Holy Cross’ senior slugger put together a monster week at the plate, going 5 for 7 with four runs and nine RBIs. He also had two home in the Crusaders’ first game against Riverside — one a grand slam — and pitched six strong innings to earn the win. In this Athlete of the Week Extras, Shattin talks about what’s different for the team this year, playing the same team twice a week and Holy Cross’ huge upcoming series against Lakeland.
Superstitions or rituals: Not really. I usually play catch with R.J. Boyle every game. Since freshman year.
Other sport you play: Football
Favorite movie: Die Hard. The original one.
Were both home runs pretty good blasts? Yeah, I knew as soon I hit both of them that they were gone.
When you’re in the lineup, you try to get runs for the pitcher. But in that case, you were the pitcher, too. It felt really good, it gave me confidence to go out there and pitch. It’s a lot easier pitching when you have a lot of runs.
How long have you been pitching? My senior year is the first year I actually pitch for Holy Cross, but I’ve been pitching all throughout Little League and a little bit of Legion. But this was my first year I actually started for Holy Cross. … It just feels really good to be winning and helping my team.
How far down the list is grand slam on things you’re trying to do with the bases loaded? It’s pretty far down. I was trying to even get a few guys in. We scored one in the first inning, and I knew Riverside could hit the ball pretty good and I just knew we needed to get some runs. Grand slam, four runs — that was really good.
Your team was the coaches’ favorite heading into last season. Why do you think you guys didn’t exactly click last year? I think just aging an extra year, working out together, going to practice — it just brought us closer together. We knew we had a great chance if we just put it all together. … Last year, we started off slow and we just never picked it up. Now, we’re 8-0 and it feels really good. It gives us all confidence that we could do great things. I mean, our goal is the district championship, and that’s what we’re striving for.
How big is this week’s series against Lakeland? We’re really looking forward to this. We knew all year that Lakeland was going to be a big game for us, and probably our toughest game. Because they have Brad Richards, he’s throwing really good, lefty. I think I’m starting that game. I’m starting tomorrow, if we play. So, I mean, it should be a really good game.
How do you like playing the same team twice in a week? I like it a lot better. One pitcher can’t pitch both games. I kind of feel it’s even like how the majors do it, it’s back-to-back. It’s just cool how you can face other pitchers. It’s nice winning back-to-back games against the same team. Gives us more confidence.
What’s the outlook for the rest of the season? We’re confident, but we’re not too confident. We know the challenges ahead of us. Lakeland’s going to be really tough, and even Mid Valley — we just have to come out and give it our all in practice and play to our potential.
How’s your season at the plate going? Last year, I didn’t have the best year that I would have wanted to have. Now, I feel really good coming into this week. I’m feeling like I’m clicking now. It’s a great feeling knowing that all the hard work you put in is finally showing.
Do you know what you want to do for college? I’m not sure where I want to go yet, but I want to major in criminal justice. I want to be a state trooper, so I want to major in criminal justice and then see what that state police academy holds for me and see how that works out.