Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, Cavan Cuyler: The learning curve

Barry Faulkner

Cavan Cuyler was nearly 11 seasons into his 12-year baseball career

before the lightbulb went on.

Now, with the shared collective wisdom of Corona del Mar High coaches,

the junior right-hander has come to appreciate the finer points of the

game he played from the periphery before pitching as a prep.

“Before last year, I had never had a pitching coach,” said Cuyler, who

was summoned to the varsity from the junior varsity late last spring and

has become the Sea Kings’ ace this season. “Last year was really the

first time I learned about what works and doesn’t work. I learned there

was more to pitching than just throwing the ball over the plate. To pitch

effectively at the varsity level, you have to be able to spot three

pitches. You can’t just throw the fastball through the barn door.”

Cuyler’s epiphany has helped him amass a 5-2 record and a 3.10 ERA. He

has 38 strikeouts in 52 innings and has walked only 16.

He said his best game of the season was a complete-game, six-hitter

against unbeaten Pacific Coast League champion University, a 3-0 Uni

victory May 5.

“That was the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball in my life,” said

Cuyler, who followed that up with a complete-game, two-hit shutout of

Costa Mesa May 10, a 4-0 win which clinched a berth in the CIF Southern

Section Division IV playoffs that begin Friday at home against Cathedral.

The latter 86-pitch performance, which included four strikeouts, only

three Mustangs advancing to second base and none to third, earned him

Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week honors.

While Cuyler’s new-found knowledge has made him a pitch-sequence

strategist, it has also, at times, contributed to his brief struggles on

the mound.

“When I brought Cavan up as a sophomore, the thing that most impressed me

about him was that here was a sophomore stepping on the mound with a team

a veterans and literally dictating the flow the game,” CdM Coach John

Emme said. “His body language said ‘I want the ball, I want to be out

here and I want to beat you.’ He stomped around the mound and pitched

with emotion. It was almost a controlled rage.

“But there was a time this year (before his recent surge), where I

thought he’d lost that. He may have been trying to think the game too

much out there. He would take his cap off, walk around the mound and

leave our defense standing on its heels.

“I finally told him: ‘Look, get the ball, get on the mound and throw.’ ”

Cuyler now seems to have balanced analysis and aggressiveness, which is

bad news to opposing hitters.

“This whole season has been a learning experience,” said Cuyler, who

admits he now observes the game a whole new way.

“The other day, I was watching the Angels play Texas,” he said.

“Shigetoshi Hasegawa was pitching and in a single at-bat, I was able to

call every pitch and the location, just from stuff I knew about the

batter and what was going on in the game.”

Cuyler has applied this more cerebral approach to his own game, scouting

hitters for prospective weaknesses.

“He’ll come in talking about something he saw on SportsCenter, or

something Peter Gammons said, which is unusual with kids in this day and

age,” Emme said. “Nowadays, you usually don’t find a whole lot of guys

who know how to do a score book.”

In addition to contributing to last season’s CIF Division IV baseball

title, Cuyler played on the Sea Kings’ CIF Division II boys water polo

champions last fall.

He is the probable starter Friday, when the Sea Kings begin defense of

their section baseball title.