Tommy Driver slaps a pitch the other way in the second inning for Upstate Academy.
By Rich Bevensee
Sam Huckans is considered a valuable utility player by his club coach but he welcomes every and any opportunity to pitch.
Which is why he didn’t flinch when Upstate Academy Blue 16U coach Randy Zielinski brought him in for relief duty with two outs and the bases loaded in a one-run game.
Huckans needed just one pitch to escape that jam, but perhaps more impressively, he was able to change gears and pitch another four scoreless innings for Upstate.
That effort, combined with an opportunistic offense, carried the ballclub from Saratoga, N.Y., to a 5-0 victory over TD Panthers Select in the Super 16 Invitational on Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“I was excited to get the opportunity but yeah, I was a little nervous,” said Huckans, a rising junior at Fonda-Fultonville High in Fonda, N.Y., who’s been playing at the varsity level since he was in eighth grade. “When there’s bases loaded I just throw strikes and get the out.”
Upstate Academy finished the weekend 3-0. Earlier in the tournament it knocked off Mission Baseball, 11-5, and U.S. 9 Prospects, 5-4.
The Panthers, who hail from Long Island, closed their weekend at 1-2. They lost to the U.S. 9 Prospects, 9-1, then beat Mission Baseball, 9-4.
The top five Super 16 Invitational clubs qualify for the Super 25 Invitational, Aug. 10-13 at The Nation.
Huckans, a 5-9 righty who started the game in right field, pitched 4⅓ scoreless innings, didn’t allow a hit, walked two and struck out two.
He said his extensive varsity experience has allowed him to face those pressure situations numerous times and build his confidence.
“I really don’t mind being in that spot,” Huckans said. “That’s what makes it fun.”
Panthers’ Brandon Navratil dives back to the bag ahead of throw to Upstate’s Tommy Driver.
Zielinski said once he decided to pull righty starter Ted Drabek, he knew he was calling on Huckans.
“What we try to teach is to stay calm and composed,” Zielinski said. “You’re entering a situation that sometimes you can’t control, but you have to control your own mindset and go with what your skill set is. Use what you built in the offseason and bring it into the game, and that usually gets a good result. We knew Sam could do that.”
Huckans entered in the top of the second inning with the bases full and two out. He threw one pitch to Panthers leadoff hitter Brandon Navratil and induced a groundout.
After the initial out, Huckans cruised through four more innings and faced just one batter over the minimum. He also got some defensive help from second baseman Carson Cook, who made two sparkling defensive plays in the top of the sixth inning.
Cook went deep behind the second base bag to backhand a grounder and throw out Ayden Walker, and two batters later he fielded a slow roller by Vin Bocabella to make a tag on Michael LaFleur and begin an inning-ending double play.
“When I went back out there for the next few innings, I got my slider moving and my fastball was hitting my spots,” Huckans said. “My slider was working today, four-seam and two-seam was good, changeup not so much. I’d say my location was very good. I’m not really a velo kind of guy but I’ve always hit my spots.”
The only hit Upstate Academy allowed was a single to Navratil to start the game. Drabek pitched the first 1⅔ scoreless innings for Upstate. He gave up just the one hit to Navratil and three walks and he struck out two.
Curtis Evans came on for Huckans and pitched a scoreless seventh.
Tristan Reynolds got the boys from Saratoga on the board in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly which scored Blake Shields, who has successfully returned from an ACL injury suffered while playing varsity football last fall for Broadalbin-Perth High in Amsterdam, N.Y.
Upstate notched two more runs in the second inning. No. 9 hitter Connor Pickett sliced a bases-loaded, opposite field single to right to drive in Jackson Larrabee, and Shields drove in Tommy Driver with a groundout for a 3-0 lead.
Pickett notched his second RBI of the game in the fourth with a sac fly to score Huckans. Larabee accounted for the final run in the sixth when his sac fly scored Charlie Venditti. Venditti led off the inning with a triple, one pitch after launching a monstrous fly ball over the netting in left field which sailed foul by just a few feet.
For the Panthers, Walker pitched five innings and allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits and no walks with five strikeouts. Cole Maag pitched the sixth and yielded one run on one hit and one walk.