By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Youth baseball players attending this past Saturday’s Rochester Red Wings game were treated to pregame advice from Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy, hitting coach Brian Daubach, starting pitcher Logan Verrett and outfielder Cole Freeman.
The players and their families sat in sections 201 and 202 with rapt attention.
LeCroy espoused the values of hard work and preparation while placing an added importance on “being where your feet are,” focusing on the present situation in order to excel in any given moment.
Daubach, bat in hand, demonstrated the “ready position” he and LeCroy emphasized as a key determining factor for how an at bat will play out.
Verrett told the crowd about his personal little league experience, recalling that, believe it or not, he didn’t excel on the mound. He and his father Leo remedied that weakness by staying extra hours after practices to simply work on throwing strikes. The results—Verrett has appeared in 57 major league games and is only 31—made the right-handed starter an ideal choice to speak to the group.
Cole Freeman shared his underdog story, earning a scholarship to LSU (his dream school) and professional baseball career after standing just 5-foot-1 and weighing 97 pounds in his freshman year of high school.
The observers saw just 5.5 innings of baseball due to weather, but listening to three people with major league experience likely made up for it.
The Rochester and Lehigh Valley matchup, though one-sided through two series, features some of the most impactful batsmen in the International League. IronPigs slugger Darick Hall and Red Wings shortstop Luis García are first and second in the league in the Weighted Runs Created (WRC) stat, which measures how many runs a batter is worth to their team.
Five players from the Red Wings and IronPigs rank among the IL’s top 25 in WRC: García, Joey Meneses and Andrew Stevenson for Rochester, Hall and Nick Maton for Lehigh Valley.
Rochester still leads the IL East Division by 1.5 games with a 26-16 record. The IronPigs are third, at 23-19.
The Red Wings’ rotation in Syracuse lines up as follows: Logan Verrett on Tuesday; Jefry Rodriguez Wednesday; Sterling Sharp Thursday; Jackson Tetreault Friday; Cade Cavalli Saturday; Verrett again on Sunday.
St. Bonaventure alumnus Connor Grey is scheduled to oppose Verrett tomorrow.
Cavalli has proven to be as talented with the clippers as he is on the mound.
Gananda High School baseball coach Bill McClare told Pickin’ Splinters his outfielder Ethan Kuntz, who is also a Red Wings bat boy this season, was looking for a haircut before prom. Cavalli met Kuntz in the Penfield Wegmans parking lot after one of Gananda’s games and gave him the haircut, living up to his reputation as one of the team’s top barbers.
Frontier Field drew 21,671 fans over the last three games of the week-long series with Lehigh Valley. Rochester’s paid attendance was 14,642 from Friday to Sunday against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre two weeks prior.
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