Hunter Renfroe earned the reputation for being a power hitter early in his Mississippi State University baseball career.
The rising junior may be primed to realize that potential thanks to a record-setting summer in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Summer Baseball League.
Renfroe already has broken the wood bat league’s single-season home run record with 10 in 17 games. The 6-foot-2, 211-pounder, who is in his second season with the Bethesda (Md.) Big Train club, also has matched his RBI total from last season with a league-leading 30.
“It’s not a matter of me seeing the baseball better or worse like everybody says, but it’s a real laid back atmosphere in the summer,” Renfroe said. “It allows me to work on things I need to improve and still put up numbers like I know I can.”
Renfroe, who became MSU’s version of a cult classic story as a freshman when teammates told stories of him hitting buildings more than 400 feet away in batting practice, has a slugging percentage that is 320 points higher (.928) than the league record.
“(Hunter) was by far the best prospect in this league this summer,” Bethesda manager Sal Colangelo told PerfectGame.com in August 2011. “He has the best raw power and arm strength I’ve ever seen from a player in this league, and if he continues to hit and hit with power, he’ll be a catcher at the next level.”
Perfect Game USA named Renfroe the top pro prospect on his team last year after he hit a club-record and league-leading eight home runs and helped power Bethesda to its third league championship.
Renfroe, who is playing center field and batting fourth every day, said he just wanted to work on pitch selection early in counts after struggling with flailing away at breaking balls in the dirt for strike three in his first year as a full-time starter this past season for the Bulldogs.
“It’s about attacking pitchers early in the at-bat,” Renfroe said. “A lot of times hitters just let guys get ahead of them by taking pitches, and I don’t want to do that anymore.”
Renfroe hit .252 this season, but he had five of his 14 multi-hit games in the final month, which helped him raise his batting average 20 points.
“I was waiting out pitchers last season and trying to get their pitch counts up, which is fine, but then I’d swing at strike three in the dirt and suddenly that’s a wasted at-bat,” Renfroe said. “Later in the year, I started jumping on fastballs early in counts more and had a lot success down the stretch.”
As he enters his third season at MSU, Renfroe hopes his performance in the summer allows him to be more consistent in 2013 and helps him have a breakout season. In 2012, he was third on the team with four home runs and tied for third with 25 RBIs. He also was second on the team with 51 strikeouts.
“It’s not about the summer numbers translating so much to the fall or next season but just maintaining a confidence level in what you’re doing every day,” Renfroe said.
When Renfroe enters the Cal Ripken League record books this season, he’ll be one of many former MSU players in the top spots in the history of the eight-year league, which officials hope one day will compete with the nationally recognized Cape Cod League.
Jarrod Parks, a former MSU third baseman who is playing for the Rookie League affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Orem, Utah, set the Cal Ripken League on-base percentage record (.526) in 2009.
“First thing I remember about that league was the host mom I set him up with because she’s the coolest person you could possibly be around that far away from home,” Parks said. “This lady comes down every spring to Mississippi State. I can tell you if you feel comfortable where you’re living, you’ll put up positive numbers.”
Renfroe said his host family, like 900,000 other people on the East
Coast this week, was without power for days in stifling heat after thunderstorms ravaged homes across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Ohio. The 20-year-old attended an Independence Day fireworks celebration Wednesday in front of The National Mall and U.S. Capitol Building.
Renfroe also is getting a chance to see and to play with catcher Zach Randolph, a former standout at Itawamba Community College who has transferred to MSU. While only hitting .105 in seven games with Bethesda, Randolph has impressed Renfroe with his ability to work with pitchers and with his play defense.
Randolph, of Amory, will compete for playing time in 2013 when Mitch Slauter, MSU’s primary catcher in 2012, needs a day off. Randolph earned All-State honors after hitting .283 with 15 RBIs in 34 games this past season.
“He really hasn’t gotten many at-bats (this summer), but he’s hit the ball hard,” Renfroe said. “The way he works with the pitchers and knows the game just like Mitch is going to impress the coaches.”
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