Athlete of the Week: Cress is Eagles' workhorse

By Quintin Harlan

May 11, 2008 11:44 pm

— FRANKTON — Micromanagement can rear its head in all kinds of places.
In sports, nowhere is micromanagement as prevalent as when it pertains to baseball and specifically when it comes to a starting pitcher and the pitch count.
But every now and again, there’s a situation where the pitch count just has to be thrown in the trash.
Such was the case Friday in the Central Indiana Conference game between Frankton and Alexandria.
Eagles ace Nate Cress ended up going the distance, which in this case was eight innings, for a 4-2 Frankton win. The 138 pitches thrown by Cress was a total that won’t cause Cincinnati Reds skipper Dusty Baker to lose any sleep, but that’s not always the case with his colleagues.
“In the fifth, I said, ‘Nate, I don’t know how much more you’re going to go. We’re going to have to see here, because you’re throwing a lot of pitches,’ and he said ‘Coach, I’m fine. I can throw eight if I have to,’ and he did,” Frankton coach Chad Kemerly said Friday following the win.
“I’ve always been a pitcher that, once I get going, I’m OK if I don’t stop, but once I stop, I’m done,” Cress said Friday. “I guess I kind of get in a rhythm. At the beginning of the game, I always use more of my body. But as the game goes on, I keep my velocity by using less arm and more body. It’s all about getting a rhythm.”
That rhythmic method has Cress leading the area in strikeouts (71) and wins (five). The senior hurler has thrown 50.1 innings this season for Frankton and carries a 2.23 earned run average.
In the fifth inning Friday, with the pitch count climbing, the Eagles’ Steven Browning was sent to the bullpen to start loosening up.
“We didn’t want to take a chance in a close game so we had Browning warm up,” Kemerly said. “Nate just kept saying ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ We don’t do a lot with the pitch count, we just try and keep track of things. The pitchers know their bodies better than we do, and if they’re tired, they’ll tell us.”
As far as the specific number of pitches, though, not so much.
“I had no clue,” said Cress of the number of pitches he threw. “I knew about the sixth or seventh that it must’ve been getting up there. But I still felt good, so I just kept tossing. Pitching is what I’ve always been about. My philosophy is to never let it get in my head and concentrate on what I’ve got to do. Once I throw a pitch, I can’t dwell on it during the next one.”
Cress has set his individual goals for his final prep campaign at reaching triple digits in strikeouts (he recorded 13 against Alexandria) and getting his ERA below 2.00.
Then there is the matter of the Class 2A sectional that Frankton will host.
“I think people should look for us in sectionals,” Cress said. “We may not have the best record (7-10), but I don’t think people should count us out.”