Hot Dog Baseball Senior Spotlight: When your starter gets into some trouble in the early innings of a big game, or the pitch count starts to pile up, deciding when to make a pitching change is one of the toughest in-game coaching decisions that we have to make. If you have Chris Sandoval, it’s never a concern. Not to undersell his talent, he plays the game at a high level, but Chris is the ultimate security blanket when things go sideways late(or sometimes early) in big games. While he could have easily been a conference starter throughout his career, Chris is at his very best when the pressure is on in the biggest moments. We decided early on that using him out of the bullpen in high pressure situations was the best use of him(and selfishly for the coaching staff). He may scatter a few hits, or even go deep into a count or 2, but I can’t think of a single time in his 3 varsity seasons when Chris didn’t give us a chance to win. People often talk about intangibles when it comes to athletes and athletic performance. Sometimes it can come across as a back-handed compliment. When I say that Chris Sandoval is the ultimate “intangibles” guy, there isn’t anything back-handed about it. His numbers have been really good over the past 3 seasons, but they don’t tell the whole story. He is a solid hitter in the middle of our order and he starts at multiple infield positions. But what he does on the mound is nothing short of incredible. The idea of using him in the bullpen role comes down to wanting to always have a chance to win when things matter the most. He never gets any “easy” innings, he never gets to pitch with a 6 or 7 run lead. This would probably wear on a lot of high school pitchers, but it doesn’t appear to have any effect on Chris. In fact, the higher pressure the situation, the better he seems to pitch. Chris Sandoval’s impact on Frankfort baseball has been immeasurable. He makes the game seem so simple…make quality pitches, let your defense make plays and take it one pitch at a time. His absence will lead to a lot more stress and some much tougher decisions to make for the coaching staff, but we’re definitely grateful for all of the stress he saved us during his time here..