Senior Logan Allen
is making all the right pitches for Orange City University.
Logan Allen was about to enter sixth grade when his future high school coach noticed him tossing around a baseball in the distance.
“Just his mechanics and the way the ball was coming out of his hand while playing catch, it caught my eye,” Orange City University coach Frank Martello said.
That first encounter took place during a summer workout in 2010 where Allen’s older brother, Hunter, was practicing alongside others on what would become the school’s first baseball team.
Since Allen joined the Titans varsity team as a sophomore in 2015, Martello has enjoyed watching his delivery even more. The senior lefthander has been practically unhittable from the mound and almost as dominant at the plate while spearheading a program that reached the state finals in 2015 and has won 20 games in back-to-back seasons.
Allen is 8-0 as a pitcher, with a 0.15 earned run average and 94 strikeouts in 47 innings. He has surrendered one run all year.
Allen is scheduled to start when University opens its postseason in a Class 9A, District 2 semifinal tonight.
The Titans face Lake Mary at Conrad Park in DeLand at 7 p.m. The winner is assured a regional berth.
“We know what it’s going to take to win,” Allen said. “We’ve been there, now it’s just up to us to get over the hump.”
Allen enters the playoffs also leading his team at the plate with a .439 batting average and team highs in hits (36), RBI (19) and doubles (13).
In three seasons he has compiled a 28-2 record with 331 strikeouts in 197 innings.
“Don’t let his mild manners and being a good student fool you,” Martello said. “He’s an old-fashioned ball player. He has an intensity about him, and he’s really a competitor when he’s out there.”
Allen’s throwback characteristics and inner intensity was on display — for better or worse — at the conclusion of the past two seasons.
As a sophomore he missed two weeks after coming down with mononucleosis, then returned in time to win five-straight postseason games to carry a team that barely finished above .500 to the state championship game.
“I was stuck in bed for a about a week and couldn’t really move or eat, so getting back into being able to perform was tough, but I knew it was something I had to do to be there for my teammates,” he said.
He returned as a junior to pitch 48 scoreless innings in a row. But that season ended abruptly in a region final loss to West Orange when a comment made under his breath got Allen ejected by the home plate umpire.
“My emotions got the best of me,” said Allen, who is typically stoic . “Obviously I acted in a way that was not normal, but that happens every now and then. It was a little frustrating not being able to finish out the game, and potentially being a reason why we didn’t win it.”
A 3.8 student, Allen has been characterized as calm and polite around school.
Martello said he carries that same persona onto the field, letting his actions speak for themselves.
“He’s usually pretty calm on the mound and doesn’t show a whole lot of emotion, and that’s ideal for a pitcher,” said senior catcher Jacob Molle, a UCF signee and one of five Titans seniors who signed baseball scholarships in November.
Allen, ranked No. 68 among high school prospects in March by Baseball Factory, was planning to reunite with his brother at Alabama State until a coaching change altered those plans.
He made the switch to Florida International after former Lake Howell player and Bethune-Cookman coach Mervyl Melendez left Alabama State to take over FIU’s program in June.
Allen has come a long way since the day Martello saw a tall, skinny gradeschooler tossing that ball around.
Now standing at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, he has added enough velocity on his fastball to break 90 miles per hour.
But he’s most proud of the progress he’s made that doesn’t register on the radar guns of pro scouts, who have flocked to his games this spring.
“The biggest thing for me has been mentally understanding that failure happens,” Allen said. “Obviously I’ve been in a situation where I’ve done pretty well, but I know that failure is going to happen, or that you’re going to be hit with adversity, and you just have to work through it.”