When he isn’t helping Kennesaw State’s baseball team win games, such as during its recently snapped 16-game win streak, catcher Max Pentecost sometimes can be found working on his major, which is geographic information systems.
It’s a satellite-based technology, so he occasionally uses Google Earth to roam the planet, checking out baseball cathedrals such as Fenway Park.
He soon could get a first-person look at those places.
Pentecost projects as a top-20 pick in June’s Major League Baseball amateur draft.
“That was the goal when I came here, to get better and improve my draft status, playing with a team and getting an education,” Pentecost said.
Pentecost is the one doing the schooling. He has a 32-game hitting streak for the Owls, who will host North Florida in a three-game series that starts Thursday and will wrap up regular-season play in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Kennesaw State (30-21, 14-9) is fourth in the conference and needs to win the tournament to clinch a spot in an NCAA regional.
“Would love to win the conference tournament, especially after losing the past two years in championship game, and make it to a regional,” Pentecost said.
The Owls will need Pentecost to continue his five-tool performances. He leads the team in hitting (.419), home runs (eight) and stolen bases (15). But he is more than just the unusual combination of a catcher who can hit and run. He is third in the conference in base runners thrown out (18) and has a fielding percentage of .979. All that, and he’s durable, appearing in all 51 games this season.
“Watching him play each day is pretty special for us,” coach Mike Sansing said.
Pentecost is rated the 25th-best prospect in the draft by Baseball America. Various websites have him going somewhere around the 15th pick in the draft. Though he would love to stay at catcher in the big leagues, he understands that he may change positions because his speed needs to be utilized, and he’s still learning how to call a game. Kennesaw State’s coaches handle most of the pitching decisions.
He already has been drafted. The Rangers took him in the seven round after a standout career at Winder-Barrow High. Pentecost bypassed the draft and honored his commitment to Sansing, who first saw him play the summer of his freshman year during a tournament at Kennesaw. After watching Pentecost slam ball after ball to the outfield wall, Sansing turned to someone and noted they needed to start recruiting him.
“He caught your eye right away,” Sansing said.
Pentecost continued to develop at Kennesaw State, batting .277 with no home runs as a freshman, and .302 with three home runs as a sophomore.
He blossomed last year during summer ball in the Cape Cod League, hitting .346 with six homers and 29 RBIs.
Georgia State coach Greg Frady said after watching Pentecost the past three seasons, it’s evident that Pentecost has worked hard to improve physically, which has made him a better player. Pentecost raked the Panthers in two wins this season for five hits in nine at-bats.
The strong hitting continued this season. Sansing said it’s unusual to see a catcher, who has so many defensive responsibilities, be able to find the focus to keep a hitting streak going.
“It’s a grind, I’m sure, but he’s been able to handle that,” Sansing said.
Pentecost said he handles it by not focusing on it. He’s good at compartmentalizing each play so that it doesn’t affect whatever is next.
An example of that skills occurred in what Pentecost described as his best at-bat this season. He was 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a pop-out with a runner on third. Yet, the game was tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 11th inning. Forgetting his early failures, Pentecost drilled a double to left-center field to drive in the game-winning run.
He wants to continue that approach the rest of the season.
Based upon his draft projection, it seems to be working.
“I want to stay consistent, go up there, get on base, get hits, get RBIs, put my team into position to win,” he said.
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