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Summer Collegiate | Story | 8/21/2018

Shenton named summer POY

Nate Schweers

Photo: Austin Shenton

After turning in one of the most impressive summer seasons in recent history, Austin Shenton has been named the 2018 Perfect Game/Rawlings Summer Collegiate Player of the Year for the 2018 season. Starring for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League, the honor comes off the heels of earning championship series MVP honors during the Gatemen’s title run.

Shenton, a rising junior from Bellingham, Washington, collected a second-best 30 RBI during the 2018 Cape Cod Baseball League regular season. After helping lead the Gatemen to the playoffs, Shenton was able to drive in 12 runs over six playoff games. The primary third baseman was trying to make the most of the extended summer, and he certainly finished on a great note.

“They [Wareham] were the only team in the Cape to offer me a full-time contract, so a big thanks for this honor goes to them for sure,” said Shenton in a phone interview last week. “It was a really great environment all summer and the entire Gatemen community embraced us. The coaches made it easy to play, and my teammates were a great group of guys that made it fun to show up and play every day.”

Support from the community is a major key to any successful summer baseball season, and Shenton’s Gatemen made it easy to come out to the ballpark and support all summer. Wareham finished the regular season with an impressive 25-17-2 record before going a flawless 6-0 in postseason play.

While the summer grind can be a long one, Shenton relished the chance to play in one of the country’s most prestigious summer baseball leagues. Prior to the playoffs, Shenton made sure his parents knew he was staying there to win.

“Mentally, I kept thinking to myself about how cool it would be to win the whole thing and finish on top of the Cape Cod League,” Shenton recalled. “There is only one team in the country that can say they were the best of the best, and at the end of the day I told my parents that we were going to win the whole thing.”

Every summer, the nation’s top college baseball players gather in the Cape Cod Baseball League to show their skill-set in front of fans and professional scouts alike. A strong summer like the one Shenton had can be enough to get a prospective player on a draft board, and this is something that makes the Cape Cod League so special.

“Once we got past the first couple weeks of the summer, the stands were just littered with scouts,” Shenton added. “It was really awesome. Every single day I had something to prove because there are so many different people watching. You are under a microscope up there, and you just have to try and do your best with good at-bats and good innings in the field. If I do those things and be a good teammate all summer, that is hopefully something the scouts will see.”

Hitters aren’t the only players with something to prove to scouts in the Massachusetts-based league. Some of the nation’s top arms are often toeing the rubber for any one of the league’s 10 teams, and that means it is important to go to bat with a calm mindset and good approach.

“I think Don Sneddon our manager really helped me out with creating an approach to allow me to succeed. He wouldn't let me get too high or too low. At the plate, I was just trying to be on time all summer. I started out pretty hot, and I think that helped me build the confidence to be able to do it all summer.”

Shenton was certainly able to swing a hot bat throughout the entire summer for the Gatemen. He hit .349 with four home runs and the 30 RBI during the 2018 Cape Cod regular season, and he was able to build on that great regular season with a magical run in the playoffs. Shenton hit .522 with three home runs and 12 RBI in the Gatemen’s six playoff games, and that was good enough for Gatemen head coach Don Sneddon.

“To play at such a high level and intensity for the full 10 weeks was such an interesting ride from Austin,” said coach Sneddon. “If you think of the summer like a cross country ride, the ride changes, but he never did. He was always full intensity and full speed ahead.”

During a grueling summer season, having a guy like Shenton can make it a special season. He was constantly working to get better as the summer went on and that was something that caught the eye of his coach.

“He made an adjustment on his own near the end of the summer,” Sneddon said. “He wanted to change his launch angle and get more lift on the ball. He is one of the few guys I have ever coached that can actually make the adjustment mentally. He worked on that in batting practice constantly, and he was one of the guys that embraced my style of batting practice and worked hard.”

After a strong summer, the Florida International Panthers and head coach Mervyl Melendez should be excited about the return of Austin Shenton this fall. Hoping to build on a strong sophomore campaign where he hit .344 with nine home runs and 29 RBI, Shenton is excited to get back to campus for another year.

“We have great coaches that are going to lead us, but we really have a lot of young talent that is coming back and coming in this year,” said Shenton. “I think we have 15 or 16 freshman play at some point last year, and I think we never really faced a team that we didn't match up well with from top to bottom. I’m really excited about it, and I think that if we put it all together it could be a really special year for us.”

Prior to his time at FIU Shenton enjoyed a productive career on the travel circuit. Despite hailing from Washington he participated at some of Perfect Game’s bigger showcase and tournament events, playing with travel programs including Team Northwest, Marucci Elite and FTB. He was twice named to the All-Tournament team at the WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., and earned a perfect grade of 10 at the 2015 PG National Showcase.

As a sophomore Shenton finished second in batting with a .344 average. He also hit 11 doubles and nine homers with 29 RBI as a member of a young FIU squad that finished the year 26-28 and has much brighter days ahead of them under new leadership. Another special year in the navy and gold of the Panthers would add to what has been an incredibly impressive 12 months for Austin Shenton on the baseball field.

For a player that has shown up to the ballpark and consistently hit all year long, the sky is the limit.

“I appreciate this honor so much. It is just a lot of hard work that I have put in over the last year. It's a testament to the Wareham Gatemen and their organization as well. They gave me an opportunity to play in the Cape and win this award.”

Previous PG/Rawlings Summer Collegiate National Players of the Year:

2011: Shaun Cooper
2012: Sean Manaea
2013: Max Pentecost
2014: Phil Bickford
2015: Nick Senzel
2016: Bret Boswell
2017: James Outman

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