Audubon freshman Stocklin doesn't cut an imposing figure, but he does cut down hitters

AUDUBON – He's not exactly Bob Gibson bearing down on you, and there was some commentary to that effect.

“This guy looks like a Little Leaguer. What is he – 12?”

“He doesn't throw very hard, does he?”

The most cogent comment on Jason Stocklin's first career start for the Audubon baseball team came right at the start of the fourth inning, though, and it was “guys – we have no hits.”

And they didn't.

And that wasn't going to change.

The diminutive Green Wave freshman fired a five-inning no-hitter and struck out three as Audubon won its Thank You Classic meeting with Washington Township, 10-0. He retired the first 13 batters he faced in order, then issued a one-out walk in the fifth to Minutemen first baseman Dan Reistle.

The next hitter was his third strikeout victim of the game. Then Stocklin fielded a bunt, threw to first, and though he didn't know it, his day was done. Three Audubon runs in the home third brought the game to an early end.

“It was my first varsity start as a freshman, and it felt good to have my seniors behind me, and we got the job done,” Stocklin said.

The sophomore in front of him played a pretty big job, too. Catcher Ryan Zimmer hit a two-run single in the first inning, doubled to lead off the fifth and helped walk his young pitcher through a tough Township lineup.

“It's great, man,” Zimmer said. “he listens to everything. He asks the right questions; he just tries to do the best job on the field and help us out the best we can. It's pretty simple: I'll just tell him what I'm thinking, and (he'll tell me) what he's thinking, and we'll put our minds together, do what the coaches tell us and try to call a good game.”

It started with the first hitter, Washington Township's Jared Dzierzgowski.

“We had two pitches that he whiffed on,” Zimmer said. “And then we threw a change-up to get him on his front foot, and he flew out to center.”

It actually set a pattern for the rest of the game.

“That's what we mostly did,” Stocklin said. “Fastball, fastball, change-up. We didn't work in any curves today, but we usually do. It was mostly fastballs outside. We did a couple of change-ups, but they seemed to piece that out, so we just tried to work outside. Zimmer's very talented. Everything he does, it just works. We cooperate very well together.”

So for as good as it was, there's more in the tank. He was holding a pitch in reserve.

“We ran him out there when we were in Myrtle Beach,” Audubon coach Rich Horan said. “We brought him out there in relief (in a loss to High Point Christian of North Carolina) and he did a great job for six innings. We wish we would have started him out there, but he got his chance today and he really performed well.

“That's why we take trips like that. We saw how he did his stuff and worked out, and my pitching coach, Wade Gies -- he does a great job with these kids. Now they've bought in to what we're trying to teach them, and we're doing a great job.”

As for not cutting an imposing figure, or overpowering – Stocklin's been a pitcher since he was 7 (and for the record, that was 8 years ago, not 5). He's heard that talk for years.

It just rolls off of him.

“I don't necessarily throw the hardest,” he said. “But I guess all you need is to throw strikes.”

So this varsity baseball stuff is pretty easy, right?

“No, that's not true,” a smiling Stocklin said. “It can be very difficult. That probably won't happen again for a while.”

John A. Lewis is a sports writer for the Burlington County Times, Courier Post and The Daily Journal. E-mail him at jlewis@thebct.com or follow on Twitter @JohnLewis19. Please consider supporting local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Audubon's Stocklin not a scary pitcher, but he's a good one