Baseball: Zach Mantel gives Lake Central a boost with his glove, arm and brain

By Mark Lazerus 648-3140 or mlazerus@post-trib.com June 7, 2012 11:42PM

Indians catcher Zach Mantel tags home plate forcing Bulldogs Jake Lindeman out off of a base hit by Bulldogs Brett Bayer in the top of the 5th inning at Lake Central High School on Thursday April 12, 2012. | Jim Karczewski~for Sun-Times Media

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Northern
semistates

At Kokomo
(Highland Park)

Class 3A: Western (23-9) vs. Bellmont (24-8), noon Saturday

Class 4A: Lake Central (30-1) vs. Zionsville (28-5), to follow

At South Bend Clay
(Coveleski Stadium)

Class 1A: Fort Wayne Blackhawk (22-6-1) vs. Lafayette Central Catholic (29-4), noon Saturday

Class 2A: Hebron (20-8) vs. Northfield (27-5), to follow

Updated: June 8, 2012 2:09AM

In the days leading up to Memorial Day, Lake Central catcher Zach Mantel drank a lot of water.

A lot of water.

?I just kept drinking gallon after gallon a day,??Mantel said with a laugh. ?I?actually gained eight pounds.?

Why? Because he knew he?d spend up to 14 innings behind the plate that Monday ? squatting with all that heavy equipment on, hauling in 90-mph fastballs, diving in the dirt to block balls, trying to pick off runners at all three bases, and generally running the game for the Indians defense in the sectional semifinal and championship game.

Takes a lot out of you. Literally.

?I?don?t know how he does it sometimes,? said Lake Central ace Jimmy McNamara. ?I?d sign up for a different position.?

Catchers are a special breed. It takes a certain mix of cunning, conditioning, courage and, yes, craziness to take on a role that?s always so demanding, yet often so unnoticed.

A great catcher is hard to find. And as far as Lake Central coach Jeff Sandor is concerned, he?s got the best one around ? one big reason why the top-ranked Indians (30-1) are regional champions, and facing Zionsville (28-5) in the Class 4A northern semistate at Kokomo?s Highland Park on?Saturday afternoon.

?He?s the most important kid on the field for us,??Sandor said. ?It?s his job to communicate what we?re doing from a first-and-third standpoint. It?s his job to monitor the runners and look for signals from the fielders. It?s his job to communicate anything we say to the rest of the kids. And it?s his job to handle a lefty whose ball moves all over the place (McNamara)?and a righty who?s got it up in the low 90s (Taylor Lehnert)?for seven innings. The kid?s unbelievable.?

Mantel?s got a cannon, too. He?s thrown out nearly 75 percent of would-be base-stealers over the last two years ??an astounding number at the high school level ? and has three pickoffs at first base this season.

He even calls his own pitches when McNamara is on the mound. The two have been batterymates since they were 13 years old ??they live two houses apart ? and Sandor trusts the two of them to make the right pitch every time. And even though McNamara?s a headstrong kind of guy, you?ll rarely see him shake off Mantel.

?We definitely have a nice connection,? McNamara said. ?It just gets in such a rhythm where I?know what he?s going to call before he throws the number down.?

That?s because Mantel knows what?McNamara wants to see.

?I?ve been working with him so long that I?know him probably better than he knows himself,??Mantel said. ?We know what works, we know how to get people out.?

So while Sandor and his staff call the pitches whenever anyone else is pitching, they just get out of the way when it?s McNamara and Mantel. They simply give Mantel and McNamara a scouting report on the opposition, and let them do their own thing out there.

Given McNamara?s 9-1 record and 0.75 ERA against some of the best teams in the region and the state, it seems to be working.

?Jim?s his own breed,? Sandor said. ?I?don?t think any of us are as smart as him, or can think like him, at least. Zach?s ability to receive him, and understand baseball and understand hitters, it?s amazing.?

Sandor?s trust in his backstop goes beyond choosing between fastballs and curves. In the few hours between games at the LaPorte Regional last Saturday, Sandor briefly mentioned to Mantel that Penn likes to try a delayed double steal when it has runners at first and third. He said if that happens, Mantel should stand up, look back the runner at third, walk toward second and fire a strike to second.

?We didn?t practice it at all,??Sandor said.

Didn?t need to. Sure enough, in the top of the third, Penn had runners at first and third with one out. The guy on first broke, Mantel stood up, stared back the runner at third, fired a strike to second, got back to the plate, took the throw from second and nailed the runner at home.

It helps that Mantel?s got a 4.0 GPA and is headed to Purdue. It wasn?t an easy decision to pick academics over baseball ? despite his modest hitting numbers (.273, three home runs, 18 RBI), he had college baseball options ??but Mantel said he was raised to always put academics first.

?He?s going to go be an engineer and make a lot more money than I?ever did,? Sandor said.

In the meantime, he?s got at least one more ??two, he hopes ??games left behind the plate for Lake?Central. And should the Indians win, whoever starts, McNamara or Lehnert, likely will get most of the credit.

That?s just the life of a catcher. You sacrifice your body, you sacrifice your ego ? but if you?re good at your job, you?re the team?s backbone, whether anyone realizes it or not.

?Me and Tay didn?t even realize it until (Sandor)?talked to us a few days ago,? McNamara admitted. ?I think he?s one of the best defensive catchers in the state. The way he calls pitches, frames pitches, blocks balls, the way he leads the team ? you sometimes take it all for granted. I think I?m just spoiled.?

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