
Born in Newport, NC but raised in Boiling Springs, PA. Started playing baseball at age 5 and continued through college. 3 sport athlete at Boiling Springs HS (baseball, basketball and football), graduated in 2016. Attended and graduated from Penn State - Altoona with a Bachelors of Science degree in Kinesiology-Exercise Science. While competing in baseball as a 5 year starter, taking courses directed around exercise and specific body movements really helped me learn more about baseball. I wanted to focus on the proper and most efficient ways to move on the baseball field. After graduation I worked with the Phillies Baseball Academy instructing young baseball athletes on fundamentals and game-like scenarios.
Baseball Experience:
High School Records;
- Season Average .438
- Career Average .361
- Season Hits 28
- Career Hits 84
- Season Doubles 7
- Career Doubles 13
- Career Runs 44
- Career Walks 25
- Season Stolen Bases 17
- Career Stolen Bases 33
2016 All-Sentinel MVP
Travel Baseball;
- GoWags Baseball for 5 years
- MidPenn Panthers for 1 year
- Harrisburg RBI Baseball for 2 years
College Baseball;
2021: *Statistics not updated*
*2020: Played in and started eight games as a senior with the Penn State Altoona baseball program…hit .182 (4-for-22) with four walks, two runs scored, one double, one run batted in, and one stolen base…posted a .933 fielding percentage while recording 14 putouts, 14 assists, and three double plays turned.
*2020 season was cut short after nine games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2019: Played in 44 of Penn State Altoona's 45 games in his junior campaign with the team, starting all 44 of them...in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, ranked second in stolen bases (19), sixth in hits (54) and sacrifice hits (6), eighth in runs scored (42) and walks (25), 13th in runs batted in (35) and sacrifice flies (3), 14th in total bases (72), 17th in batting average (.344), 18th in home runs (3), 20th in doubles (9), 23rd in on-base percentage (.430), and 28th in slugging percentage (.459)...among AMCC fielders, ranked second in assists (114) and 15th in double plays turned (14)...made one appearance on the mound, pitching a scoreless 1/3 inning and recording a save.
2018: Was a third team All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference selection after his second season with the Penn State Altoona baseball program...played in all 38 games as a sophomore, starting all of them...batted .313 (42-for-134) with 36 runs scored, 29 runs batted in, 17 walks, 11 doubles, and two triples...tied for the team lead in triples while finishing tied for second on the squad in RBI and sacrifice bunts (3), third in hits and walks, tied for third in runs scored, and fifth in doubles and total bases (57)...in the AMCC, ranked 14th in runs scored and triples, 17th in doubles, 21st in RBI, 23rd in walks, 27th in hits, and 30th in total bases...in the field, led his team in assists (90) and was second in double plays turned (20), ranking seventh and third in the AMCC in those stats...made six appearances on the mound, including starting four games...tied for the team-lead in wins, posting a 3-1 record...threw 27 1/3 innings and struck out 15 batters...during the season, took one AMCC Player of the Week award, one AMCC Pitcher of the Week honor, and one Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III South Region Player of the Week recognition.
2017: Was voted the Eastern College Athletic Conference's Division III South Region Rookie of the Year...was selected the AMCC's Newcomer of the Year while also being voted to the second team of the All-AMCC squad...named the Penn State Altoona baseball team's Most Valuable Player...was the only player on the roster to appear in all 40 games for the Lions, starting all 40 of them in his freshman campaign...in the AMCC, finished the season ranked eighth in stolen bases (10), 12th in hits (51), 16th in total bases (71), 17th in home runs (3), 19th in runs scored (30) and doubles (11), 24th in batting average (.338) and runs batted in (25), and 27th in slugging percentage (.470)...led Penn State Altoona in batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored, hits, RBI, doubles, total bases, and stolen bases...as a fielder, ranked second among all AMCC players in assists (117) and 12th in double plays turned (15)...also made six appearances on the mound, posting a 1-0 record and 3.86 earned run average while recording a team-high three saves.
Career Records
- 8th in SB% (39-44) 2017-21
- 7th in Most GP 153
- 7th in Doubles 34
- 6th in Hits 178
- 5th in Runs scored 131
- 5th in ABs 549
- 5th in Games started 153
- 5th in Ws 65
- 8th in RBIs 101
- 3rd in SB 39
- 5th in Saves 4
- 1st in Assists 389
Season Records
- 1st in SB% (100%) 19-19 in 2019
- 9th in GP 44 (2019)
- 10th in Runs Scored 42 (2019)
- 8th in ABs 157 (2019)
- 8th in Games started 44 (2019)
- 6th in Walks 25 (2019)
- 5th in SB 19 (2019)
- 5th in Saves 3 (2017)
Game Records
- 7th in Most runs scored 4 (2018)
- 8th in Most Hs 4 (2017,2017,2018,2019)
- 1st in Most Doubles 3 (2017)
- 5th in Most TB 10 (2017)
- 5th in Most Ws 3 (2021)
- 1st in Most SB 3 (2019)
- 4th in Most Assists 8 (2017,2019)