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09/01/2023 06:47 AMAntonio Lynk has never not had a baseball in his hand, while simultaneously housing the drive and determination to improve and succeed on his skills. This was quite evident this summer as he fanned batters across the Connecticut coast.
The now Branford High School junior started playing baseball around the age of 4 and never took up another sport aside from the diamond. This summer for the Madison 19-U Travel baseball team, Antonio emerged as a key piece on the bump as the club won 14 games en route to the 19-U East Shore Travel League Tournament crown. He posted numbers of a 2.14 earned-run average with 57 strikeouts in 32.2 innings of work in 2023.
“I have always enjoyed competing, and I felt I was able to compete at a high level. I like progressing my game; I have taken initiative in training and research to gain velocity. Knowing there is something higher to achieve gives me something to drive towards,” says Antonio. “I was coming off an OK high school season last spring, but the biggest thing for me this summer was my command. I was able to get ahead in counts and throw strikes. The velocity has always been there, and I have a large repertoire of pitches. The hitters did not know what was coming. I also got more comfortable with my Madison teammates and my catcher, and then the rest was history.”
In each battle of an at-bat, Antonio likes to throw heat in order to fire the opening salvo before putting opponents away with some of his off-balance tosses that can draw the ire of batters and throw their eyesight off.
“I like getting ahead with my fastball, but I have worked on my sinker this year, because I like having something with movement, plus it misses the barrels of the bats,” Antonio says. “I have also developed a splitter, and it gave me something that would change the hitters’ eye levels.”
The phrase “all in a day’s work” can also apply to Antonio when it comes to his attitude and mental fortitude when responding to a rough outing. He looks inward, but not for too long prior to applying what he learned from the reflection towards rebounding rather nicely.
“For me, it is about moving forward and knowing you cannot dwell on the past,” says Antonio. “I have a 24-hour rule where I take 24 hours to reflect after a bad outing. I take it from there and move on. I look where I fell short, but then I start moving forward the next day towards my next start.”
While he may hone in on the bump as a hurler, Antonio has learned to condition himself like an every day player and competitor by getting reps in the gym to better his entire physical entity and keep himself limber and ready for each of his appearances.
“The biggest thing for me has been a lot of strength training, plus conditioning with sprints. What has helped my velocity is adding strength and understanding my body and how energy moves up the chain when I throw,” Antonio says. “I have seen a clear increase in my velocity. Mechanics drills with plyo balls and just being more of an athlete has helped me so I am not just raw out there.”
Madison skipper Jason Vitale notes that there was no barrier when it came to Antonio bringing his acumen across the Shoreline for the squad, while being a terrific colleague in the clubhouse.
“Antonio is a special talent and those talents were on display all summer long,” says Vitale. “He bought into our coaching style and became a better player. It’s hard coming from a different town to play for a team you don’t know and players you’re not familiar with. Safe to say, he displayed great teammate abilities. I am glad he came to play for Madison and put his trust in our coaching staff.”
In reflecting back upon Madison’s summer successes, Antonio takes a call to the arms of the Madison squad. Yet in the big picture, everyone pulled their weight, including the mentors in the dugout, and paved the path to prominence and a league championship.
“Everyone played a major role on this team and did their job,” says Antonio. “Our pitching staff was dominant, and we did not give up too many hits and had a low combined earned-run average. Our team did not need to score too much in order to win. Our coaches were big, too; they took whole practices to work on any weaknesses. But our pitchers were able to shut hitters down as well.”
Heading into the upperclassmen portion of his run with the Hornets in Branford, Antonio is aware the club has come up short of a postseason berth recently. Still, he believes in the abilities of himself and the depth of veteran talent around him to push Branford back to postseason participation.
“I feel we have come up a bit short the last few years, but our main goal is to make states,” Antonio says. “We have the team necessary to do it. We have a lot of guys with varsity experience. Our main goal is to make states and make some noise once we get there, and I believe we can do it.”