DELAND — The Stetson Hatters have the best pitching staff in the country.
Logan Gilbert leads the nation with 157 strikeouts and was drafted 14th overall in Monday’s MLB Draft. Jack Perkins sits at 11-2 and is coming off a near shutout of Oklahoma State in Sunday’s regional final. Brooks Wilson is 6-0 and leads the country with 20 saves, and Joey Gonzalez has the best ERA on the team (1.75).
Enough about the Stetson hurlers, though. It’s time to meet the man behind, or in his case, in front of this dominant group of pitchers: catcher Austin Hale.
“To me, it’s the most important position on the field,” said head coach Steve Trimper. “I’ve always said it’s the hardest position to play. Any good team is going to have a good, stable defensive catcher. It’s the one position that I don’t care what you hit. You could hit .060. If you’re a good defensive guy, you’re going to play.”
Trimper doesn’t have to worry about his catcher not hitting — Hale is well above the Mendoza line right now at .235 — and his defense, and durability, were among the best in the conference.
The senior has played in all but two games this spring, and started in 52 of Stetson’s 59 contests. Hale has thrown out 14 of 29 runners, and committed just four errors in 76 chances. In last Saturday’s win over Oklahoma State, the senior made arguably the play of the year when he went diving against the backstop, headfirst, for a foul ball to end an inning.
“I turned the wrong way,” he laughed. “Then I turned back around and saw it in the air. I made a catch like that two years ago, and it was the same feeling. I was just like, 'OK, I’m going to stick my hand out and hope the ball goes in.'”
Perhaps Hale’s biggest, and most important, contribution to the Hatters is his ability to call a pitch, something the senior admits he hasn’t always been good at.
“Freshman year, I’ll never forget it, one of the pitchers came up to me and was brutally honest and just said I need to work more on it,” Hale remembered. “I really focused on it that summer, and then when we came back in the fall we just had a lot of discussions about it. Really, I think a lot of it is just confidence.”
A lot of that confidence came in the form of pitching coach Dave Therneau, who came to Stetson during the fall of Hale’s sophomore year.
“I’ve always believed that the wrong pitch, with conviction, carries more weight than the right pitch without conviction,” Therneau said. “I’m not saying they get it right all the time, and when they get it wrong we talk about it. Over the course of the last three years, obviously it’s gotten a lot better. Turning it over to the catcher is also huge for the pace of play, and I think pitchers execute pitches at a better rate if they do it with good timing.
"Austin is a smart kid. When I first came over here I spent a lot of time talking to him about what to look for, and he’s really done a great job.”
Perkins said Hale’s blocking, along with his arm and ability to call a game, make him the complete package.
“You know you can throw whatever, in any count, and he’s going to stop it,” he added. “Having that assurance is wonderful. I don’t think any school in the country has the confidence that we do in him.”
With potentially three crucial games looming this weekend in North Carolina, that confidence can go a long way.
“We always joke about what percentage of the pitchers’ success is my success,” Hale laughed. “But for the most part, it’s been easy. They execute a lot of the pitches that I call, and when you have such a good pitching staff, calling those pitches is a lot easier.”