Schrader has eye-opening career night

Jake Schrader stepped to the plate Monday following a pep talk from Braves hitting instructor Ronnie Ortegon. Stay focused, be smart, relax.

Schrader, struggling with a .194 average this season, fell into a 1-2 hole against Greensboro starter Jarlin Garcia. He took a hack and fouled one off. A scary moment followed.

A blow to the face. Suddenly, nothing looked right.

"It hit me in my left eye," Schrader said of the foul ball. "My left eye was blurry."

A worst-case scenario for any batter, but Schrader shook it off and stayed in the game.

"I just tried just see the ball with my right eye and hit the ball," he said. "It happened to work, it was comical."

Schrader then crushed a pitch to deep left field for his first homer of the season, a three-run shot. He stayed locked in, finishing 3-for-5 with a career-high two homers and seven RBIs to lead Class A Rome past Greensboro, 14-9, at State Mutual Stadium.

"It was a weird at-bat," Schrader said. "The eye is good now, it's not blurry anymore. I've just got a couple lace marks above it."

 

The Braves' 27th-round pick last summer hit another three-run drive in the sixth and added an RBI single in the eighth to cap his best day as a pro. His Braves teammates hunted him down in the clubhouse shower and doused him with a cooler full of icy water afterward, he said.

"Relief," he said. "I've been struggling the past few games, I put in some early work with our hitting coordinator, but it was mostly psychological stuff. My stroke has been feeling good, but (Minor League hitting coordinator Ortegon) helped me out a lot."

Schrader's seven RBIs were the most ever for a Rome batter -- four players had previously plated six runs in a game: Diory Hernandez in 2004, Jamie Romak in 2006, Cody Johnson in 2008 and Robert Hefflinger in 2012.

The 23-year-old entered the game batting just .194 with no homers and six RBIs in a dozen games since receiving a promotion to the South Atlantic League. Hitless in his previous two starts for Rome, the University of Tampa product posted numbers Monday that weren't too far removed from his entire 2013 season total, when the first baseman hit .195 with five homers and 16 RBIs in 36 games with Rookie-level Danville.

"He told me, 'You're here for a reason, we know you can hit. You're a smart hitter, a mature hitter, let your approach work for you, don't let your mind race, focus on the task at hand,'" Schrader said of Ortegon's advice.

And Schrader, who helped Tampa win the Division II National Championship over Minnesota State last year, quickly went to work. Monday's effort raised his average more than 50 points to .244.

"I just try to go out and do what I have to do, play the game right way and play hard," he said. "It's rewarding that the Braves have that kind of faith in me, to move me up after last season. It felt really good, they have that much faith in me."

After striking out twice in the third and fifth innings, Schrader came back with a pair of runners on base in the sixth.

"In that situation, one out, first and second, I'm trying to hit the gap, help the team out," he said. "(Reliever Blake Logan) threw me first-pitch fastball inside, so I figured he would go off-speed. He threw me a curveball and hung it just enough."

After the game, which included a combined 23 runs, 28 hits and five errors, Schrader said his teammates were relentless.

"They gave me [a hard time], saying, 'Oh, you get hit in the eye, you hit two home runs.' I got a cooler of ice cold water dumped on me in the shower. It's all fun."

An eventful night -- maybe almost too eventful -- was just what the Florida native needed to kick-start his first full season.

"I've just got to remember to stay with my game plan," he said. "Once I try to do too much, I miss pitches. I need to stay with the same mind-set and try to put good swings on them."