AU Notebook: Castle Gets the Call Against Chico State
May 29, 2006

Ashland will start senior righthander Cody Castle in Tuesday night’s game against Chico State. Castle is 6-2 with a 5.40 ERA. He’s coming off one of his best starts of the year. At the North Central Regional Tournament at Grand Valley State, he beat Grand Valley, 7-3. In that game, he went 7.1 innings and allowed two runs on five hits. He walked three and whiffed three.

“Really, his last two starts have been very good,” pointed out AU head coach John Schaly.

Castle’s final regular season start resulted in a 4-2 loss at Donges Field to Grand Valley State. That’s two strong outings against a team that was ranked third in the country and first in the region at the end of the regular season. In both games, Castle had great command.

“Good fastball, great location,” reported pitching coach Drew Patton about Castle’s last start. “That’s the best thing, his location. It’s true we had a good scouting report on them, but you still have to execute. With guys coming back off of Tommy John surgery, sometimes they don’t have their control. He does.”

Castle’s story is well known at this point. He missed all of last season due to arm surgery. As a junior in 2004, he was 9-4 with 79 strikeouts in 103.1 innings. He was first team All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and second team all-region.

On Tuesday, Castle will pitch against a team he’s never seen. That brings back an old baseball argument – who has the upper hand when it comes to making a first impression – a pitcher or the hitters. Castle knew everything there was to know about GVSU. Patton’s done so many scouting reports on the Lakers that he jokes about knowing their players better than Ashland’s.

“This (vs. Chico State) is the kind of game I strive for,” Castle said. “Scouting reports are nice, but I just want to go out and pitch the way I know I can. Sometimes, scouting reports can be too in depth, you don’t pitch to your strengths, you pitch to their weaknesses. There’s no feeling like pitching to a good team. It brings out the best in you.”

Castle’s best is his popping fastball. He’s a power pitcher and that won’t change on Tuesday.

“I won’t change what he does,” Patton promised. “He’s more of a power guy. Everybody has to change speeds at this level, that’s the key for everybody. But we’re not going to go away from Cody’s strength.”

Everything’s coming back to normal,” added Castle. “I feel strong and my endurance is back up. My fastball is coming back to life. It’s close to what it was before.”

AU’s Casey Jirsa and David Waters are from the Ron Hunt-Eddie Stanky School of Baseball. Both have no problem taking a pitch for the team.

Jirsa’s been plunked 14 times (fourth highest single-season total in AU history) and Waters has met the baseball up close and personal on 12 occasions. That’s pretty impressive, until you compare those figures with the numbers posted by Montevallo.

Montevallo, which beat West Chester in one of Saturday’s first-round games, has a team total of 125 hit by pitch (Ashland’s is 64). The Falcons feature five players who have been hit 10 or more times. The real Black and Blue Award goes to J.D. Pruitt, who’s been nailed 22 times. Travis Fultz has been tagged on 18 occasions.

By the way, when Pruitt and Fultz swing the bat they do pretty well. Pruitt is hitting .340 and Fultz is at .350.

This isn’t the first time the Eagles have run into a bunch like this. In 2002, the Eagles won their first game in Montgomery over Delta State, another team with a higher than normal hit-by-pitch count. It’s probably no coincidence that both teams play in the Gulf South Conference.

Sunday night, the All-America committee of the National Baseball Coaches of America huddled here in Montgomery to come up with their All-America teams. AU second baseman Justin Randall is an automatic pick because he’s the region’s player of the year. What has to be decided is if he’s a first or second team selection.

The junior made a good case for being on the first team as he went 3-for-5 with three RBI against Franklin Pierce.

Jirsa was also under consideration for All-America laurels. A first team All-GLIAC and all-region performer, he went 0-for-4 on Sunday.

The AU players and coaches didn’t pick a favorite in Sunday’s game between Chico State and Emporia State, but a Chico win did help in one respect. Emporia State starter Gabe Medina was 13-1 and tied with AU’s Josh Davidson for the most wins in the country. Medina was the loser in Sunday’s game while Davidson posted his 14th triumph earlier in the day against Franklin Pierce.

Counting Sunday’s win, Ashland is 21-0 this season when scoring 10 or more runs…the Eagles are 18-1 on a neutral field…AU didn’t have any errors against Franklin Pierce and is 14-2 when it doesn’t commit a fielding miscue.