Varsity pitcher competes for national roster spot

COURTESY+AUSTIN+NYE

COURTESY AUSTIN NYE

JACKSON HOOKER, SPORTS EDITOR

USA Baseball selected varsity baseball player Austin Nye to compete for a position on the 44-man 15U National Team Trials roster. Nye will have steep competition as he is going up against 43 other top 15 year olds in the country.

All 44 Athletes will arrive in Cary, North Carolina on August 27th for trials, a series of drills such as bullpen sessions, a pitching session where pitchers throw off a mound to a catcher. Followed by field workouts and baserunning drills. All before participating in a Five game Stars vs. Stripes series from August 28-September 2. The final roster for the 15U National Team will be announced on September 2, following the conclusion of the 5 game series.

Nye will be competing for the roster as a pitcher where he will be up against 24 other potential pitchers. 

“I was super excited for the opportunity to try and earn a spot for the 15U national team,” Nye said, “I’m expecting it to be hard and it’s going to be a great experience.”

Last year Nye posted an ERA of 1.5 in 28 innings with Roseville and he added 53 strikeouts with his fastball seeing speeds of 89 mph peaks, putting him in the 99 percentile for his age group. On the Tournament side Nye has been on five All Tournament Teams including one 17U Team and has been named “Most Valuable Pitcher” two times.

“It’ll be fun to work hard and grind out for a spot on team USA,” Nye said.

 Nye’s days will be extremely long in Cary, especially on game day as he will start early with a team meeting around 10:30 where they will watch recordings of past games as well as future technique to work on. Then by 1:30 team practices will begin.

 Pitchers, such as Nye, will throw bullpens and work on their mechanics. During that outfielders will work on footwork and getting around the ball. Infielders will do a series of drills such as rundowns. 

Once all the practice has commenced its time to get ready for the game with stretching and batting practice. Games will begin at around 6:10 pm and once the game ends it’s time for team dinner then a recovery session. The athletes will go to sleep and get ready to do it all over again the next day. Nye has a lot of hard work ahead of him to make the final team and he will eat, sleep, and live baseball over the entire week he is in Cary, North Carolina.

“Austin’s work ethic, in short, is purposeful,” Aidan Chang, Nye’s former catcher, said, “Everything he does is at max effort and with a lot of heart. His attitude and approach at practice is all business and this is why he’s successful.” 

Chang is excited to see how Nye does at the USA National team tryouts because the work he puts in will show why he deserves to be out there. Nye’s position on the team, if any, will be solidified after the conclusion of the five game series on September 2.