Peninsula grad, pitcher Smith commits to Texas Rio Grande Valley

Garrett Smith, a 2015 Peninsula High School graduate, recently announced his verbal commitment to play baseball at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Smith, a right-handed pitcher, spent the past two seasons going to school and playing baseball at Tacoma Community College.

Smith wound up at TCC because of head coach Ryan Mummert and his ability to move players to the next level.

“He has a great reputation for moving guys onto the D-I level,” Smith said. “And TCC does well every year. I wanted to go to a community college and get some experience under my belt, improve as a player and improve physically.”

He certainly did that, adding about 30 pounds to his frame over the past two seasons. Smith posted a 4.06 ERA over two seasons at TCC.

Smith’s play and improvement earned him a scholarship and a roster spot for the Rio Grande Vaqueros.

“It’s really fulfilling,” Smith said. “Until my junior, senior year of high school, I thought I’d be going the route of playing college basketball. But I just grew a love of baseball, and kept putting in hard work, especially over the past year. So it’s very fulfilling.”

Smith said he was intrigued by the prospect of playing for UTRGV coach Derek Matlock, who has coached 2016 NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta and 2014 AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber.

Before taking the UTRGV position, Matlock spent the past five years as the recruiting coordinator and pitching coach at West Virginia and 19 years prior coaching in Texas.

Smith’s fastball sits in the upper 80s to low 90s and he boasts an above-average change-up and a slider.

While at TCC, Smith worked hard to become a more-complete pitcher.

“Just getting a lot of innings, facing college competition,” he said. “When I was in high school, I just tried to strike everyone out. You can’t really do that in college. So that, and just trying to limit walks. Growing up, I never had a problem with people getting hits off me. But I had a problem with walks. So just limiting that — I’ve gotten better at it.”

Smith said he’s excited to get his junior season started.

“They’ve been down the last couple years but they brought in a new coaching staff and they have a lot of energy to turn the program around,” Smith said. “I’d like to be a part of that. The head coach has a very good track record of developing pitchers.”

Smith will head to Texas in late August.

This story was originally published July 27, 2017 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Peninsula grad, pitcher Smith commits to Texas Rio Grande Valley."