I thought this would be a good place to post some articles about local athletes making good. Here's a real nice article from BA on former Minooka High School pitcher Mike Foltyniewicz. Foltyniewicz was Houston's first round selection (19 overall) in the 2010 draft. He's currently in Double A and should make his major league next season:


Mike Foltyniewicz, rhp, Astros: There were many notable moments for Foltyniewicz on Wednesday, but the most notable moment may have been when he was sent out to pitch the eighth inning.

Because he’s been pitching in a tandem-starter system for most of the year, Foltyniewicz had generally been limited to four or five innings (and 75 or so pitches) when he was starting, and even less when he was relieving. Until this month, Foltyniewicz hadn’t pitched into the sixth in a game he started.

Beginning at the end of June, Foltyniewicz was given the chance to focus on starting and his pitch limit was extended. Even with the added freedom of a roughly 100-pitch limit, until Wednesday, Foltyniewicz hadn’t gone much deeper into games. He worked six innings with 93 pitches on July 12 and struggled through only four innings in 94 pitches on July 19. But on Wednesday, Foltyniewicz put together one of the best outings of his pro career.

Foltyniewicz needed 109 pitches to hold Double-A San Antonio scoreless for eight innings. He maintained his dominating velocity throughout his start as he largely pitched off of a plus-plus fastball that he was able to work down in the zone early in counts and then elevate out of the zone in two-strike counts. He sat at 99 mph in the seventh and eighth innings. It was only the second time in his career that Foltyniewicz has worked eight innings.

The closest San Antonio came to scoring against Foltyniewicz came in the first inning as Rico Noel and Tommy Medica hit a pair of ground-ball singles. Johan Limonta followed with a line drive to center field that looked to be good for at least one run and maybe more. But Drew Muren dove to snag the sinking liner, then popped up to double off Noel at second base.

When he’s struggled, scouts have worried that Foltyniewicz’s fastball is a little too straight but when he’s getting good angle on his fastball like he was on Wednesday, that’s much less of a concern.

BA wrote up Providence HS right hander Jake Godfrey today. Godfrey struggled a bit during his junior year so it's nice to see him pitching well this summer:


East Coast Pro Day Two: Jake Godfrey Branches Out
August 2, 2013 by Clint Longenecker


SYRACUSE, N.Y.—Pitching has emerged as the early strength of the 2014 high school class and another Northern arm, Illinois righthander Jake Godfrey, showed well on Thursday.

Godfrey generated two strikeouts in a quick first inning and sat 90-93 mph with life to his fastball. The righthander from Providence Catholic, New Lenox, Ill., has a physical, sturdy build and strong lower half at 6-foot-3, 215-pounds. He showed downhill plane from a high three-quarter arm slot.

The Notre Dame commit worked ahead in the count early in his outing to set up his high-70s curveball, which showed the making of an average or better offering with good shape and depth.

“In the bullpen the curveball felt pretty good, so I went it a lot,” Godfrey said.

According to a scout who saw Godfrey earlier in the summer, his curveball has displayed good shape in prior events but had more power and tighter rotation Thursday.

“In high school you can usually throw your fastball a lot,” Godfrey said. “But I have started using it a lot more this summer because you get the showcases where the hitters are a lot better. It has definitely improved and I am more comfortable with it.”

Godfrey used his curveball more as his outing progressed and featured it earlier in the count, throwing a few first pitch breaking balls. He also showed feel for a 78-80 mph changeup.

“It is a pitch I haven’t used much in the game, but I have started to work on my changeup a ton and it has come a long way,” Godfrey said.

Godfrey felt comfortable enough with his changeup to throw it on the first pitch to a righthanded hitter. With the expanded repertoire, Godfrey is altering his pitch sequencing.

“Today coach talked to me about what pitch to throw in what count,” Godfrey said. “It has been a huge help to get the coaches input because it has helped me understand what pitch to throw in the right count.”

Godfrey, who plays travel ball for the Illinois Sparks, will be attending the Area Code Games, which begin Aug. 5 in Long Beach.

“I think he is going to be pretty good,” a scout said. “He has the ability to throw strikes with three pretty good pitches. It’s a good arsenal. He has a feel to pitch and knows how to mix well.”

A nice blurb about Libertyville catcher Evan Skoug during the East Coast Pro Day. Skoug is commited to TCU. He can absolutely mash and is improving behind the plate. He got screwed out of an invite to the Area Code Games. The 2014 class of Illinois high schoolers has a chance to be pretty darn good.


Catcher Evan Skoug, a lefthanded hitter from Libertyville (Ill.) High, crushed a pull-side home run. He has a thick, powerful body and large forearms. Using nearly no stride, Skoug produces considerable raw power. Typically an up the middle hitter in games, Skoug hit five batting practice home runs in a six swing stretch during a round of batting practice, the most of any player in a single round. He is on the preliminarily USA Baseball 18U roster that will reconvene to narrow the team in late August.

Tanner Roark just made his major league debut with the Washington Nationals. Roark is from Wilmingtion, IL and attended U of I. He was a 25th round selection by the Texas Rangers in the 2008 draft. Here is a nice article from the Washington Post:


Back in the 5,700-person town of Wilmington, Ill., about an hour south of Chicago, a group of families and friends gathered in a garage at the end of a residential cul-de-sac. They huddled around a big screen television, connected to a computer, that carried the Nationals-Braves game. And in the fifth inning, they watched the player they had all been hoping to see.

There were a handful encouraging moments, perhaps fewer, amid the gloom of Wednesday’s loss and sweep to the Braves. And among them was the major league debut of Tanner Roark, the pride of Wilmington, Ill., for one night. The bullpen door swung open in the top of the fifth inning and the team’s new right-handed reliever jogged for the first time to a major league mound to pitch in a game.

Despite the nerves, it couldn’t have been more perfect. With high socks and his long hair flopping under his red Nationals cap, Roark fired 15 pitches and notched six outs. He made a diving play to catch a popped-up sacrifice bunt attempt in and turned a double play to end the sixth. Called up only the day before, Roark not only debuted but shone.

“As soon as (Jayson Werth’s) home run went out (in the fourth), I was up in the bullpen and they came even more, you know?” Roark said. “Nerves were high. First big league debut. It was great. It’s exciting. Very nerve-wracking. All in all, I’ll take it.”

Roark, 26, was called up from Class AAA Syracuse to the Nationals to serve as a hybrid long reliever and potential spot starter, a hybrid role occupied by injured Ross Ohlendorf. So when starter Jordan Zimmermann labored over four innings and Werth tied the game, it was the ideal situation for Roark to bridge the fifth and sixth innings to the seventh.

“He threw the ball well and was very athletic,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “Made a heck of a play on that bunt.”

Roark fired 94 to 95 mile per hour fastballs in his first inning, His first pitch was a ball to Brian McCann and later got away with a high fastball, which McCann drove to center field for an out. Roark fired nine pitches in the fifth inning, inducing two groundouts with fastballs over the plate. He calmed his nerves by concentrating on only one thing, the same mindset that helped him post a 3.15 ERA in Syracuse and enjoy perhaps the best minor league season of his career.

“Look at the glove and don’t look at everything else around because I’ve never played in front of that big of a crowd,” he said. “It was the first time doing that obviously. All in all, it felt good.”

Roark coughed up a leadoff single in the sixth to B.J. Upton. But he got Andrelton Simmons to pop up a fastball that was over the plate. With Upton at first and one out, pitcher Kris Medlen tried to put down a sacrifice bunt. Instead, he popped the ball up. Roark dove for the ball on his knees and caught it about halfway to home plate. From one knee, he made a soft throw to Anthony Rendon at first to complete the double play.

“I’d like to see the replay of that because it didn’t feel as graceful as I’m sure it looked,” Roark said later, with a smile.

In the stands, Roark’s fiancee, her parents, her brother and wife watched. After the game, Roark found a flood of text messages on his cellphone from friends and family, including photos of the gathering in the garage around the big screen television back in his hometown of Wilmington, Ill.

They're young & few know their names yet, but the Jackie Robinson West LL is one game from Williamsport, PA for the LL World Series.

They're 5-0 in regional play (all against other state champs) with four wins by mercy rule & on TV again at noon on ESPN for the Great Lakes Regional title. They have two state titles under their belts, have been on the road for 17 days straight...and you can all jump on the bandwagon early

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I've been on the bandwagon since the 2nd inning tonight when I randomly found the game and kept watching because of how impressed I was. Excellent work!!!

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Wow that is really cool.

Best of luck!!!!

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

On

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Kyle Funkhouser (Oak Forest HS) was ranked the 10th best prospect in the Cape Cod League. He's one of the most competitive pitchers you're ever going to see and major league teams really missed the boat by not drafting him out of High School.

10. Kyle Funkhouser, rhp, Chatham (So., Louisville): Funkhouser went 5-1, 2.14 with 55 strikeouts in 54 innings as a midweek starter and reliever on Louisville’s loaded Omaha staff as a freshman. He posted a 21-6 strikeout-walk mark in 13 innings of relief this summer, and scouts are divided on whether he projects as a starter or a reliever. He has an electric arm, a solid delivery and a durable 6-foot-3, 205-pound build. He works comfortably in the 92-94 mph range and tops out at 97 with good downhill angle. His second pitch is a slider that can be average but must become more consistent. He’ll need to develop his changeup in order to stick as a starter.

“When he repeats, he’s almost unhittable,” Chatham coach John Schiffner said. “His mechanics are pretty good, pretty simple. He’s got a slider, and it’s legit. I know he does have a changeup, but he doesn’t need it as a closer—just reach back and let it fly.”

Mike Foltynewicz was named the 2nd best prospect in the Texas League. He could reasonably make his major league debut sometime next summer. Here is his scouting report:

2. Mike Foltynewicz, rhp, Corpus Christi (Astros)

Age: 21. B-T: R-R. Ht.: 6-4 Wt.: 200. Drafted: HS—Minooka, Ill., 2010 (1).

The 19th overall selection in the 2010 draft raised expectations last year with a 14-win, 125-strikeout season in the low Class A South Atlantic League and needed just seven appearances this year in high Class A ball to reach the Texas League. He impressed there, too, working mostly in a starter’s role. He locked horns with Padres prospect Matt Wisler in Corpus Christi’s playoff opener, allowing only one run on five hits in seven innings.

Step in and take your chances. Foltynewicz brings the heat with a triple-digits fastball that topped out near 103 mph. Of course, the righthander can command it far better when he dials it down a notch, which still pushes the speed limits at 97-98. He showed four pitches, with his secondary offerings consisting of a curveball, changeup and slider. He showed feel for a sinking change-of-pace, and it could be a weapon, as his downer curve tops out in the high 70s and his slider also has made progress.

Managers this year shook their heads at the mere mention of Foltynewicz, who built upon last season and further showed why the Astros originally signed him for $1.305 million.

Evan Skoug (Destroyer of Baseballs) (LIbertyville HS) was named the MVP of the 2013 WWBA World Championship in Jupiter. That's quite an accomplishment for the young Masher in a tournament that features the top High School players in the country.

The Reds Midwest Scout Team emerged as the undefeated champion in Pool E after out-gunning pre-tournament pool favorites Tri-State Arsenal and CBA Marucci. The Reds outscored their pool foes by a combined 32-7, blasted the favored Houston Banditos, 13-1, in the first round of the playoffs and then dusted off the Chicago Sports Association, 8-1, in the quarterfinals.

Reds 2014 catcher Evan Skoug from Libertyville, Ill., was named the tournament Most Valuable Player in a rare instance when the award didn’t go to a player from one of the two finalists. Skoug, a Texas Christian recruit ranked 311th nationally, was 7-for-11 (.636) with a double, home run, six RBI and eight runs scored. He was also walked eight times and hit by a pitch, good for a .800 on-base percentage (20 plate appearances) and a 1.800 OPS to help the Reds reach the tournament’s final four.

“I was honored to be down here with all these great baseball players,” Skoug said after accepting the award. “To make it to the final four with my team is just fantastic and it was a great experience. We started early this fall and we wanted to come down here and make a statement and I think we showed that the kids from the Midwest can play with anyone in the country. We weren’t even supposed to make it out of our bracket, so the farther we kept going the more we just wanted to prove people wrong.”

Jim Callis wrote up Noah Burkholder (Crown Point, IN) who was absolutely dominate for the Chicago Scouts Association against Marucci Elite who fields one of the better teams in Jupiter. Burkholder (6'7") is a 2015 and committed to Louisville.


One of the best pitching matchups of the tournament pitted Marucci Elite's Keith Weisenberg (Osceola High, Seminole, Fla.) against Chicago Scouts Association's Noah Burkholder (Crown Point, Ind., High).

Burkholder won't be Draft-eligible until 2015, but he outpitched Weisenberg on Saturday. He showed good body control for a 17-year-old who stands 6-foot-7. The right-hander threw 44 of his 71 pitches for strikes and issued just two walks in five shutout innings of what ended up being a 4-0 victory.

Burkholder's fastball parked at 87-89 mph for all five innings, topping out at 91 mph and elicting swings and misses with its sinking life. Six of his eight strikeouts came via his heater, which should add velocity as he fills out his 190-pound frame. The Louisville recruit also threw some tight 77-82 mph sliders.

Noah Burkholder inherits his height from his father Brett, who's 6-foot-10. The elder Burkholder played basketball for Ray Meyer at DePaul and was drafted by the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks.

Weisenberg, a right-hander who's committed to Stanford, also has a projectable frame at 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds. His loose arm delivered 91-95 mph fastballs in the first inning and still pumped 89-91 mph heat in his fourth and final frame. His fastball has sinking action, as does his changeup, which was a bit firm in the mid-80s. He threw 13 changeups and just two sliders.

Weisenberg filled the strike zone with 46 of his 70 pitches, but his command wasn't as sharp as his control. He left some pitches up and gave up three runs on six hits and two walks while striking out five.

Marcucci Elite had a lineup laden with prospects, headlined by shortstop Gregory Deichmann (Brother Martin High, New Orleans). A 6-foot-2, 185-pounder, he had the lone hit against Burkholder, pulling a double inside the first-base bag in the fifth.

Deichmann has a quick left-handed bat and solid speed, and he may have the arm and range to stay at shortstop. The Louisiana State recruit made a nice play on a grounder up the middle in the top of the third.

Another nice article on Evan Skoug this time by Nathan Rode. There is little doubt Skoug's bat will play at the next level but I'm not sure he'll be able to stay at catcher. He's not terribly athletic and his arm is fringy. His best position will be the batters box.


Back in June, C Evan Skoug (Libertyville HS, IL) hit a grand slam that propelled his team into the 4-A state championship. While Libertyville ultimately lost to Mount Carmel, the grand slam capped a big season for Skoug. However, it turned out to be just the beginning.

After finishing second and receiving all-state honors, Skoug traveled to North Carolina to participate in the Tournament of Stars. He went 4-for-12 with four singles and then homered at the East Coast Professional Showcase in August. He finished off the showcase season with an MVP performance for the Reds Midwest Scout Team at the World Wood Bat Championship in Jupiter, FL, at the end of October. The summer before a prospect’s senior year is typically a whirlwind, but Skoug was locked in the whole time.

“It was pretty hectic,” Skoug said. “I was traveling way more than I have in the past. When I went out there, I just tried to compete and make a name for myself. I ended up doing better than people thought I was going to do and even better than I thought. I just didn't over think it. I just let it happen.

“I hit really well this year, in the spring and the summer. I was pretty hot all year. I was working hard all winter and it finally paid off for me.”

Skoug went 7-for-11 in seven games in Jupiter with a double, home run, six RBIs and eight runs scored as he helped the Reds reach the semi-finals. Skoug did well to take advantage of pitches to hit when they came. Only four of his plate appearances resulted in an out as he walked eight times and was hit by a pitch once.

“I just went down there and played like I had nothing to lose,” Skoug said. “I guess everything just fell into line for me. I was locked in. I was seeing the ball. I was walking a lot and just making sure I was hitting my pitch. Everything was clicking for me.”

Skoug said the biggest improvement he made over the summer was in his approach at the plate. Facing some of the country’s top pitchers is a challenge hitters face on the showcase circuit, but Skoug learned to put aside who was on the mound and control his nerves.

The grand slam Skoug hit in June was part of an exciting spring as well. Just before the playoffs started, he announced his verbal commitment to Texas Christian. Living north of Chicago, Skoug wanted to go to a school with warmer weather and found a fit with the Horned Frogs.

“I was looking around and I knew Alex Young at TCU so I texted him and asked him to put in a good word for me,” Skoug said. “They came and watched me play a little bit and liked what they saw.”

Knowing a familiar face at TCU will be helpful for Skoug. He is currently the only player in TCU’s recruiting class that isn’t from Texas, but he doesn’t feel like he’s getting out of his comfort zone.

“I went down to campus last spring and walked around, saw a game,” he said. “It didn't feel too different. It felt like home to me. I'm ready for change. I like a little bit of change and TCU is that place.”

Libertyville graduated several seniors, but after the Wildcats’ surprising run to the state championship, they expect to be in the thick of it again in 2014.

“We have a pretty good core coming back, Skoug said. “We lost some seniors, but have a pretty talented group of underclassmen. We expect to be right back where we were last year.”

With Skoug in the middle of the lineup, Libertyville is certainly a team to watch, but after his big performances in 2013, he might see fewer pitches near the strike zone—let alone in it.

Pardon my ignorance but how are these guys playing long tournaments in other states while still in high school?

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Peculiar isn't it?

_________________
Elections have consequences.

Most Fall League tournaments are on the weekends but Jupiter stretches from Thursday to Monday because it's the biggest tournament of the year in both size and importance. With the incredible amount of Pro Scouts and College Recruiters in attendance it's more than worth it for the players to take a couple days off school to attend.

It matters what you consider worth. I'm not necessarily in the camp that believes a 1/4 scholarship to a school whose pamphlet I would immediately discard if I received it unsolicited or a lottery ticket whose most likely prize is a below minimum wage job for a few years is worth more than being in school for the final semester potential colleges will be reviewing records.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Not sure if you're familiar with the cost of college these days but 1/4 scholarship is a lot of money and could be the difference between a kid going to a top school (who are heavily represtented) or one whose pamphlet you wouldn't use to blow your nose.

As for the lottery ticket are you going to tell your Son he can't chase his dream? No one said he can't go to college after his baseball career is over and that minimum wage job would be easier to accept with a nice chunk of change in the bank.

by top school you mean top baseball school. I didn't look at the top 25 last year. I imagine 80% are schools whose pamphlets would immediately find the garbage.

Nice chunk of change? What do you think the average minor league player is making?

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Minor leaguers aren't paid a lot but they get significant signing bonuses. Obviously the top picks get millions but even a low round pick can get $100,000 and up. That's a nice way for an 18 year old kid to start off adulthood.

Here is BA's final top 25. There are some really good school's on there.

1. UCLA
2. Mississippi State
3. North Carolina
4. Oregon State
5. Louisiana State
6. North Carolina State
7. Indiana
8. Louisville
9. Vanderbilt
10. Cal State Fullerton
11. Virginia
12. Florida State
13. Kansas State
14. South Carolina
15. Oklahoma
16. Rice
17. Oregon
18. Arkansas
19. Virginia Tech
20. Florida Atlantic
21. Austin Peay State
22. Arizona State
23. San Diego
24. Oklahoma State
25. Troy

St. Ignatius playing for the state championship in soccer Saturday. The school is becoming an athletic powerhouse after winning the state championship in swimming.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

No one cares who wins te state championship in exercising.

BA article on Nick Burdi.

Louisville Fireballer Burdi Made Right Turn To Mound
February 4, 2014 by Jody Demling


Nick Burdi had a tough decision to make when he was heading into his junior year at Downers Grove (Ill.) South High School.

He was on track to be the star quarterback at the high school, following in the footsteps of his brother Drew, who had held the same position and went on to play football at Western Michigan.

“I would have been the quarterback, playing football with all of my friends,” Burdi said. “And that was a big deal around my town.”

But Burdi had other ideas. He quit football, opting to focus on baseball. He went to the football coaches and turned in his helmet.

“I knew if I wanted to get to the highest level, I had to focus all of my training and all of my time on baseball,” he said. “I knew where I wanted to go.”

Four years later, Burdi smiles when asked if he made the right decision: “It has turned out pretty good for me.”

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Louisville junior has turned into one of the hardest-throwing and best relievers in college baseball. The righthander had 16 saves for the Cardinals last season and hit 100 mph several times during the season.

“It’s all pretty surreal,” Burdi said. “I think about it all the time: What if I would have decided something else? I’ve been pretty blessed in my life.”

Burdi had a 0.76 ERA last season with 62 strikeouts in 36 innings. He allowed just 25 hits and help opponents to a .192 average. He ranked as the No. 12 player on Baseball America’s college draft prospects list this winter.

“It’s been fun watching him develop as a superstar,” Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell said. “He is one of the hardest-working kids we’ve ever seen. Nick has kept working and working and working, and he’s in a pretty good place. But we’ve told him this year he’s going to be challenged. This time last year, nobody knew who Nick Burdi was. The great challenge is, how does anyone perform when the expectations are so high?”

Burdi said his goal from the time he gave up football was to make a name for himself in the baseball world. His fastball velocity steadily climbed through his high school career, and he was a 24th-round pick by the Twins in 2011. He opted for college and said he didn’t come close to signing because “of all the things I would have missed out on.”

Burdi picked Louisville because of Phil Wunderlich, a Cardinals alum also from Downers Grove. But early on, Burdi had to wonder if it was a good fit.

As a freshman, McDonnell said Burdi “overdid it a bit” and ended up with a foot injury and several other nagging injuries. He finished 1-2, 5.56 in 13 appearances.

“The game was tough on him as a freshman,” McDonnell said. “But you could just tell from the moment he stepped on campus, he wanted to be great. It was all about how would he respond after that tough freshman year.”

McDonnell and pitching coach Roger Williams said Burdi worked harder than he had previously but also learned how to take care of his arm heading into last season, and the work paid off.

Burdi helped the Cardinals to a 51-14 overall record and their second appearance in the College World Series while finishing with the second-lowest ERA in school history.

“I achieved a lot of stuff last year,” said Burdi, who said he has worked even harder this winter because of the expectations.
Burdi said he’s not worried about hitting 100 or boosting his draft stock and that his only goal is to break the school’s all-time saves mark (19, held by Neil Holland, 2008-10) and to get the Cardinals back to Omaha.

“He’s improved so much,” McDonnell said. “And it’s more than just the velocity. If he threw 105 and the ball went off the wall, he wouldn’t feel so good about it. But for him as the velocity made a jump, the results started to improve also. Fortunately for him, those two things went hand-in-hand.”

In addition to his explosive fastball, Burdi also features a slider at 92-93 mph. Williams said the goal this year is for him to have more quick innings and use his changeup more often.

“Everybody loves it when you see him trot to the mound,” Williams said. “He thrives in the fact that he has a really good arm and is blessed that he can throw harder than the average guy. But he also understands what made him a better pitcher last year is that he harnessed his stuff.

“It’s a common term—the sky is really the limit for him. You just do not find that type of ability at the college level. If he can be consistent with what he does and take care of what he does and be durable, I am excited to see what he can do this year.”
Burdi chuckled when asked what might be different, or better, this season, saying he feels stronger, will have better command and will use that changeup more.

“I think it will be interesting for people to see some of the new stuff that I have been working on,” Burdi said. “About all I can say; it’s going to be good.”

BA article on Kyle Schwarber and Sam Travis

Bash Brothers Pair Gives Indiana Identity
February 5, 2014 by Dustin Dopirak

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—Kyle Schwarber wanted dessert. Tracy Smith demanded a 460-foot home run in return.

Indiana was scheduled to follow a practice during its first ever College World Series run last spring with a team dinner at Janko’s Little Zagreb, one of the most highly-regarded—and most expensive—steakhouses in Bloomington. The Hoosiers would be eating on a budget, but Schwarber, Indiana’s barrel-chested All-America catcher, still put in a request during batting practice to the manager to order cheesecake after the meal.

Smith told him he could only do that if he hit the next pitch not only over the right-field wall, but also over the two black metal fences on the knoll beyond that wall that separate Indiana’s newly built Bart Kaufman Field from the Hoosiers’ softball complex.

So Smith threw, the lefthanded Schwarber swung, and the ball cleared the fence by 20 feet.

“That just wowed everybody,” said Casey Smith, Tracy’s son and senior left fielder. “It was unbelievable.”

But for Schwarber, not uncommon. Those sort of moonshots happen when the nation’s top returning home run hitter and projected first-round draft pick gets an opportunity to tee off in batting practice. His power is such that in that setting, he can display it on demand. In another BP session last season around the same time, Schwarber hit five straight home runs, starting with a blast to left field and moving his way with each subsequent homer from left-center over to right, calling his shot just before contact each time.

The ball leaves Bart Kaufman Field just as frequently when Sam Travis is up, just from the other side of the plate. The batting practice legends of Schwarber’s “Bash Brother” and fellow preseason All-American aren’t quite as Ruthian, but his consistency is nearly as impressive.

“During BP one time, he had 18 swings and I think he hit 15 home runs,” said Indiana’s former shortstop and captain Michael Basil. “I haven’t seen anyone hit that many out in one round. The power that (Travis and Schwarber) have and the consistency they operate with, I had never seen before.”

In this era of college baseball, there aren’t many other places to see it. Power has been a less valued commodity since the NCAA switched to BBCOR bats in 2011. That was underscored in June when a small-ball UCLA team that hit a combined .250 and slugged .329 with just 19 home runs on the season won the national championship.

But Schwarber, Travis and the Hoosiers proved last season that power still matters. Schwarber hit 18 home runs, Travis blasted 10 despite playing most of the season with a broken and now surgically repaired hamate bone in his left wrist, and Indiana became the surprise of the 2013 college baseball season. The Hoosiers had won just one NCAA Tournament game in their history through 2012, but last year became the first Big Ten team since Michigan in 1984 to reach the College World Series.

With Schwarber and Travis returning as arguably the most fearsome 1-2 punch in the nation and the heart of one of the most dangerous lineups in Division I, the Hoosiers have every reason to believe they can do it again.

“That team they had last year was a special team,” said Illinois coach Dan Hartleb. “But with the players they have coming back, that team is going to be tough and it’s going to be able to compete at a national level.”

If it does, Tracy Smith will have even more reason than he already does to feel both validated and lucky.

Gap To Gap Philosophy

Year One of the BBCOR Era hit Indiana as hard as any program. The Hoosiers were thinking Big Ten championship in 2011 because they returned 2010 Big Ten player of the year and conference triple crown winner Alex Dickerson and most of the rest of the lineup that had set a school record the previous season with 85 home runs in a 28-27 season. They had also replenished a pitching staff that had been gutted by the draft in 2009 following the Hoosiers’ Big Ten championship that year.

But Indiana didn’t even reach the conference tournament, let alone win it, finishing seventh in the Big Ten with a 30-25 overall mark and an 11-13 conference record.

It was evident to Smith then that the game had changed with the new bats and the Hoosiers hadn’t been prepared for how drastic it would be. They still led the Big Ten in home runs that season, but the rest of their numbers plummeted at an even greater rate than they had nationwide. They had too many flyball hitters who were home run or bust.

But Smith also decided it would be foolish to over-adjust and abandon power altogether, living on bunts, steals and manufactured runs in hopes that his pitching staff could mass-produce shutouts. He decided the answer was to look for gap-to-gap power, hitters who could consistently drive the ball for extra-base hits and run into the occasional homer.

“That’s how I’ve redefined power at the college level is, are you fearful he can hit a gap or hit a double?” Smith said. “We preach the gap-to-gap philosophy here. I want guys that come to the plate that put fear in the other dugout . . . I want to field a team that the guy in the other dugout (is always thinking), ‘If I make a mistake, this guy can hurt me.’ ”

Top to bottom, that’s the lineup he’s built. For as much attention as Schwarber (.366/.647/.456 last season) and Travis (.316/.545/.419) get as home run hitters, they’re just as good at hitting for average and driving the gaps. The rest of the lineup is filled with doubles guys such as all-Big Ten picks Dustin DeMuth and Scott Donley. The Hoosiers finished sixth in the nation in doubles last season with 134, and that was the highest they finished nationally in any category. They also finished 12th in the nation in runs with 434, which was 98 more than any other team in the Big Ten.

“There’s not any easy outs in that entire lineup,” Michigan coach Eric Bakich said. “They’re all good hitters, too. They’re not just marginal hitters who have good power. They’re advanced hitters who also have power.”

The Hoosiers still bunt and steal and don’t necessarily play for the three-run bomb. But Tracy Smith found a mid-point between staying the course and a total lineup overhaul that worked.

“Across the nation, people panicked,” Casey Smith said. “‘Oh no, we gotta get speed guys, defensive guys. Let’s change the way the game is. It’s all about pitching now.’ He never strayed away from what he believed in. I think that’s what’s gotten us where we are. He finds these power hitters coming out of nowhere.”

Finding those hitters, though, required some luck.

“I’m Here to see the Catcher”

Smith often tells the story of a Schwarber non-believer he encountered on the recruiting trail. At one of the catcher’s games at Middletown High School in southwestern Ohio, Smith ran into a fellow college coach he won’t name who was recruiting a catcher—whom he also won’t name—from Middletown’s opponent.

“He said, ‘Who are you here to see?’ I said, ‘I’m here to see the catcher,’ ” Smith said. “He says to me, ‘Who, such and such?’ I said, ‘No, I’m here to see the kid from Middletown. Schwarber.’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s the wrong catcher.’ And Schwarber proceeds to hit three home runs that game off a quality lefthander, a moon-ball, just ridiculous. I was searching like crazy to try to find that guy in the seventh inning. He had already left. Wrong catcher? I think we were on the right one.”

What Smith doesn’t always point out, though, is that Smith had never watched Schwarber before that game, either. Fred Nori, whom Smith recently hired as an assistant coach on an interim basis this season, is a long-time advisor of Smith’s and a former coach at Middletown who was still living in the area when Schwarber got to school. It took two years for Smith to hear enough Paul Bunyan-esque stories from Nori to finally go see Schwarber hit.

But on the drive home from that game, Smith called Schwarber and offered him a scholarship. The Hoosiers didn’t have to beat many teams to get him, as Schwarber was getting as much if not more attention from Mid-American Conference football teams who wanted him to play middle linebacker.

“I was that sure when I saw him one time,” Smith said.

He barely saw Sam Travis at all, and if his then-assistant Ty Neal—now the head coach at Cincinnati—hadn’t wanted him bad enough, Smith might have never had him in the program.

Like Schwarber, Travis was under-recruited at Providence Catholic in Orland Park, Ill. He was sifting through offers at mid-major schools and settled on Central Michigan. He sent e-mails to the other schools that had been recruiting him including Indiana, even though the Hoosiers hadn’t gotten around to offering a scholarship, to say that he was going to commit to the Chippewas at the end of the week.

Neal wasn’t ready to surrender.

“He e-mailed me and said, ‘You’re a scholarship guy for us. We want you to come down and take a visit. We’ll give you a scholarship offer,’ ” Travis said. “The next day I came in to visit Indiana and I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

Travis committed, and the Hoosiers found out before Travis had even arrived that they’d made the right call by making the push for him. After originally beating out Central Michigan, they had to keep him away from the Cincinnati Reds. Travis had what he called a “surreal” senior season at Providence Catholic, hitting .504 with 17 home runs and 75 RBIs to lead his team to the Class 4A state title game, and the Reds took him in the 40th round of the 2011 draft. The Reds made an over-the-top offer to sign him too, Travis said, but he kept faith that the money would be there if he went to Indiana and succeeded.

“In the back of my mind, I really wanted to go to school,” Travis said. “Get an education, be in the atmosphere of college baseball. I knew I ultimately wasn’t ready to go.”

But he was ready to combine with Schwarber to lead Indiana to places the program had barely even dreamed of going.

Fearless

The Bash Brothers aren’t as similar as might be expected at first glance. They might both look like they emerged from the same cave, club in hand, with the singular purpose of pulverizing baseballs, but they contrast in very significant ways.

Schwarber is the more cerebral of the two, which comes from being a catcher and understanding what it means to put together a game plan for that hitter.

Travis is more intense and instinctual, and his understanding of the game is ingrained to the point that he doesn’t actually think about it in games. He’s known for an excellent approach and he almost never swings at bad pitches, but if you ask him for his hitting philosophy, he’ll respond by saying “I try to hit the white thing and break it into pieces.”

“You look at Sam and Kyle and you associate them to be the same person,” Casey Smith said. “But if you ask anybody on our team, they are the complete opposite person. They’re great friends, and they both work hard, but you have the big, soft, giant in Schwarber. People think he’s mean. That’s the nicest guy on our team, hands down. He’s the sweetheart, the big teddy bear. Sam is the mean, gritty guy, and that’s his game. That works for him.”

But the ties that bind the Bash Brothers are the presence of power and the absence of both arrogance and fear.

Part of what makes Schwarber and Travis so valuable not only on the field for Indiana but the clubhouse as well is that they don’t consider themselves above anything. They are dirt dogs on the field, beasts in the weight room, and they accept the occasional manual labor task without complaint. Even though both stand to be selected in the top 200 of June’s draft at worst and both have at least six-figure signing bonuses coming in the not-too-distant future, they’ve remained focused primarily on team goals.

“They’re our hardest workers,” Tracy Smith said. “When you’re being told you’re going to be this, you’re going to be that, you’re going to make this much money, some guys get a little bit of an ego. These guys, they don’t have it. They don’t think they’re too good to clean up the locker room if you ask. A couple of weeks ago, we’re out here picking up dirt and leaves on the turf, and these guys are right there with it. I think that’s helped our program, even the leadership component of that. If Schwarber and Travis are doing it, I guess we can do it too.”

But just as importantly, they don’t believe they’re below anyone either, and that has been evident since they arrived. Lightly recruited as they may have been, there is no blue-chip pitcher that they fear.

“When you step into that batter’s box, you can’t think about anything,” Schwarber said. “You’re really just locked into that moment. You’re thinking you’re 10 times better than this pitcher, and there’s no way he’s going to get me out.”

Said Travis: “We never show any signs of weakness.”

And they don’t want their teammates showing any either. That’s why at the end of the summer of 2012 after Schwarber and Travis returned from starring and playing against each other in the championship series of the Cape Cod League, they gathered the rest of the Hoosiers to explain to them that they were every bit as talented as anyone else in college baseball.

“Travis said, ‘Me and Schwarber, we’ve played with all of these guys, the best players in the nation,’ ” Casey Smith said. “‘But they’re not the best players in the nation. We’re just as good. We’re gonna do this this year.’ It was one of those touching moments, now that you look back on it. Everything they said ended up coming true.”

Indeed, the Hoosiers put together a list of 10 team goals with one that appeared to be a serious long shot, and the only ones they missed out on were a pair of team statistical goals—a .310 team batting average and .970 fielding percentage. A win in their series against Florida, two wins in the regular season against Louisville, a top 25 ranking for most of the spring, an NCAA Tournament bid, a Big Ten championship and even a trip to Omaha came to pass.

This year the Hoosiers were asked for their individual and team goals. Travis only listed one goal in each column: a national championship.

He and his Bash Brother have instilled in his teammates the same belief.

“The way that they were able to convey that,” Casey Smith said. “‘We are the best players in the nation. You’re on our team, we can beat anybody.’ . . . We’ll never say an opponent is better than us. I don’t care who they are.”

Because with Schwarber and Travis in the lineup, they have no one to fear.

Eric Steinbach and Dave Diehl are both now retired.


Pretty crazy two guys from the same year and same side of one city both end up being stand out Offensive lineman in the NFL