Pitcher looks for 2nd crown

Pitcher joined Tri-city for stretch run of 2018 league championship; back again

Joey Gonzalez was only with the Tri-city Valleycats for two weeks at the end of the 2018 season, but that was long enough to help pitch Tri-city to a league title.

“Meeting new guys and winning a championship with them, it was a pretty unique feeling and one of my better moments in baseball for sure,” Gonzalez said Wednesday.

He’s back in Troy in a different role — starter instead of reliever — for the beginning of Tri-city’s 2022 campaign and could stay a while this time.

Gonzalez, 25, started both the Frontier League opener at the Florence (Ky.) Y’alls last Thursday and Tuesday’s home opener against the Lake Erie Crushers. The Valleycats won both games, though Gonzalez didn’t last long enough to earn the decision in either.

“He’s got nice command of the strike zone with each pitch,” new Tricity pitching coach Scott Budner said. “He uses three pitches and he commands all of them. I like how he pitches. I like his sequences. He knows what he’s doing.”

On Wednesday, Gonzalez watched as the Valleycats and Crushers played a game that Lake Erie won 5-3. The Valleycats loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth, but couldn’t score.

Gonzalez had a memorable first stint with the Valleycats, when they were still a short-season Class A affiliate of the Houston Astros. Drafted in the 28th round out of Stetson in 2018, he began his rookie season in the Gulf Coast League and appeared in 13 games there.

He was promoted to Tri-city on Aug. 27, 2018, with just a week remaining in the regular season. He appeared in three games for the Valleycats — two on the road to close the regular season and Game 1 of the New Yorkpenn League championship series against the Hudson Valley Renegades.

He threw a total 52⁄3 scoreless innings, including 12⁄3 in relief as the winning pitcher in Game 1 against Hudson Valley at Bruno Stadium. One night later, the Valleycats closed out the series at Hudson Valley and doused each other with non-alcoholic champagne on the field.

“It was pretty crazy,” Gonzalez recalled. “Those two weeks that were here was pretty incredible, just meeting all the new draft guys because I never really got a chance to meet them because they went from college straight to (Troy) and I was in the GCL. … It was just fun to be out here

and be part of a championship team.”

Gonzalez still has the ring at his home in Miami. But his career has moved on. He reached high Class A in the Houston system in 2019.

After the COVID -canceled 2020 season, Gonzalez took his first plunge into independent ball with the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association. The Goldeyes played most of their home games in Jackson, Tenn., because of Canada’s COVID restrictions. When the Goldeyes were ready to return to Winnipeg, Gonzalez couldn’t go with them because he wasn’t vaccinated. He says he is now.

Gonzalez got a call last season from Valleycats catcher Oscar

Campos, a 2018 teammate in Tricity, asking him if he wanted to return to Troy. Gonzalez had already shut down last season, but jumped at the chance when Valleycats manager Pete Incaviglia traded for him in February.

“I had good memories here and I’m familiar with the area and the fans, of course,” Gonzalez said. “It was nice to be back here and I wanted to be here.”

He said he prefers the starting role because it’s easier to get into a routine and prepare. He wants to get back to affiliated ball, but didn’t sound obsessed with it.

“That’s always the goal, but if that opportunity doesn’t arise, just make sure I contribute here and pitch well here to get another championship out here,” he said.

Note: The Valleycats and Crushers will wrap up their series at 10 a.m. Thursday in front of an Education Day crowd of schoolchildren.