Pair picked as all-stars
Shorstop, pitcher earn league honor
One Washington Wild Things player was selected to the Frontier League All-Star Game by becoming more effective at pitching inside to opposing hitters; the other honoree made a commitment to putting defense first.
Those are the two primary reasons why Cranberry native and Seneca Valley High School graduate Kyle Helisek and California native and shortstop Austin Wobrock were chosen to play in the Frontier League All-Star game that was played Wednesday in Schaumburg, Ill.
The joy, however, was short-lived for Helisek as the left-hander was placed on the Frontier League 14-day injured list last Friday and was going to undergo an MRI earlier this week. The team classified Helisek’s condition simply as “arm stiffness.”
Before the injury, Helisek was looking forward to competing in the annual event.
“It’s a great honor to be recognized,” he said. “There have been a lot of great players in the league.”
Helisek started seven games for the Wild Things before his injury, and he was 4-2 with a 1.71 earned run average. He has yielded just eight runs in 42 innings pitched.
A more effective approach to the game, Helisek believes, has paid off for him.
“What’s improved the most is my fastball command,” he said. “I've been able to throw inside to the hitters a lot more than I have before, and that’s just jumpstarted me to a whole new level of pitching. I can throw my fastball inside whenever I want to.”
The honor was the second for Helisek in his professional career. He was a Florida State League All-Star last year when he pitched for the Palm Beach Cardinals, the high Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Wobrock said his only other brush with an all-star team occurred when he was a youngster playing Little League baseball in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Like Helisek, Wobrock was called into manager Bob Bozzuto’s office a day before the Wild Things began their final road trip before the AllStar Game.
“He called me in, and said ‘Shut the door,’” Wobrock said. “He started wiping stuff off the white board, and I wondered what it was going to be about.
“He told me to sit down, and I said OK. I had no clue. He said ‘You know what I'm here to talk to you about?’ Honestly, I don't know. Meal money? He said, ‘I just wanted you to know you’ve been elected to the [East Division] All-Star team. I just said ‘Thank you,’ gave him a handshake and a hug. It was really nice. A good moment.
“I called my mom, dad, girlfriend and family.”
Following Sunday’s doubleheader at Rockford, Wobrock was hitting .240, a bit higher than the career .230 average he posted while playing for the University of Hawaii.
“That has to do with the experienced guys on the team and the coaches helping me,” he said. “It’s been a team thing. Everyone has more experience than I do, and it’s nice to pick their brains.”
One feature the Wild Things liked about Wobrock was his tenacious attitude about defense. There’s a big reason why he’s been labeled a “highlight reel defender.”
That approach was stoked during early-morning workouts in Hawaii.
“I’d wake up at 7 o’clock every morning and have one of my buddies hit me ground balls,” he said. “I said I’d buy him dinner. He would hit 200 ground balls in the morning before class every day. That’s what focused me.
“I had to beat another player out for a spot. He was the captain, and I had to beat him out to start. My goal was to play shortstop, and my friend hit ground balls every day, and I made only one error in the 52 games I played.
“My hard work paid off,” he added. “It’s been awesome. I’ve been called a rat because I’m diving everywhere. I have all this energy. But I feel like I have to practice the way I’m going to play.
“The next game could be