SARATOGA SPRINGS -- While the Spa Catholic Saints’ team has wrapped up their annual Spring Training session in Central Florida, one of their key players has assured he’ll be visiting the area again – and staying awhile.
Senior pitcher Joe Schmidt, the 2015 recipient of Spa Catholic’s Tim Stauffer Award for Pitching Excellence, has committed to Rollins College for his collegiate career. Rollins, a Division 2 School in Winter Park, Florida, plays its games in the Sunshine State Conference.
Schmidt had an outstanding season in 2015, in which he was named to the Western Athletic Conference’s All-Star First Team for the second consecutive season, among other honors. In 2015, he was undefeated, winning all five regular season games he pitched, and also was on the mound in both of the Saints’ playoff contests - starting the round one sectional game against Ravena, in which he had nine strikeouts in four innings - and coming in for three relief innings in the sectional semi-finals against Schuylerville four days later.
Overall, for 2015, Schmidt had 54 strikeouts and only 14 walks in 40 innings for the Saints. He allowed only six earned runs on the season. Schmidt’s ERA of 0.70 for 2015 placed him third on the all-time lowest season ERA record list for Saratoga Central Catholic Baseball.
-Arthur Gonick
