Laying a foundation
CLARION — Jeremy Frazier is surprised to be in the starting rotation.
Garrett Goslaw didn't figure on playing college baseball at all.
Now the pair of Clarion University freshmen — Frazier from Knoch, Goslaw from Butler — are figuring prominently into first-year coach Anthony Williams' rebuilding plans with the Golden Eagles.
“I certainly like what I've seen of those two so far,” Williams said. “Do I see them as potential cornerstones here down the road? Absolutely.”
When Clarion dropped a recent double-header at Slippery Rock, the Eagles dropped to 200 games below .500 — 86-286 — over the past 10 years. The team's best single-season record during that stretch was 12-28 in 2012.
The team has won four of its last six games to improve to 7-12 this season. Frazier is sporting a 3.32 earned run average and a 1-1 record through four starts at Clarion, including a team-leading 26 strikeouts in 21.2 innings pitched.
He has walked only eight.
“If someone else steps forward and deserves to take my spot in the rotation, he can have it,” Frazier said. “I can't say I expected to be a starter in my first year.
“At the same time, I feel like I've earned it and I want to keep it.”
Williams won more than 100 games in five years as coach at Pitt-Greensburg before coming to Clarion. While at UPG, he was recruiting Frazier.
“It was a natural transition, Jeremy coming over here,” the coach said. “We got to know each other pretty well. I'm thrilled to have him.”
Frazier and Goslaw were teammates with the Western Pa. Slurve last summer. Goslaw took a year off after graduating from Butler in 2015.
“I wasn't sure if I was going to even go to college,” Goslaw said. “I had to figure out what I wanted to do. Eric Furl was our summer coach and told me about the Clarion, that they were rebuilding with a new coach and looking for players. I decided to give it a shot.”
A third baseman at Butler, Goslaw has earned the designated hitter job with the Eagles as a freshman and is making the most of it. He is hitting .356 — 16-for-45 — with nine RBI and a .462 on-base percentage through 19 games.
Goslaw's batting average is second-highest on the Golden Eagles' roster.
Clarion has a veteran player starting at third base, but Williams said “I can't keep that (Goslaw) bat out of the lineup.
“He stays in on pitches better than anyone else on the team. He can hit the ball solidly to all fields.”Goslaw has no particular long-term goals at Clarion.“Just keep working hard every day, eventually start at third base — and win,” he said. “We definitely want to win.”Frazier was the No. 3 pitcher at Knoch, working behind Cole Shinsky (Ohio University) and Alex Stobert (Tallahassee Community College).“Those guys are Division I prospects,” Frazier said. “We're all competitors. I've been working on building up my velocity. I've hit 89 before and I'm at 86 now, I'm working on my change-up a lot more, too.”Williams believes that change-up will enhance Frazier's success.“You need a third pitch to consistently get hitters out in the PSAC,” the coach said.Union graduate Kane McCall is a senior in the Golden Eagles' pitching rotation and Moniteau grad Austin Blauser is a red-shirt freshman at catcher.“We count on everybody,” Williams said. “We're laying a foundation here, but it will take time.”
