TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Schuster, Dixie Shine Among Stars

ADVERTISEMENT

By CRISTINA LEDRA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 24, 2008

In his assessment, Patrick Schuster's team hogged all the talent at the USA Baseball Tournament of Stars presented by Major League Baseball in Cary, N.C., last weekend and no one could argue as he and his Dixie teammates went 5-0 to win the championship.

In one start and one relief appearance, the Mitchell senior lefty pitched six innings total and allowed just one hit, striking out 13 of 20.

The invitation-only tournament is used as part of the selection process for the national 18-U baseball team. The other teams in the tournament represented youth baseball organizations PONY, NABF, American Legion, AABC, Babe Ruth, USA Stars and RBI and featured elite players from across the country, including Hillsborough High's Marlon Mitchell.

Schuster started Friday's 3-2 win against American Legion and was told by Dixie's coaches that he had a 45-pitch limit. That got him through three shutout innings but not without a scare about midway through his outing.

Schuster threw a change-up down the middle of the plate and the American Legion batter hit a liner right back at him that hit him in the pitching hand.

"It hit my hand going about 95 miles an hour," Schuster said. "Everybody in the stands freaked out and I was standing there shaking my hand like crazy but it ended up being OK."

He pitched another inning after that and finished the outing with six strikeouts from nine batters faced, allowing no hits.

Schuster pitched again on Sunday in the championship game, a 3-2 win over NABF, earning the save by pitching the final three innings. He allowed one hit off 11 batters faced and struck out seven.

Schuster said he knew most of his teammates and he believes that contributed to the team's success in the tournament. Of the 18 members of the team, nine were from Florida and the others came from Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

While in Cary, Schuster and all of the players in the tournament stayed with host families. Schuster roomed with teammate Ronnie Richardson from Lake Region High with a local family that had two young sons.

The McDonald family took the boys out to an arcade and the team's host parents arranged for the players to have dinner on top of the Blue Monster, the 32-foot-tall left-field wall at the Durham Bulls' stadium, similar to the Green Monster in Boston's Fenway Park, before catching a Bulls game.

"It's really a great thing for the town of Cary," Schuster said. "It shows how dedicated and motivated the city of Cary is to baseball and the USA. It was a really great experience."

Because of his performance over the weekend he was one of the players chosen for the next phase of the USA Baseball 18-U team selection process. The next tournament is in Phoenix and a group of 18 will be selected from that to represent the United States in the International Baseball Federation's AAA World Junior Championships July 25-Aug. 3 in Edmonton, Alberta.

But because of prior commitments to the East Coast Professional Baseball Showcase at Tigertown in Lakeland at the beginning of August, Schuster declined the invitation. He is also hoping for an invitation to the Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic in California. That selection process took him to Minnesota the weekend before the Tournament of Stars.

With college offers from Florida, North Florida and Texas Christian, Schuster is still trying to get as much exposure as possible and said he hasn't even had time to figure out if he wants to accept any of those offers.

"I'm used to busy summers, though," Schuster said.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT