The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.
Josh Fredendall, seen here in his days as a Hillsdale Knight, was named to the Pacific Association Division All-American Team.
College of San Mateo reliever Josh Fredendall agrees, the numbers he put up in 2011 are “crazy to think about.”
Actually, they’re even crazier to write about — at first glance you don’t know whether they’re typos, or inflated statistics posted by a player who didn’t play much, had one good game and thus his numbers went into the book.
But that isn’t the case with Fredendall; string his stats together and they add up to one thing: Domination.
The Pacific Association Division (PAD) agree and recently selected Fredendall to their 2011 All-American Team. The PAD is part of the American Baseball Coaches Association and is comprised of two-year college teams from California, Oregon and Washington. Fredendall was selected to the First Team. In other words, the sophomore was the best at what he does on the coast with the most.
“I didn’t look at stats or worry about them at all the whole year,” Fredendall said. “I was mostly reminded by my team at practice how I was doing. That was fun, funny — if they scored a run off me in intrasquad they would give me a hard time. During the year, I didn’t look at them at all, not once. I just felt good and confident.”
The honor is just the latest in a slew of awards given to the Hillsdale High School graduate. He was also selected to the All-Coast Conference team, the All-Nor Cal team and, at the end of May, was named to the Northern California All-American team. And with the season he had, it’s easy to see why.
Fredendall led the state with an earned run average that requires a microscope to see, 0.25. Opponents only hit .120 off of him and, in 36 innings pitched, he allowed a lone run and only one extra base hit all season.
To say that his sophomore year as a Bulldog was a breakthrough would be a complete understatement. Fredendall said he was seriously considering not playing baseball at CSM after his senior year and just going to a four-year university right after high school — he definitely had the grades to do it. But that thought changed after a bullpen session and a talk with CSM manager Doug Williams.
“I took that talk to heart,” Fredendall said about the conversation that revolved around hard work, academics and developing as a pitcher. After limited time on the field his freshman year and watching his team get to within a win of being state champions, a hungry Fredendall found the focus he needed to succeed during the summer.
“The most important part was winning,” Fredendall said of his first year. “But there was kind of like this empty feeling after we got to the state championship and we lost, like ‘wow, we got there, we did well, but we didn’t come home with a ring and a championship’ and that just kind of drove me over the summer. I hit the gym hard, and I dedicated myself to my training. That summer between freshman and sophomore year really helped me out. Putting in all that work and having a good summer pitching-wise gave me a lot of confidence going into my sophomore year. I knew because of the work that I put in, because of the things that I did over the summer that nobody saw, that I was going to make an impact this year especially being a sophomore and being a leader-type-of-guy. I just wanted to do the best I could to help this team win and I think that worked out pretty good.”
Did it ever. Fredendall dealt to start the year and didn’t stop dealing. He ran a scoreless streak that caught the attention of schools like Texas, San Diego, Boston College and Washington. And after the season ended in the playoffs, Fredendall made his choice, deciding to take his talent to UW.
“I really couldn’t have gone wrong either way,” he said about choosing between San Diego and being a Husky. “I love San Diego, but when I went to Washington, for me, it kind of like felt like this is where I belong.”
Fredendall leaves after a marvelous 2011 campaign, but he takes a lot with him up north from his time as a Bulldog.
“The team that I had, they’re like brothers to me,” he said. “We’ve been through so much together, that camaraderie that we had, and that family that we had, that’s the thing that I’ll remember the most. That’s the first thing that will pop into my head when I think of CSM. There wasn’t a raw egg in the bunch. Those guys are great and they’re going to go on and do great things no matter where they are. I know they’re going to succeed because they went through a program like CSM. Going up to Washington, I’ll definitely take that with me.”
