By Don Leypoldt
October 10th- 2011 brought yet another terrific summer to the NECBL. A summer full of good baseball played by good kids. Yet as the leaves turn in New England, and Patriots and Bruins usurp the headlines usually reserved for the Red Sox, it’s easy for those 2011 memories to start to fade.
So what does happen when the NECBL boys of summer go home? Vermont Mountaineer lefty Matt Whitehouse has agreed to let us tag along with him as he heads back to Southern California, and looks forward to playing the 2012 spring season with one of the country’s marquee programs.
Whitehouse is a junior at UC-Irvine. Last spring, the Anteaters went 43-18 and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals. Whitehouse played a huge role for UCI, starting a dozen games, relieving in 11 others and posting a 2.12 ERA. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was better than 4:1.
Once the Anteaters’ season ended, the SoCal native made the 2,954 mile journey from Irvine to Montpelier, VT. As a Mountaineer, the southpaw made six starts, striking out 33 in 28 innings. He had a 1.80 ERA this summer when one start is removed.
Here is the Fall Whitehouse briefing with the affable lefty:
NECBL.com: When Vermont’s season ended, did you take any kind of break?
MW: I didn’t really want to stop throwing because I got my change-up working. That was a big thing. My coach said to not come back (to Irvine) without a change-up. But I took 2-3 weeks off just to let my arm rest. I still lifted during that time; I just wasn’t throwing. Then I came back down to Irvine and that’s when I started throwing again.
NECBL.com: When you meet with your coaches, is there any de-brief on the summer? Are there certain things that they want to find out about how your summer went?
MW: They already know the stats and how you did. I think they want to know for future years, in terms of sending guys back there. I told them how the coaches were, how the team was and how the town was. I had to tell them that I just loved Vermont. It was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with baseball. I gained about seven pounds this summer and I swear it was all of those meals before the game and after the game. It was great!
I don’t know if they’ll be sending guys to them this year, but I’m sure they’ll start sending guys back there.
It’s questions like that: How did it go? Were you comfortable with the coaching staff? I was excited to hear that (manager) John Russo is coming back to Vermont. That’s pretty cool.
NECBL.com: Was this your first time out East? You stayed around a little bit after the season and got to do some sightseeing. What did you do with your folks before you headed back to Irvine?
MW: It was fun. We stayed for another week. We ended up driving down to Boston where we saw a couple of Red Sox games and did the Freedom Trail. We went over to New York, saw New York City and stayed there for three days and two nights. Then I wanted to take my parents to Newport because I thought Newport was a really cool town. My Dad grew up in New Britain, Connecticut but most of my family is based here (in California).
NECBL.com: Shifting to baseball, how is Fall Ball going?
MW: We actually just started Fall Ball about two weeks ago and we’re kind of getting back into the swing of things. We had our first intra-squad game this past weekend on Friday and Saturday. Right now, I’m just throwing bullpens. They’re going to start stretching me out. They want to stretch me out a little earlier this year than they normally do.
We’re lifting five days a week. Last year, it was four. There was Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday while this year it is Monday through Friday every day. I got my first questionnaire from scouts to fill out and send back in – one from a National League team. Their scout was here during one of the intra-squads. That’s kind of cool, one of those new experiences.
NECBL.com: Do you have any goals for the Fall or do your coaches have any goals for the Fall?
MW: For me, it’s working on my fastball location and doing all I can to get my command and control down. And also my change-up. I want to keep working on it to the point where I can throw it any count and locate it on any count, so that I feel comfortable and confident with it. And then all of the normal stuff: getting in shape and making sure all of my other pitches are where they need to be.
NECBL.com: You said that your change-up was starting to click at the end of the summer. Is your change-up sort of a feel pitch, where you want to keep momentum with it?
MW: Yeah, for me it is. I think it’s the toughest pitch for me. I used to have a really good one, and I ended up losing it. Our coaches are huge on the change-up. Our head coach always yells “We love to change!” My freshman year, it wasn’t too good. During my sophomore year it got a little better but they rarely called it because the coaches didn’t have that much confidence in it. Now that they see it in the bullpens and they see the improvement in it, I think they have a lot more confidence in it. But it’s definitely a feel pitch and I just need to keep throwing it and throwing it – in catch play, in bullpens and in everything.
NECBL.com: Do most of your teammates load up on classes in the Fall because your Spring is going to be so hectic with baseball?
MW: I personally, and I think most of the guys on the team, try to take more units this quarter. We’re on the quarter system. We have three quarters in the school year. We try to get as many units as we can in during the Fall and Winter. That way in the Spring, when the season starts, we can kind of work our way into games as well as school, just to make it easier on us. We try to take the harder classes earlier in the year, to get them out of the way.
NECBL.com: Now that you’re an upperclassman, do you find yourself mentoring the freshmen? Are they coming to you for advice?
MW: Yes, it’s really cool. You get to college and you’re the little guy again. I’m just trying to be a leader and make sure everyone does what they have to do. I had a tough time coming in my freshman year. My first quarter was reallytough playing baseball. So I just let them know, “If you need anything whether it’s school or baseball, just let me know.”
I think we have a good group of freshman and I think they’re going to be a good addition to our team.
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There is a lot of change in the air – a change in environment from Vermont to Southern California. A change in role from underclassman to upperclassman leader. And that change-up which made Whitehouse so effective here in New England. We’ll check in with Matt around the holidays to take in a White(house) Christmas and see how he and the Anteaters are progressing. |
