Adam Galdoni is drawn to the seemingly ubiquitous analytics and statistics of baseball.
In fact, the Carmel senior’s devotion to detail helped earn him the nickname “Professor.”
“I love measurables, like numbers, spin rate, trends,” Galdoni said. “All those things give you a chance to hopefully know everything.”
But knowing too much can be, well, too much, and he has learned to scale back his analysis and let the game come to him.
With that new approach, the 6-foot-5, 210-pound Galdoni has been red-hot at the plate. He was hitting .478 with 11 extra-base hits and a 1.390 OPS through Tuesday.
“I’ve adjusted to some of what teams are doing to me, like seeing a lot of first-pitch loopy curveballs,” he said. “So I’m thinking opposite field and looking away. And if I get a fastball, I try to drive it.”
Galdoni is the ace for the Corsairs (3-8-2) too. He takes an 0-2 record with a 4.02 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 13 ? innings into his next start.
Galdoni, who will play at Butler, has a fastball that can surpass 90 mph, but experience has taught him that good hitters can catch up with velocity. That realization led him to his main takeaway from 2022: Getting ahead in the count is essential.
“When he’s on his game, he’s not just trying to throw it by people. He’s pitching,” Carmel coach Chuck Gandolfi said. “He has a nasty curveball to complement his fastball, and if he’s using them correctly, he’s hard to hit.”
Galdoni rarely misses the strike zone with his curveball, allowing him to throw it any time in the count. That keeps hitters off balance and helps keep Galdoni in command of his emotions.
“You have to learn to calm down in baseball,” he said. “Take a deep breath and don’t let anything get in your way. Hitting-wise, it’s you versus the baseball, and you versus the hitter as a pitcher.”
Schilz drills pitching: Already a good hitter, Warren’s Adam Schilz has further refined his approach in the batter’s box.
That has made the senior shortstop much more difficult for opposing pitchers to retire.
“Being good with pitch selection has gotten me into the right position to get a good pitch to hit,” Schilz said. “I’ve gotten smarter at what pitches to swing at and what to lay off.”
When the 6-3, 185-pound Schilz swings, he often gets good results. He entered Wednesday with a team-high .431 batting average, a .548 on-base percentage, 16 runs scored and 26 RBIs for the Blue Devils (14-5).
“It’s a nice luxury to have, someone like him who you know will always have good at-bats,” Warren coach Clint Smothers said. “The kid can really hit.”
Schilz isn’t chasing pitches out of the zone as frequently as he did earlier in his career. Recognizing that opponents are likely to throw well off the plate in many instances has helped him.
Despite his success, however, Schilz has decided not to play in college. He is planning to study engineering at Iowa.
“The times I’m going to miss the most are before the game when you’re warming up with all of your friends,” he said. “I’m just soaking it all in, having fun and not worrying too much.”
Eckrote’s excellence: Dylan Eckrote has provided the silver lining for Vernon Hills, which has lost 14 of 16 games this season.
Eckrote, a senior left-hander headed to Carroll in Wisconsin, has a 1.77 ERA, having allowed just six earned runs while striking out 28.
“Moving up from the No. 2 position, he’s exactly what we wanted him to be this year,” Vernon Hills coach Eric Levin said. “He’s the one pitching in the biggest games and running with it.”
Staff ace is a role the 6-3, 180-pound Eckrote welcomed, but he needed to get adjusted to it. By facing the toughest opponents and often their top pitcher, Eckrote needs to have his stuff working each and every outing.
That was true during his one-hit shutout against Niles West on April 13. Eckrote’s performance in the Cougars’ 1-0 win perfectly illustrated the way he alternates his change-up and curveball. The sequencing also makes his fastball appear to have more life.
“That was a fun game,” he said. “I was locating well, and I didn’t leave anything out over the plate. They had a hard time making contact because they were always early.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.