Soon after earning multiple honors during his freshman season at Lehigh University in the spring, Levi Stoudt decided scrap his curve ball, a pitch that never felt comfortable coming out of his hand.  He replaced it with a slider, which is delivered

d from the same arm slot and with the same arm speed as his fastball.

            Stoudt has spent the summer with the Quakertown Blazers working on his new breaking pitch. The Pennsburg resident and Perkiomen School graduate has also developed a two-seam fastball that features arm-side run.

            Though his earned run average is 4.56, Stoudt pitched well enough to earn a spot in Monday's Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League All-Star game at Memorial Park Stadium. In 23 2/3 innings, he has registered 23 strikeouts and issued just seven walks. Opposing hitters in the wooden-bat league are averaging just .239 off the hard-throwing right hander.

            "The numbers don't tell the full story with Levi," said Quakertown manager Chris Ray. "Everyone knows he has earned the right to be an all-star."

            While continuing to rely on a four-seam fastball that can reach 96 mph and a Vulcan changeup, Stoudt has incorporated a two-seam fastball in the mid-80s that runs into right handed hitters and runs away from left handed hitters.

            Between games of a doubleheader against visiting Staten Island on Sunday at Memorial Park Stadium, Stoudt conceded that his desire to work on the new pitches have hurt his results.

            "I'm not going to make any excuses," he said. "But my focus has been learning to throw the slider. I'm not here to just throw no hitters. My goal is to get better."

            Stoudt, who is constrained to a 30-inning limit imposed by Lehigh head coach Sean Leary, allowed 10 earned runs on 15 hits in his initial three starts for the Blazers. In his two most recent starts, the results have improved. On July 4, he allowed two hits over six innings to post the mound win in a 3-2 victory over Allentown. Seven days later, he allowed just two hits and a walk in five shutout innings against South Jersey.

            "Levi is starting to understand when he needs to use his fastball and when he should rely on finesse to keep his pitch count down," Ray said.

In the spring, Stoudt was named to Collegiate Baseball's Freshman All-American team and earned a Second-team all-Patriot League Team honors.

            Pitching in the conference, he led Lehigh in innings pitched (61.2) and starts (12) and tied for the team lead in wins with four. Stoudt posted the second-lowest ERA (2.34) among the team's starting pitchers and third-lowest ERA among all pitchers and finished second on the team in strikeouts with 45.
            In the Patriot League, he posted the second-lowest ERA among all pitchers and allowed the second-lowest amount of earned runs (16) and total runs (24).

Despite his success, Stoudt wanted to improve his breaking pitch.  Though he toyed with multiple curve ball grips over several seasons, Stoudt said he could never discover a comfortable delivery.

After reading an article about New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard, who said he threw his slider exactly the same as his fastball, the young pitcher decided to copy the major leaguer.

            "The pitch is getting better," said Stoudt, who will likely make his final start of the season against the Ocean Gulls on Saturday. "Throwing a slider this way is just one less thing to think about."