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JAMESTOWN — One of the early attendees of the Two Rivers Activity Center throughout baseball and into the American Legion Baseball season has been Connor Hoyt. The graduating senior gets his work done in the batting cages in the bubble at TRAC.
“I always have a busy schedule and I try to find my own personal time to work on my own swing outside of practice and outside of open gym, kind of stuff that I can focus on myself for the entire time,” Hoyt said. “I feel like in the mornings before everything happens in the day that’s the best time that I can work on myself and work on my own swing.”
The work has paid off for Hoyt, who has seen his average rise by over 100 points from .307 in his junior season to .422 in his senior season. Hoyt also added a .476 OBP, a .1031 OPS, 20 RBIs, 17 stolen bases and two triples. Hoyt pitched in three games, pitching 4.1 innings, striking out four hitters, with hitters having a .071 average against him. Hoyt made appearances on the WDA All-Conference and All-State teams as a result of his performance this season.
In five appearances for the Jamestown Eagles, Hoyt has yet to get a hit but has worked one walk and pitched in the second game of a doubleheader on June 7, and went four innings, striking out five with one earned run and five hits.
“I feel like the more work you put in, the better outcome it will be,” Hoyt said.
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Blue Jays head coach Jack Bowman said the improvements did not come without Hoyt’s hard work.
“Connor brought a lot,” Bowman said. “He was 40% of our offense, between his runs scored and RBIs, he provided 40% of our offense. Defensively, he was solid, offensively is where he really shined.”
Bowman noticed Hoyt take steps forward in his emotional fortitude from his junior to senior year.
“Last year, when things weren’t going well he got really upset and rode the roller coaster of emotions,” Bowman said. “This year, he was much better. He stabilized it and was able to work through some of the stresses of it. But when you hit .450, there are not a whole lot of the stresses. It makes it a little easier.”
Hoyt and his Blue Jays teammates finished their season with a fifth-place win on June 4 and played their first American Legion game on June 7. Hoyt said the quick turnaround helped himself and his teammates.
“We kind of just thought of the last game on Saturday as another game for Legion ball in a way,” Hoyt said. “Obviously, it was still the state tournament, we had the consolation game but we knew once the game was over we had more games coming up the next week. So, we mentally prepared ourselves that even though our spring season is over, we still have a lot of games coming up and pretty quickly too."
