Athlete of the Week: Chris Chism

Most of the attention for Alonso baseball gets drawn to big-league prospect and rightly so. Fernandez threw eighty-six innings, faced 329 batter and only gave up forty-three hits and twenty-two runs.

However, Chris Chism has been under the radar while pitching a monster of a season. With Fernandez taking the bulk of the starts, Chism only pitched thirty-seven innings this year but his 0.91 ERA is not just better than Fernandez’s, it’s thirteenth best in the state.

“I like to get that first pitch strike in there," Chism said. "Then get them with the curveball."

Chism admires the pitching style of Tampa Bay Ray, Matt Garza.

Chism has been with The Ravens all four of his high school years. He remembers winning states in 2009. Chism served as a relief pitcher last season. This was his first year as a staring pitcher and he made the most of it. In his thirty -seven innings of work, he only gave up twenty-two hits and just five earned runs.

“I love how baseball works,” said Chism. “You win games, then you move on.”

Chism knew he would be a pitcher from early on.

“My dad encouraged me to play baseball when I was a kid,” he said. "We would spray paint bases on the street and play right there.”

Chism moved his way through street ball to Skyway Little League then on to The Ravens baseball squad under Orlando Faedo. Chism worked his way up through the ranks of a deep Ravens team to emerge as one of their top pitchers and first baseman. He had 112 put outs and just two errors all season at first base.

He’s not too bad with that bat in his hand either. He has twenty hits on sixty-seven at bats this year while having knocked in thirteen.

Chism has not escaped everyone’s attention, however. He recently signed on to continue his playing career at St. Pete College. Joining him will be many other Hillsborough and Pinellas ball-players.