Two St. Mary’s stars sign letters of intent

LYNN – A pair of St. Mary?s student-athletes set to graduate in the spring signed letters of intent to attend New England colleges.Clay Yianacopolus, the left-handed ace of the Spartans baseball team will attend Assumption College in Worcester, while classmate and storied runner Tia Foglietta is set to double-dip in cross-country and track at Merrimack College in North Andover.Yianacopolus plays both baseball and hockey, but his dream has always been to play baseball at the collegiate level.”Baseball has always been my favorite sport,” Yianacopolus said. “My goal was to some day get to a school and play on a scholarship. I always worked hard to achieve it and now I have. I feel blessed and thankful.”Yianacopolus said he wanted a small school with good academics that had his major, which will be engineering, and Assumption filled the bill. Yianacopolus said he hopes to study civil engineering because it relates to real life and real-life issues.The senior southpaw said his love of baseball runs in the family His father, Glenn, was a very good baseball player and he has an uncle who played in the minor leagues.Yianacopolus, who lives in Wakefield, transferred from Boston College High to St. Mary’s after his sophomore year. He’s never regretted the decision and it factored into his college choice.”Assumption is a small school and I knew that’s what I needed in a college,” he said. “One of the reasons I came to St. Mary’s was that it’s small. I don’t feel out of place. I don’t feel like it’s too big and I wanted the same thing in a college.”Yianacopolus said one of his goals was to have his college plans in place before his final high school hockey season.”It’s a big relief to know where I’m going,” he said. “It?s good to know all the hard work has paid off.”Foglietta started off in high school pursuing the sports she grew up playing, soccer and softball. But somewhere around her sophomore year she discovered running.”She’s just a hard worker,” St. Mary’s cross-country coach Dom Finelli said. “We knew she had a lot of talent, but she put the work in, attended a summer camp (for runners) this summer and she came out for the team in great shape.”Foglietta is coming off an unbelievable season in which she was named a Catholic Central League All-Star and the St. Mary’s girls Runner of the Year.She ran the fastest time ever for a St. Mary’s girl at the Wrentham Development Center, which is home to the state division meets. She finished third at the Catholic Central League meet and broke a home course record.Foglietta will join two former St. Mary’s teammates when she gets to Merrimack – Carol DiMaiti and ZuZu Haefner, who both had stellar high school careers.Foglietta said she was also looking at Stonehill College, Assumption and Trinity College for running, but once she visited Merrimack?s campus, her choice was made.”It just felt right,” she said. “I sat in on a class. Even the food was good.”As far as running two seasons at college, Foglietta knows it will be tough.”It’s definitely going to be a big commitment,” she said. “I know I’ll have to work hard, make sacrifices and find a healthy balance between school and training.”