More than a year after making his verbal commitment, Newburgh Free Academy senior Jake Lanzer made it official.

The Goldbacks’ left-handed starting pitcher on Wednesday, signed his National Letter of Intent to pitch for the Division I St. John’s University Red Storm, starting in the spring of 2023.

“It’s a great feeling,” Lanzer said. “I’m definitely glad that I’ve been given this opportunity. St. John’s is a great school for me, a great fit academically, highly competitive baseball. It’s just what I was looking for. I just feel really confident in the coaching staff there, everybody around to support me and going there. I just feel it’s a really good fit for me and that I’m going to excel there.”

The Red Storm are coached by Mike Hampton, who was appointed as the program’s coach on Jan. 9, 2020, after spending 18 years as the program’s recruit coordinator. Hampton has recruited nine Major Leaguers, including John Jay High School graduate Joe Panik, most recently an infielder with the Miami Marlins.

Lanzer has also been in close contact with St. John’s pitching coach George Brown, a former Big East Coach of the Year for the Red Storm.

“We talk about mechanics a lot,” Lanzer said. “I sent him video and he’ll shoot me a text message back about what I could be doing better and suggest little tweaks in my mechanics”

He spoke with Hampton when he made a visit about two months ago and they discussed his academics and some of the steps that have to be taken before he attends the school.

Lanzer committed to the Red Storm after his sophomore year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and just months after his sophomore varsity season was canceled.

In the 16 months since he gave St. John’s his verbal commitment, he’s worked hard on the mental aspect of his game and has focused more on how to improve his pitching skill as opposed to merely lighting up a radar gun.

“One of the things I told Jake that this part of his game would come as he matured,” Newburgh baseball coach Scott Seabury said. “Jake’s a competitor. He’s a bulldog and he wants to win. There are times when he was younger that it did affect him negatively. Now, he turns it into a positive thing.”

The Goldbacks came into what would have been the 2020 season with four strong arms as Lanzer would have joined Lucas Prokosch, Jake Danyluk and Scott Scheppy. Prokosch and Danyluk graduated without throwing another pitch for the Goldbacks in what the team was hoping would have been a Section 9 Class AA contender.

However, in the COVID-altered 2021 season, Scheppy and Lanzer remained to lead the team to the sectional championship.

“When I came in freshman year, those were the guys that I really looked up to, and I really feel that they helped me progress my game,” Lanzer said.

Now, Scheppy is gone, as well, leaving Lanzer to usher in the new age of Newburgh’s pitchers, especially as the Goldbacks, as the defending champions, have the bullseye on their backs as they try to hold off the field in their attempt to repeat, and move onto the state tournament.

“Jake is going to be a leader this year, and he knows that,” Seabury said. “He’s going to be our No. 1 guy and he’s going to take over that role that Scheppy had, even though I think Jake could have done that last year, also. But Jake knows there’s going to be expectations and he’s going to go out there and be his normal self.”

And whatever happens during the upcoming spring season, Lanzer can pitch knowing his future baseball plans are secure as he moves toward his transition to Division I college baseball.

“Going into that school, knowing the ability level of those players is definitely something I’m looking forward to,” Lanzer said. “As well as pushing myself competing out there in the field and trying to prove why I can be on that field.”