WHEATFIELD — Niagara-Wheatfield baseball coach Jim Hagerty hadn’t worried about the shortstop position in a few years. Throughout the Falcons’ run to three straight Niagara Frontier League titles, Jon Smith was the definition of consistency up the middle. He parlayed those efforts into a scholarship to Niagara University, where he’s currently seeing action in the outfield.
So with the two-time Niagara Gazette Player of the Year now donning purple and white, Hagerty had to find a replacement. But he’d already found one in junior Chris Gruarin.
“He tried it out last year down in Florida and I saw enough that I thought it would go this way this year,” the coach said of Gruarin.
In fact, Hagerty even suggested that if Gruarin hadn’t endured arm trouble that he likely would’ve seen action somewhere other than first base — his position the last two seasons.
For Gruarin, it was an opportunity to return to the spot he had grown up playing while in Little League.
“I had played shortstop my whole life,” he said. “You get to be involved with everything. It’s fun.”
Both player and coach believe the transition has gone well and will continue to do so as long as Gruarin continues to work at it. Hagerty said Gruarin has a stronger arm than Smith, but still needs plenty of work on his hands and footwork.
Another area where Gruarin is still catching up to Smith is at the plate. Although Gruarin hit close to .350 the last two seasons, he’s done even better this year, including an impressive 5-for-5 performance against Lew-Port ace Jeremy Willard a few weeks back. Gruarin believes it’s just a product of hard work.
“I worked all winter on keeping my elbow down and staying back on the ball,” he said. “I had trouble sitting on the curve last year, but now I’m taking those pitches to the opposite field.”
Hagerty agreed.
“He’s worked real hard at it,” the coach said of his approach at the plate. “He’s always had good power, but what he’s done now is shrink down and eliminate some of those soft spots in the strike zone. He’s made it difficult in the ways you can throw to him.”
So with a lot of the same baseball tools and striking similarities in size — both are in the 6-foot-3, 190-pound range — is it fair to compare Gruarin to Smith?
Gruarin was extremely modest, but did say he considered Smith to be a role model. Hagerty also shied away from the comparison, but instead wanted to talk about their approach to the game.
“A lot of kids think they are good enough and they don’t have to work at it, but both of those guys work really hard to get better even though they’re already pretty darn good,” Hagerty said.
Gruarin hopes to follow in Smith’s footsteps and earn a Division I scholarship in 2009, but right now he’s focused on keeping the Falcons in the hunt for another league championship.
“If we can be more consistent and keep our bats going, hopefully we can win out and that’ll be enough to win another NFL title,” he said.
Contact reporter Nate Beutel at 282-2311, ext. 2262.
CHRIS GRUARIN
• SCHOOL: Niagara-Wheatfield
• SPORT: Baseball
• GRADE: Junior
• POSITION: Shortstop
• COACH’S QUOTE: “He’s made it difficult in the ways you can throw to him.”
— Jim Hagerty
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