Loaded Stangs ready to rumble: Mustang baseball has all the tools to make a run at state

As solid as the Redmond High baseball program has looked in the past, the 2011 Mustangs are shaping up to have a banner year on the diamond. At the helm of the club will be six returning seniors, with three of them – Dylan Davis, Zach Abbruzza and Michael Conforto – already having committed to playing Division I ball next year.

As solid as the Redmond High baseball program has looked in the past, the 2011 Mustangs are shaping up to have a banner year on the diamond.

At the helm of the club will be six returning seniors, with three of them – Dylan Davis, Zach Abbruzza and Michael Conforto – already having committed to playing Division I ball next year.

With so much experience and talent in their starting lineup, the Mustangs, who are ranked No. 1 in the state and in the top 50 nationally by the Powerade FAB 50 ESPN RISE rankings, are coming into the season brimming with high hopes.

“It’s hard not to be confident when you have the individual talent that we have,” admitted head coach Dan Pudwill. “Similar to last year, we need to make sure, as a team, we gel and come together. We need to learn how to win those close, one-run baseball games when the pressure’s on.”

FIRE POWER

When opposing pitchers face the Mustangs, they will have their work cut out for them.

Leading the way for Redmond will be the dangerous duo of Davis and Conforto, who have been consistently at the top of of the league home run standings since they were sophomores.

“Michael’s got lights-out power, but we’ve got to figure out where to hit him in the lineup,” said Pudwill, adding that Conforto may bat cleanup or even lead off. “Dylan is a scary hitter… hopefully he can capture that magic in the bottle again.”

Davis put on a show during the Mustangs’ 11-1 rout over Mount Si on Monday, belting two home runs and a double for five RBIs.

The Oregon State-bound senior, who pitched a shutout inning at the AFLAC Baseball Classic last summer at PETCO Park in San Diego, will be one of two aces up the Mustangs’ sleeve. The other is Abbruzza, headed to Gonzaga, who shut down opposing lineups last year with a 1.24 ERA and was a big-time contributor at the plate, often helping his own cause.

“For Zach to do again what he did last year, that was something else,” Pudwill remarked. “We hope for Dylan to continue to do what he did, be a workhorse, log innings and shut people down. Our offense is such that, we’re going to score a few runs for our pitchers.”

The Mustangs’ depth on the mound will be most crucial in the Kingco Tournament and eventually at state, when teams have to play games on consecutive days.

“I’m sure our 1-2 punch is just as good as anyone’s in the state,” Pudwill said. “If you’re going to go deep in the playoffs, the one thing I learned is that you gotta have those two pitchers.”

Rounding out the team’s seniors are third-year returner T.J. Whidby, who will patrol the middle infield with Conforto and provides a solid bat and arm in relief, along with Jake Levin and Colin McBride.

Levin, at 6-5 and 220, is always a threat to go yard, and McBride looks to make his mark behind the plate after the graduation of Ryan Beliel last spring.

Playing in a small park like Hartman, which measures 300 down the lines and just 350 to center field, Pudwill said he expects some lopsided outcomes during league play, but cautions that his players need to work on driving the ball and not try for pop flies that might clear the fence.

“I’d be surprised if we did not put up crooked numbers, for sure, but we just need to make sure guys stay within themselves and don’t try to do too much,” he explained. “The problem with (Hartman Park) is that guys try to lift the ball to get a cheap home run, but when we go to another park, we’re getting a lot of pop flies.”

Redmond senior starter Zach Abbruzza pitched lights-out last year for the Mustangs, compiling seven wins and a 1.24 ERA, which ranks second-best in recorded school history.

LAST STAND

In talking with the team’s upperclassmen, it’s apparent that the stakes are much higher this year after last season’s disappointment, when the Mustangs lost a 6-5 heartbreaker to Federal Way, falling just short of Safeco Field and the state semifinals.

“It means so much more, your final high school season,” Davis said. “You don’t really know where the road’s going to go from here. You never know if you’re going to see the juniors or sophomores again, or what’s going to happen.”

Having come up through the program for three seasons, the seniors also showed maturity, realizing that their high ranking does not privilege them to a state title, or even a playoff berth.

“We talked about not having that sense of entitlement… we still have to earn it,” Conforto said. “Physically, we have all the tools. This year, we should focus on the mental part a lot more.”

Added Abbruzza, “We can’t really look past anybody. Teams that we definitely didn’t expect to beat us, beat us.”

As far as getting over the postseason hump and onto the grandest of all baseball stages this May, Pudwill said that his focus will be to provide his players with simulated pressure environments, so they will be better prepared when it counts.

“(It’s about) getting our guys used to, and tested in, pressure moments – and succeeding as much as possible before we match up with the real thing late in the season,” Pudwill described. “It’s a bounce here, a bounce there, a ball in or not in the glove that was the difference for us last year.”

But for the team’s seniors taking the field, they will be sure to enjoy and savor every last moment they have playing together, “ever since Little League,” according to Whidby.

“We’ve set our expectations high,” Davis noted. “We don’t want to lose a game. We don’t know how realistic that is, but that’s one of the goals. Go out hard all the time, and we might even be 27-0 hopefully.”

Abbruzza concluded, “There’s a lot more riding on it this year.”