High school baseball: Lakeland Christian's Mack Estrada makes national showcase

Mack Estrada exhausted all his resources to become one of the top high school baseball players in the nation.

Following Estrada’s most productive year as an ace pitcher with the Lakeland Christian Vikings — Estrada went 8-0 with a 1.91 ERA and 59 strikeouts — the rising senior then set out to compete at the Perfect Game Sunshine East Showcase at the Boombah Sports Complex in Sanford on May 21.

Estrada in three innings struck out eight batters and topped out at 91 mph. He played so well that he was selected to compete at the national showcase, which is the second and final part of the process.

What is the Perfect Game showcase?

The Perfect Game National Showcase developed into the most prestigious showcase event in the entire amateur baseball landscape thanks to “promoting the game of baseball and it’s amateur players by providing scouting reports, grades and video clips.” There have been 435 former participants who have played in the big leagues, and more than 2,500 participants were selected in the MLB Draft. The actual national showcase is televised on the MLB Network and features the “top rising high school seniors in the country.”

Estrada, 17, said he is honored to be the only baseball player from Polk County to be selected to the national showcase.

“It feels pretty good,” Estrada said. “I know that if it weren’t for the people around me to do what they do that I wouldn’t be in the situation that I’m in now with my dad and my advisor having all these connections and my coaches teaching me, pitching coaches, trainers, all that, just preparing me. All of them have my best interest in mind, and I’m really thankful for that.”

Coaching, football help elevate Estrada in baseball

It all started when Estrada was in kindergarten attending Bevis Elementary in Lithia while playing Little League baseball in the Fishhawk Youth Sports Association in Lithia.

Thanks to Estrada’s father, Rick, who is friends with Joey Eischen, a former pitcher who played for five MLB teams in 12 seasons, the former big leaguer has been Estrada’s pitching coach since the age of 9.

Eischen used the different coaching tactics from all the skippers he played for while in the majors, and he taught Estrada beyond the mechanics beginning in Little League.

Still, developing the mechanics was one of the first lessons of Eischen's.

“Ever since I started going to him, I’ve always been mechanically sound, and I really never changed since I was 9,” Estrada said. “He pretty much built my foundation when it came to pitching. He always says, 'Master the simple things, and the rest will follow.’”

While Estrada paid careful attention to the fundamentals of baseball, he was equally passionate about football. The Valrico native started playing football in first grade. And Estrada said playing the game of football has not only kept baseball fresh, but there are taut moments on the football field that have helped his baseball mentality.

“Baseball is a really mental sport, and I think when you can master the mental toughness aspect of it, you’ll be successful. And I know that playing football, you really have to dig deep in some moments, and those moments can really make or break you — and they’ll show your character, whether it be fatigue or your team’s down and you just grit it out — stuff like that,” Estrada said.

And Estrada would go on to take this mentality into his first year at LSC, his eighth-grade year. He played baseball and football through his high school years. He would go on to become an all-county baseball and football player for the first time this past year — his junior year. He’s even an All-American on the Southeast Super-Region team as a linebacker and leads Polk County in sacks.

In baseball, Estrada acknowledges that being around the LSC program has made him step up his game.

“I was surrounded by Brody (Donay), two coaches that played pro ball, Matt Diaz and Mike Byrd, being surrounded by all those guys pretty much pushes you to not being mediocre,” Estrada said. “If all your friends are millionaires, you’re going to become a millionaire. You become like the people you are around the most, and that company definitely helped.”

That company led to a perfect season for Estrada, and a trip to the national showcase. Next up for Estrada will be gearing up for the national showcase through the end of the week at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: High School baseball