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Mt. Lebanon graduate pitches for College World Series champion

By Eleanor Bailey 12 min read
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Austin Kitchen displays the World Series trophy that he and Coastal Carolina clinched wby beating Arizona in the best-of-three series.

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Austin Kitchen signs autographs for Mt. Lebanon youth baseball players at Wildcat Field.

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During a recent visit home, Austin Kitchen posed with members of the Mt. Lebanon 12-year-old travel team. He signed autographs and talked to the players. Members of the squad included from left (front) Bradon Crowley, Joey Daniels, AJ Stettler, Derrick Shields, Jayce Tharnish and Liam Jackovic; (back) Cooper Austin, Brandon Fechter, Jack Smith, Kitchen, Eli Heidenreich, Mac Stout and manager Rob Linkowski.

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Austin Kitchen (right) with his former Mt. Lebanon High School coach Patt McCloskey.

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Austin Kitchen with his father, Ed.

Austin Kitchen may not be too familiar with Frank Sinatra, but he is well acquainted with Sinatra’s lyric of “riding high in April, shot down in May,” for the Mt. Lebanon resident, indeed, knows that’s life, particularly in baseball.

In the spring of 2015, Kitchen was on top of the heap in the WPIAL, The Blue Devils were the top-ranked team in Quad-A, undefeated through league play, thanks to their pitching ace. In the playoff opener in May, Lebo dropped out of contention and Kitchen suffered his first loss of the season. As a senior, he finished 6-1 on the mound with 85 strikeouts, a 2.29 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. He was 6-1 as a junior with 61 strikeouts.

In the summer of 2016, Kitchen is a College World Series champion. As a freshman relief pitcher for Coastal Carolina, he posted a 4-0 record with a 3.19 ERA. He struck out 36 batters in 42.1 innings.

“It still doesn’t seem true,” said Kitchen, who returned to Mt. Lebanon for a brief visit before he heads back July 16 to South Carolina. “How fast everything went and the road it took to get there.”

The road to success for Kitchen began back as a 5-year-old youth on the sandlots in Mt. Lebanon Park. It became apparent then that the son of Ed and Linda Kitchen had a future on the mound.

“When I was younger, I just always used to throw the ball as hard as I could, even if I didn’t know where it was going. Everybody said that I threw pretty hard,” said Kitchen, who started pitching for his travel ball teams.

“I just love it. The feeling of striking somebody out,” he continued. “Then high school came and I was throwing a little harder. Hearing the mitt pop. It’s just an addicting feeling. Coming to college though, you realize there’s more to pitching than just blowing a fastball by people. How much there is to pitching and commanding your pitches and outsmarting the hitters. It’s fun.”

For Kitchen, the fun in Conway, S.C., began in late February and culminated with the Chanticleers’ win over Arizona in the best-of-three series World Series championship at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. After losing to the Wildcats, 3-0, in the opener, Coastal Carolina came back with one-run victories, 5-4 and 4-3, on June 28 and 30.

Kitchen noted what a different feeling it was from his high school experience, particularly the bitter loss to Norwin in last year’s WPIAL playoffs. “This was definitely a picker-upper,” he said.

“I had some good memories (from high school), dog-piling it against NA (North Allegheny) at Robinson my freshman year and things like that but I think I dog-piled four times in one season,” Kitchen noted of the Chanticleers’ comebacks from elimination throughout the tournament.

Kitchen noted that winning the College World Series was a dream come true. “When you are a kid, you grow up watching it. You dream of going to Omaha,” he said.

“When you are picking colleges to decide to go to that’s definitely the goal that you are thinking about. It’s not just the future of playing after college. It’s going and living the best you can in college and going to see Ameritrade Park and being able to play.

“It’s definitely the greatest experience that I have ever been a part of as far as baseball and to go out there as an underdog in other people’s eyes and take down the No. 1 seed in the country and just play baseball, play the way we know how to play and scrap out wins and dog-pile that final day out there against Arizona,” he enthused. “It’s just an amazing feeling.”

Before the final out, however, there were tense moments. Coastal Carolina had built a 4-0 lead, but Arizona got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth. The Wildcats added one in the seventh and had runners on second and third before the Chanticleers recorded the final out on a strikeout.

“I couldn’t believe how nervous I was in the bottom of the ninth, when they were trying to get the last out,” said Kitchen’s former high school coach, Patt McCloskey.

But Kitchen was reserved.

“We are always confident,” he said. “Our thing is no pressure. We had nothing to lose. A lot of those other schools, it’s a national championship or bust. And for us, we just played. We tried to stay calm. We are big on positivity. Picking each other up. Follow one big play with another. Making pitches and scrapping out runs.

“It’s definitely nerve-wracking but we had our dog on the mound,” added Kitchen, referring to Alex Cunningham, who was drafted by the Detroit Tigers. “He’s going to make pitches. He’s a guy who’s going to go out there and make pitches when he needs to. It obviously got shaky but we stayed positive and confident. We trusted him out there, cheered him on, picked him up by making plays behind him. That’s pretty much how we stayed confident and positive throughout the whole thing.”

McCloskey instilled confidence in Kitchen early when he placed him on the Mt. Lebanon varsity as a freshman. As a young Blue Devil, he experienced winning as well as leadership, particularly that of Ian Happ, who now plays in the Chicago Cubs organization. Every morning, Happ would pick Kitchen up and the pair would lift weights. Afterward, McCloskey would pitch to the pair, and then they would condition. Part of the workout would including running from foul pole to foul pole.

“It really showed you how to be prepared, give everything you had,” Kitchen said about the regimen

Of Happ, Kitchen said he was the biggest influence on him. Because he went to the University of Cincinnati before he was drafted, Happ had the Bearcats’ workout program, and he shared it with Kitchen, helping to pave his way at Coastal Carolina. “I got to see everything and I got to know what it takes to do it,” Kitchen said of playing at the major college level.

Happ helped in other ways, too. He helped Kitchen develop the persona of a successful professional. “Just all the mental advice he gave, about staying calm, staying relaxed,” he noted. “I see a lot of guys from other teams when you get them out, they slam helmets or throw a bat. (Ian) was never one to freak out. He always stayed calm and poised.”

Happ lives by a philosophy handed down by Sean Casey, an Upper St. Clair resident who excelled for the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates. “Tension is poison,” said Kitchen. “Tension will get you. Ian never had any of that.

“That’s one thing that I learned: If you have one bad outing, one bad game, one bad inning, one bad hit, it’s over with. It’s history. You can’t do anything about it. That’s one of the main things, he taught me.”

Because Happ played for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans before being assigned to the Teennessee Smokies on June 23, Kitchen had opportunities to watch Happ play. “He’s incredible. Sitting there, watching him, talking to him after a game,” Kitchen enthused. “He told me what to expect at regionals, the crowd noise and what he’s experienced of professional life so far. He’s been the biggest influence that I could ask for.”

Kitchen’s success at the collegiate level has influenced his future. Plans are for him to move into the starting rotation his sophomore season. He commands all three of pitches and plans are to added a fourth, a slider, to his repertoire.

Of his freshman year, Kitchen said, “Bing able to see the highest stage and to be able to sit there and look around, hear from players and experience all of it, it’s definitely going to help.”

Kitchen noted how the experience of pitching in front of crowds upwards of 8,000 in “high-pressure situations coming out of the bullpen” also has prepared him for the future.

“I got to experience just about everything. I had a little taste of everything. So, it helped me prepare for the whole entire future. Next two years, three years. Everything it holds for me and knowing the situations and what to expect and how to overcome them,” he added.

As a southpaw, Kitchen supplied an edge for the Chanticleers. Since he was the lone lefty on the team, he had more opportunities to come out of the bullpen. He’d get the call for lefty-on-lefty matchups.

“Lefties aren’t as comfortable in the box. And getting that feeling of going out there and knowing that they are not comfortable and being able to make pitches and fill up the zone,” he said. “It’s a huge advantage for me. Learning and later on earning my innings and getting to pitch against righties and being in four or five innings on some occasions was great.”

Great was pitching against the likes of Ohio State, South Carolina and North Carolina. Kitchen said he knew he had arrived when he pitched against the Gamecocks and when he registered his first win against the Tar Heels.

“The biggest thing coming in is knowing that you can do it. You can’t pitch afraid,” he said. “You just got to do what you’ve been taught to do and what you’ve done for how long. You can’t thing that it’s bigger than what it actually is. Go out there and pitch. Do what you know how to do.

“After South Carolina, against a crowd like that, a weekday game at night, that’s when I knew I could do this. Later on, when they sent me out to Chapel Hill in front of all those fans, getting my second collegiate win there and after all that started happening, I knew I could do it.”

Because he suffered a tricep strain during the regionals, Kitchen was not used during the World Series, although he was healthy enough to pitch against LSU and during the final series. “But they could have thrown me out there any time,” Kitchen said. “I just know I could do it. I just do. Pitch wherever. Make pitches. Command them.

“But their main thing is they know a career is bigger than a game. Even though it was nothing serious by any means, they were more adequate on keeping me safe, keeping me healthy. If they needed me for an emergency jam ,that’s when they sent me down a couple of times to be prepared, be ready if they needed me. But it never really came to that point. We always had an arm that was ready to go that had the experience of pitching there.”

Kitchen has plenty of time to gain more valuable experience. This year, he is going to compete in the Coast Plain League. Next summer, plans are to send him to play in the Cape Cod League.

“That will help me out and my draft stock,” Kitchen said. “The thing is to get me out there. Get me starting and being the top lefty, especially with three pitches and great velocity. Their main thing is I can keep building on it. I have two more years before I am even able to go to the next level. So they have big plans for me.”

Individually, Kitchen plans to play in the pros. Team-ise, it is to repeat as champions.

“Try to go back and get that feeling again,” he said. “That’s definitely a goal. Getting there the first time is always the hardest, but the experience is amazing.”

Kitchen was amazed when the Chanticleers returned from Omaha to be greeted by fans at the airport. The following day, Coastal Carolina experienced a parade similar to that of the Pittsburgh Penguins when they won the Stanley Cup.

“Flying in at midnight, you’re thinking, OK, everybody is in bed, everyone is down, and having a fire truck shooting the plane with a fire hose and that’s it. But as soon as we got off the plane, there’s 10,000-12,000 people surrounding all the fences, flooding the streets. It was incredible. The next day, it’s, hey, meet us at the stadium, 12 o’clock, pizza, and all of a sudden, school trolleys pull up and we’re having a parade. Going around Conway and Myrtle Beach and seeing everybody out on the streets, it was absolutely packed. It was incredible.”

Not too incredulous is seeing Kitchen in a major league uniform in the future.

“Anything can happen,” said McCloskey, “but given his success and velocity as a left-handed pitcher this year as just a freshman, I would suspect he’ll have an opportunity. Coastal’s program has always been very highly regarded, and winning the World Series may open some more doors for him. But Austin’s earned everything he has gotten through a relentless drive and work ethic. I couldn’t be happier for him.”

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