Rome Sentinel

Reliever Schoff caps off first Class A baseball season for Fredericksburg

BY KENNY KUDREWICZ Special to the Daily Sentinel

Former Rome Free Academy and Bryant University standout Tyler Schoff has completed his first full season of minor league baseball, playing for the Fredericksburg Nationals, the Class A team in the Washington Nationals organization.

“It was a good year,” Schoff said. “Definitely found out that it’s a long season. I had a couple of good stretches and a couple of bad.”

The 6-foot-4 right-hander finished the season with a 6-3 record, sporting a 4.89 ERA in 35 games. Schoff, who is a Lee Center native, struck out 60 batters while issuing 20 walks. He recorded his first career save this season on May 29 against Salem.

“I had to go back to the drawing board sometimes and reevaluate,” Schoff said. “I really learned about the grind of minor league baseball.”

Schoff said he had a few different roles coming out of the bullpen for the Nationals; coming in as a long reliever and throwing toward the back end of the game.

“I liked coming in as long relief because I was able to throw more pitches,” Schoff said. “I learned how to pitch at this level, and I learned more about batter tendencies like what they’re looking for in certain counts. But I’ll come back and be ready for next season.”

This season, Schoff said he went through a stretch where he was missing a lot of bats, crediting his off-speed stuff. Missing bats is something teams look for at the Class A level. He said his velocity wasn’t where it was last year, but he worked on his offspeed more.

“This off-season, I’ll be working on getting my velocity up,” Schoff said. “I’ll be working with Cressey Sport Performance in Massachusetts to get stronger and reach the velocity I know I can reach.”

Schoff added he was healthy all season, something he said is one of the best things you can do for a team.

“The best ability is availability,” Schoff said. “Constantly being around and being ready whenever the team needs you is something that goes a long way.”

As for his time being home during the off-season, he wants to continue to stay healthy and give back to the community by giving lessons at Accelerate Sports Complex in Whitesboro.

“I’m going to try to have a strong off-season and get off to a hot start next season and hopefully make it to Double A,” Schoff said.

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2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

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