'The Sloth' keeps it cool on the pitcher's mound

By Nick Ngo

Known as “Roger” or “The Sloth,” freshman Austan Mason has come into the baseball scene proving to be one of Mt. Hood Community College’s best players, according to head baseball coach Gabe Sandy.

Mason heads up the pitching staff and also plays middle infield. Throughout the season Mason pitched for 10 wins and no losses. Also, he has an outstanding record of 77 strikeouts in 76.67 innings pitched, and a .118 batting average against him, making him the number one pitcher on the team. He said he feels good about his performance this year, and he did better then he thought he would.

“Austan came in as a talented young man. We kind of expected him to be one of our better pitchers on the mound,” Sandy said.

Living in Sandy, Mason started his career in baseball at the age of 6. Mason joined a little league t-ball team with his best friend. Mason has played all the positions, usually playing shortstop until, at the age of 8, he started pitching and hasn’t stopped since.
Growing up, Mason stuck with baseball and played for Sandy High School.

Mason said he chose to play at MHCC because they’re a good team and have a good record.
“They’re known to be a good team, and they have a good coach and a good team every year,” Mason said. “I figured it was my best chance to come here and improve as a baseball player.”

In terms of improvement, Mason says he feels like he improved in every aspect of the game. After each game, he said he improved more mentally than physically. One reason is he watches previous games and observes his performance. Spending 5-10 minutes reviewing the last game he played, Mason watches how he did against batters. He looks for what he did wrong and then writes it down on a chart created to highlight his mistakes.

“He’s improved in the fact that he’s gotten bigger, a little faster, a little stronger and a lot more mature,” Sandy said. “And he’s definitely learned how to pitch to the wood bat as opposed to in high school where you pitch to the aluminum bat.”
Mason said the hardest part of the game is the mental part, waiting for the pitch.
“It’s a very emotional game, it’s a lot of wear and tear,” Mason said. “Especially playing two double headers.”

While pitching, Mason tries to throw what the catcher tells him. He relies on catcher Eric Brown to call the pitch. While batting Mason doesn’t think about much; he tries to drown everything out and look for a spin on the ball. When something goes wrong on the field,º he tries to keep everything calm.
“You just have to relax and you have to be strong mentally,” Mason said. “Forget about stuff, let it go and come back.”

According to Sandy, Mason has a professional demeanor while on the pitcher’s mound.
“We tell all our pitchers whether you’re up by 10 or down by 10, you have the same demeanor on the mound,” Sandy said. “You never give in, you never show weakness, and you never show any emotion on the mound. That’s what good pitchers do. Austan is the epitome of that.”
Besides baseball, Mason also swims, plays football, water polo and soccer. However, he found baseball is what he wants to stay with. Mason sees baseball as a career and wants to get paid to play a good game.
“It’s an awesome game, there’s so much history behind it,” Mason said.
Mason is planning to stay at MHCC another year and play baseball to improve his game. He doesn’t know what school he will transfer to, but said he has a whole year to figure it out and is not thinking too much about it right now. Mason will begin to play for a summer baseball league two days after baseball season is over.