With Rapids pitcher in control, team flying high

by JOE BISSEN staff writer

When he has time to warm up, Grand Rapids pitcher Mark Sonaglia is nearly untouchable. Even when he's not at his hottest, he's always in control.

The latter version of Sonaglia wasn't untouchable Thursday, but he was in control of Proctor's batters, shutting out the Rails 12-0 in six innings in the first game of a high school baseball doubleheader at Proctor.

[Grand Rapids] won the second game 11-2 as Bill Kinnunen pitched a five-hitter and hit a two-run home run.

Sonaglia has controlled every team he's faced in 1984. He's been around the plate more than Charles Barkley. In 32 innings, he's struck out 32 batters and walked just one.

"If he throws around the plate, he's tough to beat," said Grand Rapids Coach Bob Streetar. And, says Streetar, "He's usually pretty much around the plate."

Which, logically, means he's tough to beat. The senior right-hander is 4-0 this season and was 11-1 last spring. He kept his record perfect Thursday by striking out six Proctor batters and, in his only "streak" of wildness this spring, throwing four balls to Kevin Starren to lead off the third inning.

Sonaglia, looking a lot more upset with himself than more mortal pitchers who walk, say, three, four batters a game, bent over and bowed his head for a minute before going after the next batter.

"I wanted to go awhile without any (walks)," said Sonaglia, as if 28 innings without a walk wasn't awhile.

It wasn't the only time during the day the 6-foot-3, 180-pounder was upset with himself. He gave up an unusually high total -- for him -- of four hits, yet only one runner made it past first base because Sonaglia never got himself in trouble with walks and [Rapids] made no errors behind him.

Sonaglia's fastball didn't have a ful head of steam, probably because last week's snowfall drove [Rapids] inside and kept Sonaglia off a pitching mound for more than a week.

"He's a few weeks away from top shape," said Streetar. "I think when he gets in shape, he's got potential."

"Potential" is right. Potential enough to have visited colleges like Arkansas and Florida, to have received hundreds of calls and letters from colleges from the Big Eight to the Big Ten, and to have attracted two major league scouts -- "Cobby" Saatzer of the Phillies and Dale McReynolds of the Dodgers, who signed Bob Welch and Steve Howe -- to see Sonaglia pitch Thursday.

The scouts weren't convinced that Sonaglia could step into Veterans Stadium tomorrow and whip three fastballs past Mike Schmidt, but they said he clearly was a college-caliber pitcher. McReynolds timed Sonaglia's top pitch at 80 mph; Streetar said he hit 90 mph last summer. Since then, he has added a new pitch.

"Last year, I was almost 90 percent fastballs," said Sonaglia. "This year, I'm working on a slider, and that helped me today."

If Sonaglia wasn't in top form Thursday, Grand Rapids' batters were. [They] piled up 12 hits in the first game and 11 in the second as the winners of the last seven Region 7AA titles raised their 1984 record to 6-0.

"Maybe it's bragging a little bit, but we should go undefeated" in the regular season, said catcher Carl Burton, who backed his boast with his bat, going 3-for-3 with a double, two runs batted in, a walk and a stolen base in the first game. He followed with a two-run double in the nightcap.

"I've never seen Rapids hit the ball that well," said Coach Rich Petersson of Proctor, which fell to 2-3. "We're not talking about bleeders here."

Tom Streetar, the son of the coach, was around the plate as often as Sonaglia. [Rapids]' shortstop is inexplicably nicknamed "Turtle," but he sped around the basepaths and scored seven run in the two games while going 4-for-5.

Other hot hitters for [Rapids] were: Dan Renner, 4-for-6 including three RBI in the first game; Rich Sanders, 2-for-2 in the nightcap; and Steve Anderson, two hits in the second game.

Starren homered and doubled in the second game for Proctor, while Randy Fietek had three hits in the doubleheader.

(Duluth News Tribune, May 4, 1984)