NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — In both games Friday in the Region XXIII Tournament in Hammond, Cole Stromboe came off the bench for walk-off pinch hits.
The first came in the 10th inning against Baton Rouge Community College, and the second came later that night against Nunez in the bottom of the ninth.
Dolphins head coach Joe Scheuermann said there was another New Orleanian, a left-handed bat in the big leagues, who did the same thing.
“Rusty Staub became the ultimate pinch hitter late in his career. It is a special technique,” Scheuermann said.
Stromboe played sparingly at Louisiana-Monroe, and after two years, he came home knowing his role at Delgado might be limited.
“If I am asked to pinch hit,” Stromboe said, “asked to start, asked not to play at all, whatever it is, I am going to be okay with it.”
His head coach appreciates that about him.
“He’s kinda accepted it,” Scheuermann said. “I think he has played in half our games, and he’s started 7 or 8 of them. To be quite honest with you, he understands the role he plays here. He sees it, he’s intelligent enough, that’s what makes him better. The fact, that he doesn’t sit on the end of the bench and pout.”
Stromboe has had a walkoff hit before, just not recently.
“In a 7th-grade middle school game against Country Day, at The Fly,” he told Ed Daniels.
That hit — when he was 13 at Christian Brothers — was a grand slam.
But those two hits on Friday helped get the Dolphins one step closer to a possible spot in the Junior College World Series.
“I feel like it is always a very important thing for everybody on the team to accept their role. Never stop competing with one another. That is what makes good teams great. I think that is why we have been really good this year. Everybody is always competing, everybody is going to do their job, whatever is asked of them,” he added.
If Delgado was not a deep, experienced team, Joe Scheuermann said Stromboe might be in left field, batting in the middle of the order. But just because he isn’t, doesn’t mean hit bat is not one opponents have to respect.
The Dolphins will face the Region II champion (Oklahoma) and the Region XVI champion in the NJCAA South Central District Championship, to be hosted by the Region XVI champion in Missouri May 19-21 with the winner advancing to the NJCAA Division I World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
