By Nate Owen
If the World Baseball Classic can serve as an audition for a bigger stage, then former Husky ace Adam Ottavino could find himself landing a lead role soon.
The 6-foot-5-inch righthander, who was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals 31st overall in the 2006 Major League Baseball draft, drew the start for Italy against a major league-laden Venezuelan lineup last Tuesday night on ESPN2.
‘It was pretty exciting,’ Ottavino said. ‘You didn’t know if you were going to be picked for the roster, and once you get up there, you’re not sure if you’re going to pitch. It was a lot of pressure, but I went out and had fun. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but I felt like I put my best effort forward.’
Ottavino pitched three one-hit innings, striking out three, including getting Detroit Tigers slugger Magglio Ordonez swinging to end the first.’ He also struck out major leaguers Endy Chavez and Melvin Mora in the bottom of the the third to cap his outing.
‘I was aware of them,’ he said of the major league hitters in Venezuela’s lineup. ‘It was more, ‘How am I going to pitch this guy?’ I didn’t try to think ‘This guy has X amount of home runs in the majors or this guy is hitting for a certain average in the majors.”
From 2004-06, Ottavino appeared in 45 games for the Huskies, including 33 starts. He finished with a 3.09 ERA and a school-record 290 strikeouts.’
‘It was absolutely awesome,’ Husky manager Neil McPhee said of Ottavino’s performance. ‘He was relaxed, confident, just looked like he was in total command of what he was doing.’
McPhee said he spoke to Ottavino’s parents at NU’s Saturday game at Seton Hall, and’ they said that he got great feedback from Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan, the Cardinals’ manager and pitching coach.
In 2007, Ottavino notched a 12-8 record with a 3.08 ERA in 27 games for Palm Beach, the Cardinals high A affiliate. In 2008, he finished 3-7 with a 5.23 ERA for Double-A Springfield.
However, Ottavino said he is looking to get the call to the bigs this season, and said the WBC provided a good stage to showcase his talents.
‘Coming in I had a pretty good spring so far,’ he said. ‘Hopefully people were watching. I’m going to try to dominate the minors the best I can and hopefully get called up by the big league club at the end of the year and help the big team win some games.’
