“I compete every pitch, every pitch is like a new inning to me.” – Josh Richter
It would seem few have gotten more out of the Trombly Baseball experience than Josh Richter.
A quick glance at the list of alumni that storied program has had will tell you just how serious of a statement that is.
But Richter, a 17-year-old right-handed pitcher, wasn’t even sure if he wanted to play at the next level before linking up with Steve Trombly. Now? He’s got an excellent chance to be taken in the 2018 MLB Draft.
“He’s made a real impact, especially with the whole college part of it,” Richter said. “Before I played for Trombly, I wasn’t getting any looks college-wise, and I wasn’t really interested in playing at the next level, I guess you could say. Once I started playing for him, he really started talking to colleges for me, and they started calling. He was basically my right-hand man. He helps me through everything. Playing for him is a whole other thing. It’s nothing like anything I’ve done in my life; it’s laid back, it’s fun, we compete and have a good time doing it.”
Richter is known as a young man with a strong competitive fire, and according to Butch Baccala, VP of Scouting for Program 15 and the New Balance Future Stars Series, he has a chance to go far in his career.
“Josh’s determination and will to do whatever it takes to be the best is a great quality,” Baccala said. “His attention to detail and desire to beat the hitter is a winning quality any pitcher needs to have success. Josh is a winner and will be a winner both in college baseball and in his final destination, pro baseball.”
Richter, who will be attending the 2018 P15 combine and pitching for the national team during International Weekend and also pitches at Crean Lutheran HS, says he wasn’t aware of Trombly’s incredible track record until after he joined.
“He’s my assistant coach for my high school, so I made varsity as a sophomore and he said, ‘I run a travel team called Trombly Baseball, you should come out to Vegas and play in this tournament,'” Richter recalled.
“That first tournament, I knew that’s where I was going to stay because it was just crazy fun. The kids are great, Trombly’s great…he knows how to coach, that’s for sure. I’d been playing travel ball since I was ten, but once high school kicked into gear, I didn’t really think I’d have time for travel ball. He reached out to me. I was on a different travel team before his, but it wasn’t the right fit and I wasn’t having fun and I wasn’t getting playing time. Here, you get that time and you have fun doing it. I’m a Christian, and he’s a Christian, and that helps a lot too because faith is a big thing in my life. It’s good to see that in him as a coach. It’s more than baseball with him.”
Richter’s enthusiasm for the game is immediately evident when speaking with him, and that’s certainly helped him in the ongoing college recruitment process. Of course, a serious uptick in velocity doesn’t hurt either.
“I’m not committed yet, but I have offers,” Richter said. “It’s definitely stressful. A lot of my friends are seniors, and they’re stressing about where they want to go. I’ve been stressing like crazy because I have no idea. At the beginning of the year, I was sitting 82-85 miles per hour and I wasn’t getting a lot of attention, but now I’m 88-91 and I’m getting a lot more attention. I thought it would be a lot of fun, and it is, but it’s super stressful. In the end, it’ll all be worth it.”
One commitment Richter can announce is that, despite some time at third base and catcher in the past, he’s going to be a pitcher going forward. It seems to suit him well.
“I compete every pitch, every pitch is like a new inning to me,” he said. “It’s not three pitches per batter; it’s one pitch, one pitch, one pitch. I never want to get pulled out of a game, I always want to throw the whole seven and for college, it’ll be the whole nine. I feel like I compete really well. I command my fastball, and I like blowing hitters by with it and watching them sit down.”
