Cedar Park alum Austin Smith blossoming into top pitcher

Photo Credit: Zach Smith

Austin Smith will be the first to tell you he’s not the most effective hitter. 

He was named district Defensive MVP in 2017 at Cedar Park and walked on as an infielder at Southwestern. He split time between third base and the bullpen his freshman year, and after finishing the season with an underwhelming .218 average, shifted to pitching full time.

The rest, as they say, is history. 

Smith became one of the most dominant pitchers in Division III, regularly throwing in the upper 90s, and announced this summer he was transferring to Arizona, one of the top pitching schools in the country.

“I’ve always had the mindset that I want to play baseball as long as I can,” Smith said. “I knew if I quit after high school, I would’ve regretted it for the rest of my life, so I wanted to give it a shot. Once I started pitching and throwing harder, I thought I could do this way longer.

“It’s been unconventional for sure.”

He has been an overpowering starter for the Pirates, finishing with 110 strikeouts and a 3.18 ERA in 79.1 innings in 2018-19. He struck out 14 batters and didn’t allow a run in eight innings during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season.

Smith’s high school teammates at Cedar Park were always shocked the first time they saw just how strong an am the first baseman had. His only pitching performance with the Timberwolves was a five-inning stretch during the playoffs his senior year.

When he stepped on the mound at Southwestern, the power transferred.

Smith threw in the mid to upper 80 as a freshman before dedicating himself to pitching as a sophomore. A better understanding of mechanics, a couple of inches and an extra 30 pounds helped increase his velocity up into the 90s.

“I jokingly call him a unicorn,” Southwestern pitching coach Scott Lacey said. “You don’t go from throwing 86-89 and then 16 months later you’re throwing 100. That’s not normal. His arm is just special. Once he learned the basics and got in the weight room, it just kind of took off.”

Lacey knew Smith was different on opening day of his junior year at Southwestern. 

In the first inning, Smith was throwing in the 90s. In the third inning, the Pirates’ defense made a few errors and allowed a few unearned runs. Lacy, knowing how Smith responds when he gets pissed off, blamed him for the errors.  

“I walked away, he threw a water bottle at me,” Lacey said. “I turned around and he said, ‘You want me to strike everybody out?’ I said, ‘Figure it out. You want to keep giving up runs and losing the lead?’ 

“After that, he didn’t throw a ball under 92, and I knew there was something there that was special.”

Since joining the Round Rock Hairy Men this summer, Smith has continued his strong showing. On July 16, he had eight strikeouts in three innings, combining with two other pitchers to throw a no-hitter. 

He's pitched nine innings so far this season with the Hairy Men. Of the 27 outs the righty has been on the field for, 23 have been strikeouts. 

“I’ve been coming out (to Dell Diamond) and watching games since I was a kid, so I jumped on that opportunity right away,” Smith said. “With our spring season getting canceled, I just want to pitch and do the thing that we all missed out on.”

There was quite a few Division I schools interested in Smith, but the final two were Arizona and Oklahoma.

“What Arizona was offering me was something I couldn’t pass up,” he said. “When I stepped foot on campus, I could picture myself going to school there.”

The Timberwolves have a recent pedigree of baseball players succeeding at the next stage, with pitcher Chris Paddack — who had his jersey retired at Cedar Park earlier this year — blossoming into a superstar with the San Diego Padres.

Smith would love to be the next Cedar Park player to make it to the next level, but he’s still taking things one day at a time.

“I don’t like desk jobs, I don’t like pushing papers, so if I can play a game for a living, I love to do that,” Smith said. “I just want to play baseball for as long as my body allows me to.”

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Originally published at https://www.hillcountrynews.com/stories/cedar-park-alum-austin-smith-blossoming-into-top-pitcher,82838?