Even before the baseball season, the hype was there.
Eastern Greene’s new baseball coach, Auston Matricardi, kept hearing about this talented freshman and the difference maker he could be, but he was not showing up at winter workouts because he was now starting for the boys basketball team.
That after the transfer from Bedford had come in and earned the starting quarterback job. Was this Saxton Pennycuff kid for real?
“Some of the kids kept telling me, Saxton’s playing basketball, Saxton’s coming. Saxton can do this. Saxton can do that,” Matricardi said. “I kept hearing about him but we didn’t really see him until a couple weeks before the season started. And from the first practice, ‘Oh, Saxton is coming.’ He’s here now. He is such a gifted kid and works so hard and has a good attitude.
“He plays the game in a very fun, carefree way. And that kind of allows him to where, it’s one of those things, where he’s so young, he hasn’t had the thought of, ‘Maybe he can’t yet.’ So, he does. He just goes out and takes advantage of all his opportunities because he hasn’t given them a second thought.”
Through 19 games, Pennycuff leads the team in hitting (.532), RBIs (17), runs (25), stolen bases (13), doubles (13), triples (3) and has the team’s only home run. His pitching line is 0-1 with a 2.80 ERA, 37 strikeouts to 13 walks and eight hit batters while giving up 26 hits over 30 innings.
Pennycuff usually starts at shortstop when he’s not pitching, but versatile and fundamentally sound enough to play several spots. He even offered to fill in as the catcher during a JV game.
“I wanted to be whatever coach wanted me to be,” Pennycuff said. “If he wanted me to be an outfielder, I’ll be an outfielder. Whatever he wanted, I was capable of doing.”
He was one less thing for Matricardi to worry about in the rebuilding process.
“That’s huge for us because when we come to the ballpark, we have no questions about Saxton,” Matricardi said. “I can put him in the lineup card wherever we need him and we’re set. With a team that lost eight of its nine starters, to have a freshman come in and cement himself in the starting lineup, that’s huge for us.”
Three-sport standout
Coming in and establishing himself has been the hallmark of Pennycuff’s first year at Eastern Greene.
He comes from a family of athletes, many of whom were standouts in the Stars’ programs. Pennycuff said he started baseball when he was 5 and his arm made it a natural fit to pick up a football soon after and start tossing it around, too. A few years later, he added basketball to the mix.
“It runs in the family,” Pennycuff said.
Pennycuff was one of the top players for the 2023 Bedford U12 Little League All-Stars who won the first state title in program history and played in the regional at Whitestown, going 1-2. Pennycuff tossed a two-hitter in a win over the team from Michigan.
Coming to Eastern last summer, however, he was starting all over. The T-Birds did not have a returning starter at quarterback and Shawn Nikirk was taking over as head coach, so it was a fresh start for everyone.
Pennycuff earned the job and completed 97-of-209 passes for 1,335 yards, nine touchdowns and 23 interceptions.
“In my opinion, coming over here, it was a lot of pressure,” Pennycuff said. “Because we had a lot of new kids, I played them in middle school ball, but coming over here was kind of stressful. But everyone welcomed me in.”
Eastern went 1-8 in the regular season, but won its sectional opener over South Decatur, 34-20. Pennycuff threw for 201 yards with no turnovers.
“Football, when I started it was rough,” Pennycuff said. “But progressively, it got better over time once I got used to it. Starting out the season, I was very nervous because the seniors had to rely on me a lot with Zach Herndon and Bryson Jones being receivers.”
Then it off to basketball. As a guard, the 6-footer averaged 4.6 points and 3.0 rebounds per game with 23 assists and 19 steals for a team with no seniors.
“I didn’t start until mid-season,” Pennycuff said. “I had to work myself up and show the coach I was ready to play varsity. It was a lot of grind in practice with the older kids in practice. Lot of work.”
And all of it prepared him for a running start when baseball season began.
‘Saxton is coming’
In the end, baseball is where Pennycuff sees his future.
He started off on his PlayStation and then took to the real thing. His dad and other family members pushed him toward the sport.
“I’ve been telling my parents I want to specialize in baseball because I know my potential if I keep working,” Pennycuff said. “But playing other sports help me a lot. Basketball keeps me in shape for baseball; football gets my arm stronger to throw a baseball harder.
“But basically, I wanted to play baseball. It came to me super easy. It’s a game of mindset. You can’t go in there thinking you’re going to win every game. There’s going to be teams that are really good, some are not. You just go in with a mindset of doing your best.”
He’s maturing as a pitcher. He has a fastball, curve, slider and changeup and understands how to adjust when some of his stuff just isn’t working on a given day.
“He’s been fantastic on the mound but can get better and better,” Matricardi said. “He’s still a skinny kid as a freshman, so as a staff, we’re so excited to see where he can go from here. He already has a varsity fastball and has breaking stuff that plays.”
The most exciting part for Matricardi (and for Nikirk and basketball coach Jamie Hudson) is knowing that Pennycuff is only going to get bigger, faster, stronger and better with three more years to develop.
“Football and basketball have been huge for him,” Matricardi said. “Just because he’s been competing at this level. Coming up from middle school, he’s also a big travel ball guy. He plays for Canes, so he’s not here just to get used to it. He never had that deer in the headlight look.
“He’s had his downs and ups, but this is his third season of being a varsity starter, and that’s helped him ride the wave better.”
Hanging 10 on the wave
Mentally, it’s been a wild ride for Pennycuff in dealing with the aftermath of failure and success.
“Basically, coaches always told me to keep my head up,” he said. “The players were always there for me. If I had one bad game (in football), everyone was there telling me to keep my head up. And at sectional time, we had all this hype and we won our first game.”
Pennycuff isn’t alone in needing picked up every so often. Teaching a young team to become more emotionally invested in each other and bond as a team is a part of the process that Matricardi is always harping on. But Pennycuff’s varsity experience has hastened the callouses he needs to shake off bad moments.
“That gave him tools that he needed when he comes out here, too,” Matricardi said. “We need guys who won’t get rattled. He doesn’t fear adversity.”
“I feel like I’ve grown a lot,” Pennycuff added. “Coming from middle school, I was a kid who didn’t take stuff that serious in other sports besides baseball.
“It came to high school, I said, ‘I’ve got to start taking everything serious.’ And that’s when everything started kicking in.”
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Baseball feats just the latest for 3-sport freshman star at Eastern Greene
Reporting by Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
