In two innings, Steven Pastrana showed his immense potential and his shortcomings.
The Youth Service right−hander looked absolutely dominant in the bottom of the fourth in an eventual 6−5 win Friday over the Bayside Yankees at American Legion Field. He also struggled to replicate that brilliance.
Pastrana, who will be a junior at Xaverian in the fall, pounded the strike zone with his mid−80s fastball and kept the hitters off balance with a devastating change−up. He struck out the side, including one batter looking, and also got fellow Clipper Keith Moore way ahead of an off−speed pitch to end the frame.
“As the inning went on my sense of competition kept rising and rising,” he said.
The next inning the control Pastrana exhibited was gone. He was falling behind hitters and allowed back−to−back walks. The Yankees scored two unearned runs in the fifth inning on an error.
Overall Pastrana was impressive. He allowed three runs, one earned, four hits and struck out six over five innings and 104 pitches.
“He showed he is a 15−year−old,” Youth Service coach Mel Zitter said. “He’s got tremendous size. He’s got tremendous ability. He has tremendous potential, but he also sometimes pitches like he is 15 years old. You are never going to see a finished product at this age.”
What you have is a 6−foot−2 teenager with two superb pitches to go along with an improving breaking ball. His lean, strong body and competitive nature gives Pastrana all the tools to work himself into a special player over the next two seasons.
“Steven obviously has the size. He has the body. He has the arm, to be a potentially very draftable kid in two years,” Zitter said. “Now like all these kids and maybe more so because of his potential, he has to do the things he does sometimes all the time.”
For Pastrana it is about consistent control. As a power pitcher, he can sometimes need more pitches in order to get out of innings, especially if he falls behind. Pitching ahead and being more dominant will equal longer performances. He was upset after lasting just five innings.
“How do you go from blowing guys away to walking guys and getting behind 2−0, 3−0, 3−1, that kind of stuff,” Youth Service pitching coach Wally Paller said. “He has to tighten that up emotionally. … That’s part of the process of getting him to where he wants to be. What you saw was a young, talented, but developing pitcher as far as his maturation is concerned.”
Pastrana, who played on the Xaverian JV team last season, is looking forward to getting a chance to show what he can do on the Clippers’ varsity next spring.
“Playing varsity at that school it makes you feel like you’re part of the top competition in New York,” he said.
Until then, he will work on his control, his mental toughness and his poise. Pastrana is still an unfinished product that has so much potential in its completion.
“He has the ability to throw three pitches,” Zitter said. “It’s impressive. With that body he has a presence on the mound.”
