At nearly six-foot-10 and 225 pounds, the Victoria Eagles’ right-handed pitcher’s upside is way up in another stratosphere. Standing on the pitching mound, the Grade 12 Lambrick Park student could likely hunt geese with a rake.
The amazing part is this is just Hegadoren’s second true year as a pitcher as he came into the sport later in life, and while he is learning via the school of hard knocks, he’s proving to be a quick study.
“It’s been a blast working with him. I was normally one of the bigger people, back when I was playing, and now as a coach he’s one of the few people I have to look up to, or look at, when I have to come out and talk to somebody,” said Eagles manager Anthony Pluta, who stands six-foot-three.
“He’s a big boy. He’s only played baseball a few years, just his second year pitching, but he’s come such a long way. He’s already had some scholarship offers.”
In fact, Hegadoren has a deal with a junior college in Tacoma, but he’s hoping a Division I school will still come calling. UBC has also expressed interest and the behemoth righty also had a national junior coach check him out at the recent Best of the West tournament in Kamloops.
“It didn’t go as well as I wanted it to, so it didn’t play out,” Hegadoren said of that opportunity. “I just have to work harder and hopefully it’ll turn out the way I want it to.”
To date, he has made one start in the young B.C. Premier Baseball League season, a 4-1 win last Sunday in Parksville in which he went six innings, allowing three hits, collecting nine strikeouts with two walks. He’ll likely pitch today for the 3-2 Eagles in a doubleheader against the Nanaimo Pirates at noon and 2:30 p.m. at Lambrick Park.
“Eric Hegadoren is an example of what our program is all about, we’re about developing kids,” said Martin Winstanley, the Eagles’ chairman of high performance committee. “We saw the potential in Eric last year at this time.
“As a result, on our Junior Premier team, he pitched a lot. He struggled out there at times, but he was learning his craft. But we saw the potential, we persevered and he worked really hard.”
The result is Hegadoren has gone from registering 75 mph on the radar gun to 88 mph.
“That’s a huge improvement in one year. Just amazing, and he’s going to get much, much better,” said Winstanley.
That’s the upside that everyone eludes to.
“He’s only going to throw harder,” said Pluta. “He’s got great down-hill plane. Being that tall, he pitches downhill really well, so it’s difficult to hit when the ball is coming out from that high.
“It is hard to hit, especially when they throw from where he throws from. A guy like Randy Johnson was hard to hit, but his arm angle was a tad lower so it flattened the ball out a bit more,” Pluta said of Johnson, the former six-foot-10 major leaguer.
As for Hegadoren himself, he’s delighted to be given the chance.
“It feels really good so far, it’s a big step up from last year, that’s for sure,” he said of being in the Premier League and throwing harder.
“Last year, when I wasn’t throwing quite as hard, I was working on off-speed stuff, but now that I have figured out the velocity and it’s coming up more, I’ve been working in more and more fastballs. That’s what’s going to get me to the next step, is improving on my velocity and keep it going up.
“I want to hit 90 [mph] by the end of the summer. That’s a big number for any pitcher. I just have to keep working hard and gain consistency in my mechanics and pitching, and put it all together.”
EXTRA INNINGS: The 2-0 Victoria Mariners are away to play four games this weekend against the 2-2 Okanagan Athletics.
