Veteran Profile - Austin Battaglia
Maryville, Mo. - Today, the B2R features Austin Battaglia. Austin enters the 2016 NCAA season as a Junior after he transferred to Northwest from Marshalltown Community College. Austin is another one of the B2R's favorite list. Great kid. Million dollar smile. He has a breaking ball that will absolutely buckle a batter's knees. In 2015, Austin pitched well enough to break into the starting rotation. His tremendous value to the team was coming into games in long relief sometimes in multiple games during a weekend series. Austin did a tremendous job of putting out fires and limiting damage so the Bearcats offense could climb back into the game. Only one other pitcher had more appearances than Battaglia in 2015 (20) and that was Carson Smith (21). Austin had the lowest ERA among regular Bearcat pitchers in 2015. Battaglia stands 6'00" and weighs 190 lbs. The Junior grew-up in Waukee, Iowa. Here is the write-up about Austin from the official website for Northwest athletics, bearcatsports.com:
Named to the MIAA Academic honor roll ... appeared in 20 games ... pitched 29.2 innings ... made one start on the year ... tallied 27 strikeouts ... had a 3.94 ERA for the year ... had a season-high six strikeouts against Quincy (March 17) ... had 12 games where he did not allow a run ... made six appearances where he did not allow a hit ... walked just 16 batters.
2015 Statistics - Austin had a 3.94 ERA, had a win/loss record of 0-3, appeared in 20 games with 1 start, worked 29.2 innings, allowed 31 hits, 13 earned runs, 16 walks, 27 strike-outs, 5 wild pitches, hit 6 batters, and committed 1 balk. Austin was lethal against right-handed batters who averaged a meager .159 batting average against him. Austin was also his best when coming into situations with runners on base where opponents batted a mere .211 against him.
B2R thoughts - Don't be surprised if Austin is your mid-week starter for Northwest. Both Austin and Nikko Pablo will challenge for the 4th starter/mid-week starter position. If Austin continues his trend of exemplary pitching performance he is going to force the coaching staff's hand to put him in a weekend starter position. The exciting thing is Austin is only a Junior and his fantastic performances will make the entire pitching staff better. Austin is a great teammate. He is thoughtful. The B2R feels he studies the batter and uses his smarts to compliment his stuff. I hope he keeps pitching in the 3's ERA and forces his way into the weekend rotation. The kid deserves it and works his butt off. One of the many great attributes about the Northwest coaching staff is they reward hard work with playing opportunities, and more playing opportunities to those that take advantage of those opportunities. Expect great things out of Austin Battaglia in 2016 and in life.
Go Cats!!
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