Mario Samuel had doubts about the status of his playing career.
But the 23-year-old left-hander never totally gave up.
And his perseverance has resulted in a so-far successful stint with the RailCats.
Samuel, a 2013 graduate of Bolingbrook who lives in Aurora, Ill., had gone 1-0 in three games since signing on Aug. 13. In 2 1/3 innings entering Thursday night’s doubleheader at the Steel Yard against Fargo-Moorhead, he had not allowed a run with six strikeouts and no walks.
“It’s my mental aspect,” Samuel said. “It’s staying with my mechanics and not letting anything get to me — crowd, noise, runners on base, who’s at the plate.
“It’s just relying on the stuff I know — get down on the mound, use my legs, use my hips, finish out front. It’s just focusing on letting my ball do the work and living with the results. It’s not getting caught up with who’s at the plate, the setting — it’s still baseball, what I’ve been doing since the age of 5 and pitching since the age of 13.”
It appeared his pitching career might be over after completing his senior season at Wisconsin Parkside in 2017, when he went 3-5 with a 4.78 ERA and a team-high 67 strikeouts in a team-high 11 starts.
Samuel, who was the Great Lakes Valley Conference Freshman of the Year in 2014, had several tryouts but nothing materialized.
“I hung it up for a second,” Samuel said.
He went back to Wisconsin and was an assistant coach for a high school team in Kenosha. In February, the Hammond Lakers of the Chicago Suburban Baseball League, who had seen Samuel at a tryout, reached out to him.
“They said, ‘If you still want to chase it, we can put you in front of the right people and we can try again,’” Samuel said. “I was second-guessing, but I got back into it.”
In June, Samuel moved back home to Illinois. He had a workout with the RailCats.
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“The stuff was good, but it wasn’t as sharp as someone who’s been pitching,” manager Greg Tagert said.
So to build up his innings, Samuel pitched for the Lakers. He posted a 2.40 ERA in eight starts with 50 strikeouts in 45 innings. After that performance, he earned another opportunity with the RailCats, throwing a bullpen session earlier this month.
“Mario showed more polish that day,” Tagert said. “When we had an opening, we brought him over.
“It’s been a limited role to this point, but he’s gotten some big outs. I don’t know exactly how good he is yet, but he’s done a wonderful job in the role we’ve asked him. His stuff is good, he has a breaking ball to get a swing-and-miss from left-handed hitters. He’s been a good one so far.”
Samuel hopes to keep progressing.
“It’s been cool, but it’s the everyday grind,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in short steps, small steps. You take those, you get to where you want to go.”