Courtesy of GoValiants.com

With the calendar turning to February and the baseball season on the horizon, Manhattanville senior Dan Fiorito (Yonkers, N.Y./Fordham Prep) received some impressive preseason accolades heading into the year this week as Baseball America named him the #3 top prospect in Division III for the upcoming 2012 Major League Baseball Draft.

According to Baseball America, Fiorito is behind only behind Max Beatty of Pacific Lutheran and Kevin Heller of Amherst on the list of top-10 draft prospects in Division III and ahead of several players from D-III powers such as Chapman, Kean and SUNY Cortland.

As a junior, Fiorito earned his second straight All-Freedom Conference first-team selection despite making the difficult transition from center field to third base. He hit .349 with four homers, a team-leading 31 runs batted in, and a .987 OPS in 34 games in his second season with the Valiants in 2011, posting team-highs in extra-base hits (13) and multi-RBI games (eight).

In two years with the team, the 2010 D3baseball.com All-American has hit .389 with nine home runs, 65 runs scored and 72 RBIs in 75 career games. He also boasts a .583 slugging percentage and a .466 on-base percentage in a Valiant uniform, while also posting a 4-2 record with 25 strikeouts in 37.1 innings on the hill for Manhattanville.