Pioneer High School student Drew Kersting to play in USA Baseball National Team Identification Series
Before he begins his sophomore year at Pioneer High School next month, Drew Kersting is headed across the country to play in USA Baseball's National Team Identification Series. Kersting will compete for the 15U Northwest Regional Team in Cary, North C…
Before he begins his sophomore year at Pioneer High School next month, Drew Kersting is headed across the country to play in USA Baseball's National Team Identification Series.
Kersting will compete for the 15U Northwest Regional Team in Cary, North Carolina from Aug. 8 to 11.
"I was ecstatic and absolutely thrilled. It felt like all the hard work was paying off. I couldn't believe it and I was really excited," Kersting said Friday morning. "My coaches and teammates have been helping me out. My varsity coach has opened the bullpens for me and is letting me go work out at the field. I'm definitely getting a lot of help and support from the people around me."
Three Woodlanders were chosen to play in the 2019 NTIS: Cade Colombara, Chris Duffield and CJ Preciado. Colombara is an incoming senior at Jesuit High School in Sacramento and committed to continue his career at Arizona State. After graduating in 2023, Duffield joined the lineage of Wolves on the Butte College baseball team. Preciado graduated from Woodland in 2021.
"Going to Cary is a new experience and opportunity. It's going to be a challenge but also expose me to other players who love baseball just as much as me," Kersting foretold. "I think it will be very cool to see the competition that I'm competing with in my age group. It's going to be cool to see where it progresses after high school."
During his first year on the Patriots junior varsity baseball team, Kersting split his time between the outfield and being a right-handed pitcher. He tallied a 5-0 record in 7 starts on the mound. In 31.1 innings pitched, the superb sophomore recorded a 1.74 earned run average, 39 strikeouts and 10 walks with 17 hits allowed.
"Being coached by (Mike) Papas, he's a great coach and knows his players. He works us as hard as he can to push all the talent out of them. This year all the teammates worked hard together to get our undefeated season. We couldn't have done it without each other," Kersting recalled. "I've been playing since I was about 3 and the biggest one of my trainers is Matt Trask, he's a coach in Davis that has helped me so much. He's an amazing guy and knows what he's talking about. I'm so appreciative of all the work he puts in for me."
In its final season in the Golden Empire League, Pioneer was 11-0 against league rivals. The Patriots finished 17-5-1 overall. Pioneer joins the Monticello Empire League next year.
Patriots varsity baseball head coach Craig Marquez is no stranger to instructing future Division I pitchers. Class of 2023 alumnus Carson Timothy is playing at UC Santa Barbara. Recent graduate Matias Michel is headed to Sacramento State. Incoming senior Drew Van Court is committed to play at TCU.
"I've known Drew (Kersting) for a while, he was at Douglass where we did some stuff together in the offseason. He's a great kid, has a big frame like all pitchers need," Marquez explained. "I didn't get a huge chance to see him. I saw him pitch once when we were off and I helped Papas coach one game. Pretty much like all the young kids that we've had come through the program, the sky is the limit and it's about how much effort they put into it.
"He's pretty excited about it and has been working his butt off. It's fun to watch the younger kids follow the older kids and what our program presents for everybody."
Marquez works closely with JV coach Mike Papas to develop each student-athlete's individual skill set.
"It's just a matter of dedication from the kids. With Mike, he gets these kids ready to go and points them in the right direction. It all depends on the development and is a fun process to watch. It's a testament to Pioneer always having good pitchers, so let's get after it and put the hard work in. A lot of it is maturity and seeing what they need to do," Marquez said. "The key is always seeing the needs and pieces that you want. Sometimes it's not always 'best player,' it's the need of the varsity level. The ideal thing is to let them mature at their grade level and go from there. I always tell the program that 'you never know.' Pitching, you're going to take your lumps as a younger kid."
Kersting has aspirations to continue his career on the diamond at the collegiate level.
"The exposure that I'm going to get from this is going to be amazing. I want to go to college, get a good education and have a scholarship. The big goals are starting and it's exciting," Kersting foreshadowed. "I'm a hands-on guy and love building things in my garage so I want to do something in engineering or mechanics. A school like Cal Poly, where the baseball team is great and the engineering school is amazing, my aunt and uncle went there. I think it's a really cool way to get both baseball and education out of it."
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