Bradford native giving his best shot in Spikes’ pen

Vinny Pezzimenti

UNIVERSITY PARK — Zach Foster, like many of his State College Spikes teammates, is a long shot to reach the big leagues one day.

CDT photo/Craig Houtz

Bradford native Zach Foster (37), who was selected by the Pirates in the 49th round of the 2008 draft, is 1-0 with a 1.35 ERA in 10 appearances out of the bullpen with the Spikes this season.

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But Foster might be the longest of shots.

There’s a lot to consider. Such as the fact that the right-hander played his college ball at the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford (not exactly a baseball hot bed) and that he was a 49th-round draft pick (not exactly even marginal prospect territory).

Foster didn’t even have a pitching coach until his final season at Pitt-Bradford, a Division III school in rural McKean County. And he didn’t expect to be taken in the 2008 draft, even with the 1,452nd selection of 1,504 that year.

“I was surprised I went (after) my junior year,” Foster said Friday afternoon. “I thought it would at least be the next year.”

Foster and Kyle Stark, the Pirates’ director or player development, are both natives of Bradford. But Foster’s selection wasn’t a hometown act of kindness.

Not even Stark knew about Foster, who has been a steady option out of the bullpen for the Spikes, until his coach at Pitt- Bradford contacted the Major League Scouting Bureau. Only then, during Foster’s final college season, did scouts venture to watch him throw.

Thus, Foster, who is the only player in Pitt- Bradford and Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference history to be taken in the major league draft, feels fortunate that he was selected.

“There’s a lot of good players that play in my conference,” he said. “A lot of them are good enough to play here. It’s just that a lot of people get overlooked being Division III. Hopefully it brings some scouts out to that area and hopefully some more people get picked up.”

Foster is proof low-level collegians can succeed in pro baseball. He’s thrown 131/ 3 innings over 10 games this season and is 1-0 with

a 1.35 earned run average.

“He’s been productive for us,” Spikes pitching coach Mike Steele said. “He’s been a guy we can rely on coming out of the bullpen.”

Foster went 1-2 with a 3.99 ERA last summer, mostly serving as a starter for Bradenton of the rookie Gulf Coast League.

He’d like to have a starting role with the Spikes or at least be asked to pitch more innings, but Steele said Foster’s skills are better suited for the bullpen (he’s durable and his fastball has an average speed).

Foster’s longest outing this season, 31/ 3 innings, came against Mahoning

Valley. He struck out two, walked two, allowed a run and earned the victory.

Foster has also pitched a third of an inning four times, bridging starter and long reliever.

“For me,” Foster said, “I think it’s a totally different mindset. Being a starter you know what days you’re going to throw so you can get yourself mentally prepared. Being a reliever you’ve got to be ready to throw everyday. That’s basically the big thing for me.”

Foster is still deep in the process of learning how to pitch. His college coach, Bret Butler, was a pitcher at Ohio State. Yet, without having a pitching coach for most of college, Foster didn’t receive the same guidance as most of his peers.

Also beneficial to Foster is that he has been exposed to the professionalism of baseball since his high school days. On a few occasions while at Bradford High School, he worked out with Ben Copeland, an alum of the school who has played in the Athletics and Giants farms systems.

During the summers at Pitt-Bradford, Foster lifted weights most days with Brian Stavisky, a former star at Notre Dame who has reached Triple-A and now plays for the Double-A Reading Phillies. Josh Kinney, a reliever with the Cardinals, also stopped by a couple times to throw bullpen sessions with the team.

Stavisky and Kinney both played at nearby Port Allegany High School.

Kinney, who pitched at Division II Quincy College and went undrafted, might have been dealt longer odds to reach the bigs than Foster. But it was just three years ago that Kinney was a prominent reliever on a Cardinals team that won the World Series.

If Kinney can make it, can’t a 49th-rounder from who knows where do it too?

“To say where you would go, it’s up to Zach,” Steele said. “If Zach keeps getting better everyday and listens to what we’re trying to tell him, which he does, he can go as far as he wants to go. He’ll be a guy at the end of his career who can look back, whether in the big leagues or Double-A or wherever, and say, ‘I did everything I could with what I had and that’s good enough for me.’”