STATE COLLEGE — The State College Spikes had a record six players named to the New York Penn League All-Star Game, held Aug. 15 in Troy, N.Y.
Those named were certainly worthy choices: infielders Evan Mendoza and Yariel Gonzalez, outfielder Scott Hurst, catcher Josh Lopez, and pitchers Daniel Castano and Andrew Summerville.
The Spikes bested their previous high mark of five, even if they won’t technically have six players representing them (more on that below).
The NYPL All-Stars are chosen by a league-wide panel of coaches and executives, but the league’s commissioner’s office has final choice on all selections. Still, it would be hard to imagine Lopez and Mendoza as anything other than near-unanimous selections at worst.
Mendoza has two NYPL Player of the Week honors under his belt for 2017. The 11th-round draft choice consistently hit well for the Spikes, carrying an average of at least .350 more or less the entire 2017 season. Lopez has been equally effective.
Gonzales is a holdover from the 2016 championship Spikes team, and has started to blossom with increased playing time. Playing three different infield positions in 2017, the Puerto Rico native was named as a third baseman. Not bad for an undrafted free agent.
The two Spikes pitchers selected for the game have very parallel profiles and stories that have nevertheless led them to the same spot.
Castano was a 19th-round selection in the 2016 draft who won his first six starts of the season. Through 64 innings pitched on the year, Castano has posted a 2.25 ERA alongside a 1.09 WHIP, striking out 57 hitters along the way against just one walk. Summerville was a similar late-round pick — 13th in the 2017 draft — but has begun his career with a sparkling 1.73 ERA.
Rounding out the group is Hurst, the Cardinals’ 2017 third-round draft choice this year. He has posted a stellar all-around campaign to date, with a .282/.360/.437 batting line. He is what those in the know call a “box score stuffer,” with 10 doubles, three triples and 26 runs to go along with two home runs and 13 RBIs in 36 games.
The South NYPL All-Stars were led by the entire Spikes managerial crew — manager Joe Kruzel, pitching coach Darwin Marrero and hitting guru Roger LaFrancois.
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As mentioned earlier in this story, the Spikes will actually see only five players take part in the All-Star Game, and that would be due to Evan Mendoza’s hot bat earning him a promotion to the single-A Peoria Chiefs.
Perhaps we should call them the Peoria Spikes, as a quick look up and down their current roster shows a litany of recent Spikes. Mendoza joins 2017 teammate Mick Fennell on the Chiefs, along with 2016 namesakes such as Tommy Edman, Ryan McCarvel, Jeremy Martinez and Jordan Hicks, to name a few.
Though Mendoza has struggled out of the gate at single-A to the tune of a .176 batting average in his first handful of games, that is to be expected for some. The jump from short-season to advanced A-level ball is a significant one, and those that struggle are far from finished. With Mendoza’s work ethic and skill, there is no reason to think that he cannot continue to move up the Cardinals’ organizational food chain.
