Clarke's versatile Tyler Cox earns prestigious Nassau Diamond Award

The connection of bat and ball has always been the thing that stirred Tyler Cox. The Clarke senior considers hitting his point of pride and calls "hitting a home run" his favorite thing to do on a baseball diamond. This strength is probably the biggest reason that West Virginia earned his commitment back in the fall of 2019.

The 2021 high school season however brought Cox some new on-field experiences. He was asked to become the No. 1 starting pitcher for a Rams team with high expectations. And it turned out he had more than a knack for that, too.

In fact, the 6-foot Cox morphed into such a lethal weapon for Clarke that this week he earned the prestigious Diamond Award from the Nassau County Baseball Coaches Association as the top player in the county.

Cox is the third Clarke player to win the Diamond Award and first since Mike Appel in 2006.

"It was a season to remember even before getting a prestigious award like this," Cox said Tuesday. "I will be proud of this for a long time. It’s the kind of thing that a player will tell his kids about."

"In my 23 seasons, Tyler is the best player to wear our uniform," Rams coach Tom Abruscato said. "To have a player who does everything well — the big things and the little things — is [a rarity] and a pleasure."

At the plate, Cox put up some staggering numbers despite often being pitched around. In 20 games for Clarke (16-4), he batted .604, had an on-base percentage of .750 and posted an eye-popping 2.167 OPS. Of his 29 hits, 17 went for extra bases including nine home runs. He also walked 26 times. Hitting out of the 2, 3 or 4 holes in the batting order, he scored 42 runs and drove in 37.

In his new role as the staff’s ace — big shoes to fill after Brendan Turton pitched the Rams to the 2019 county title — he was equally outstanding. He was 9-2 and pitched 41 innings to a 0.68 ERA. He gave up 19 hits and 16 walks while amassing 74 strikeouts.

Cox concedes that he was a little intimidated about taking on a new pitching role after acting as the team’s closer during his sophomore season. But he also understood that after the 2020 season got wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic "someone was going to have to do it and if the coaches felt I gave us the best chance to win the county, I was willing."

He and Turton are close friends and Turton "believed that I would be good in that role and he shared a lot of advice that made a stressful responsibility easier to deal with."

Clarke came up one win short of Island Trees for the 2021 Nassau V county title.

There were other moments where Cox’s versatility also made him invaluable.

When the season began, he would play centerfield on the days he did not pitch. However, a couple weeks into the campaign, Abruscato thought the team would benefit from Cox playing an infield position and ceding centerfield to Stony Brook commit Matt DeStefano. Depending on which other pitcher got the ball, he would play third base or shortstop.

"This was a kid who was like ‘whatever we need, coach’ and you love to see that from your best player," Abruscato said. "When your best player will do anything for the team, it has a carryover to the rest of the players."

The 180-pound Cox, who throws righthanded and hits lefthanded, put himself in a position to earn the scholarship from West Virginia. He had offers and interest from Saint Joseph’s (Pa.), Hofstra and Bryant but decided to go to a 2019 camp at West Virginia. He performed so well that the Big 12 school offered him the scholarship on the spot.

"I thought the school seemed great and I loved the level of competition they were playing," Cox said. "The other thing was that I liked the idea of getting away from home and how, maybe, that would keep me focused on playing at the highest level I could."

Even though an entire season was lost to COVID-19, Cox believes that his time in the Clarke program with Abruscato makes him ideally ready to step up to major college baseball.

"Coach Abruscato demands a lot, but does it in a good way," he said. "I feel like his program is as close to being run like a college program as a high school team can be. If you can perform to his expectations, you’re ready to take the next step."

Cox performed to those expectations and beyond in 2021. There is no reason to think he’s not ready to play for the Mountaineers.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.