Player Name: Austin Mars
School: Hicksville
Position: RHP
Austin is a 2017 graduate of Hicksville HS. He has a very efficient and compact delivery. He is very similar to Major Leaguer Jeremy Guthrie from a delivery aspect. He does a lot of things well.
He has a very short step back prior to getting to his balance position. He keeps his eyes locked on the target through out his delivery. He has a high leg kick–about letter high. He has a firm back leg and keeps his front toe pointed down. To generate torque he begins his falling action at the apex of his leg kick as opposed to coming to a halt. For a shorter pitcher, that is a great way to compensate for what he lacks in height. He also gets very good pushoff on the mound from his back leg which allows his stride to be longer than his height. He lands with his front leg bent and his front food pointed to home plate. He gets great extension and his bent knee uncoils as he delivers the baseball. He is a near max-effort pitcher. Even with his all effort being exerted, he finishes balanced and on line with home plate. His delivery is as close to flawless as you will see in a sophomore.
In his May 8 outing, he dominated. He had a no-hitter through the first three innings. He went through the order with five strikeouts. He got ahead, he used both corners of the plate, changed the eye level and hit his spots with his curve. He froze the opposition with his curveball on a number of occasions. The batters were certainly not advanced but he didn’t give them any chance as he continued to work ahead and not lose focus.
In the top of the third, he did temporarily lose focus as he walked the leadoff batter on a 3-2 fastball out of the strike zone and fell behind the next batter on 3-2 before recovering and striking him out on a high fastball. He also struck out the next batter on a 1-2 fastball, after showing a change up that missed high. He escaped the inning by inducing a weak grounder to second on a well-place change.
Mars worked primarily in the high 70s, which is still advanced for a 10th grader. Assuming he continues to physically mature, there’s no reason to believe he won’t be one of the top pitchers in Nassau County over the next two seasons.
There’s a lot to like from him.
