By Jonah Bronstein
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS —
Jonathan Smith never would’ve gotten to Cape Cod if he wasn’t resourceful enough to e-mail every team in the elite collegiate baseball league at end of the spring.
He probably wouldn’t have received an invitation to temporarily join the Wareham Gateman if not for the fact that so many of the team’s players were tied up with Team USA and College World Series commitments.
Even after Smith arrived in Wareham and worked hard enough to catch coach Cooper Farris’ eye, it took a couple injuries before the Niagara Falls native was asked to stay in Massachusetts for the rest of the summer.
In the end, Smith proved he belonged in the circuit that annually hosts hundreds of future Major League ballplayers.
The former Niagara-Wheatfield standout and two-time Gazette player of the year led the entire league in runs scored and earning an award for being the Gatemen’s hardest-working and most-improved position player.
“He had an outstanding summer,” said Farris, who has coached the Gateman for 11 seasons and won 698 games in 20 years at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before retiring in 2009.
Farris said Smith is a “a good, hard-nosed, five-tool player” who is “going to get his shot” at the professional level.
“He’s a tough kid, he battles, and he’s got great tools,” Farris said. “I think he made a name for himself this summer.”
Smith played all three outfield positions for the Gatemen, but spent most of his time in centerfield. He batted second, and was hitting over .300 before he hurt his elbow while making a diving catch and slumped to a .250 average at season’s end.
“I wish he could’ve been healthy down the stretch because we really could’ve used him,” Farris said. “He played hurt for the last few weeks and still did a good job.”
The Gateman swept their first playoff series but then were beaten by Cotuit in the Western division championship series.
Smith said he learned a lot over the summer about facing elite pitchers, swinging a wood bat, and dealing with ups and downs.
“The first 10 games were really hard for me. I was really nervous,” Smith said this week. “Finally, coach sat me down and said, ‘I can see you’re tense in your shoulders. Settle down, relax. Your wrists can’t be loose if your shoulders are tense.’ After that, I went up there and said I’m not going to let anybody beat me anymore and I started hitting the ball hard at people.”
When he wasn’t hitting early on, Smith drew a lot of walks. When his swing was compromised by the elbow injury in the final weeks, he focused on putting the ball in play and beating the throw to first, reaching base on errors.
A .337 on-base percentage and two big RBI guys behind him in the order allowed Smith to score 31 runs in 38 games. Only seven other players scored at least 20 runs, and all played more games than Smith.
Away from the park, Smith enjoyed his stay with hosts Derek and Jen Drinkwater, and they’re two young children.
“They made the whole experience full,” he said. “They showed up for every game, and not just the games, every batting practice. And there are a lot of 0-fer games in that league, and they were there for you, reminding you it’s a tough league. It makes it a lot easier having a host family like that.”
Smith returned to Niagara Falls on Wednesday but won’t be home long. On Sunday, he’ll head down south to start preparing for his senior season at Tennessee Wesleyan College. Last year, Smith helped the school reach the NAIA World Series, and was an all-conference selection.
“I proved I can play at the next level with the cream of the crop players,” said Smith, who started out at Niagara University and also played at Division II Mount Olive (N.C.) College before settling at Tennessee Wesleyan. “And you’ve got to do it every day in (the Cape Cod League). You never see a weekday starter throwing light.
“... I’ve got a lot of potential in this game. The key is to keep working hard and good things will happen.”
Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at 282-2311, ext. 2258.
