ELON, N.C. – Led by the charge of senior catcher Mike Melillo, who wanted to help in the Haitian relief efforts despite being confined to campus with preseason workouts, the Elon University baseball team has challenged every NCAA collegiate baseball team to donate money to the Red Cross as part of a

“Pinch Hit for Haiti” initiative. Fans are also encouraged to make a donation. The Phoenix team has spearheaded this drive to raise funds to provide to the Red Cross for relief efforts in the island nation recently ravaged by an earthquake.

After thinking about the amount of money that could be raised if every athlete gave just $1, Melillo came up with the “Pinch Hit for Haiti” concept. An attempt was made to contact every NCAA Division I, II and III program in the country on Thursday.

“The idea is to pay it forward because we’re not in a situation to physically help,” said Melillo. “We want to offer our help in any way we can. Although our donations may be small individually, we feel that collectively as student-athletes our support will be of great assistance.”

Tuesday’s 7.0 earthquake in Haiti has had an effect on nearly 3,000,000 people in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The capital city of Port-au-Prince was nearly leveled and many people are still missing. Estimates have casualties numbering in the 10s of thousands.

As programs donate money, a page on the Elon Phoenix web site will track the donations of teams and states from around the country.  A Facebook page will also be launched shortly for people to share their stories.

Donations are being made directly to the Red Cross in a variety of ways. If you would like to help out in this effort, you can donate to the Haiti Relief and Development fund at www.redcross.org. You can also donate $10 via your mobile phone by texting “Haiti” to 90999.

Individuals who donate can have their total added to that of their favorite team by e-mailing their name, amount of their donation, Red Cross tracking ID number and the name of the team they support to PinchHitforHaiti@gmail.com. The running total for schools will be updated daily through the end of February.