On the back of an historic home opening win for the Auckland Tuatara in the Australian Baseball League, two of the country’s hottest young pitching prospects have committed to go to top college baseball programmes in the United States

Auckland’s Ben Thompson (Glendowie College) and North Shore City teenager Yuuki Takahashi (Albany Senior High School) have agreed to study and play baseball at Tulane University in New Orleans and Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado respectively.

“Tulane has been trying to recruit me for just over a month now,” said Thompson from his Arizona base where he has been studying and playing at Chandler Gilbert Community College following elbow surgery in 2016. “It all happened after the sophomore All-Star game where I was hitting 90-93 (mph on the radar gun) and struck out 3 hitters in my inning, and after that night I had just over 30 schools get in contact with me over the next week,” Thompson added.

Tulane University is situated in the city of New Orleans and as an NCAA Division One school, their baseball programme is highly rated and has produced a number of Major League Baseball players, including former New York Yankees third baseman Bobby Brown.

Since returning to the pitching mound, Thompson said, “I’ve been really happy with my progress since the surgery, last season was tough with not having that feel pitch back yet, but it was very useful for me to get used to playing again. Then this fall I’ve been feeling like an improved version of my old self with everything starting to come together.

“I’ve been throwing the ball really well, I didn’t give up a walk, hit, or run across the five games against different schools all fall, said Thompson, “I was striking out (hitters) about just under 2 an inning as well.”

The 20-year old right arm pitcher said interest in him hasn’t just been from colleges, saying “There’s been a lot of professional interest from the area scouts also, but I’ll also have to keep a focus on my studies in accounting.”

North Shore City and New Zealand age representative Yuuki Takahashi is headed to the United States in January after signing an agreement to study and play baseball at Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado, following in the footsteps of former New Zealand age grade player Mitchell Gray.

Takahashi impressed Trinidad Head Coach Justin Wichert at the recent Arizona Fall Classic in Phoenix and they moved quickly to bring the 18-year old into his programme.

“I was approached by Coach Wichert a little bit after the Arizona Fall Classic where he saw me pitch in the all-academic game trials,” said Takahashi who is currently part of the Auckland Tuatara ABL Development Squad and pitched in their recent exhibition pre-season games against the Brisbane Bandits. “I was looking for a junior college in preference to others, in order to gain playing time from the first year I am there and Trinidad was a perfect candidate as it was in a safer area of USA which would feel similar to home.

“Coach Wichert said that there were scholarship offers available and I knew after talking to him after calls (from other schools), I knew that he could help me to get to the next level,” said Takahashi, adding, “My ultimate goal is to get to the pro level and currently I am very far from it therefore putting myself in that position where I am competing against some of the best young talent in the world, I believe, will put me in a position to be a part of that group.”

“Ben and Yuuki are both very talented young pitchers and both have the ability and work ethic to go all the way,” according to Baseball New Zealand CEO and Auckland Tuatara GM Ryan Flynn. “Ben has worked tirelessly after his Tommy John (elbow) surgery to get back on the mound, while Yuuki has worked incredibly hard over the last few years and has already represented New Zealand at age grade levels in addition to performing well at the MLB Academies in Australia that he has attended.

“It is great to see Yuuki taking the junior college route, just like Ben and many of our other bright young prospects, and both Yuuki and Ben are now a part of a solid core of young kiwis playing college and professional baseball in the US,” added Flynn, who said both talented players join other kiwis in the US like former Alfriston College student Jason Matthews, who is taking his baseball to the next level as he begins life at NCAA division One school University of South Carolina Upstate, Connor Gleeson (Glendowie College) at South Florida State College and Ryan McLennan (Queensland based kiwi) at Chandler Gilbert in Arizona among many others across the US and Japan now.

Article added: Saturday 24 November 2018