Skip to main content

Alex Urbanek - ambidextrous pitcher

Alex Urbanek

Hometown: Story City, Iowa

School: Roland-Story High School (Class of 2014)
Roland-Story High School Honor Roll

Height/Weight: 5'8" 145 (JR)
Bats: Right (former switch hitter)

Throws: Both
Positions: LHP/RHP, 1B (Left), C (Left)

Gloves: uses two different gloves for pitching

Pitches: Fastball, curveball and change-up

When he started:
Started switch pitching in games when he was 12 years old.


Naturally right-handed, Urbanek’s mom and dad taught him to throw left-handed when he was young. His family is big into baseball. (amestrib.com)

Alex Urbanek has been throwing with both hands since Little League. Initially, his parents trained him as a southpaw, although he is naturally right-handed. In Little League, he was a switch-hitter - but in high school, he bats right-handed. 
In addition to switch pitching, Urbanek plays first base and catcher - both left-handed.

Roland-Story sophomore can bring it from both sides
By Tommy Birch, The Des Moines Register

Roland-Story's Alex Urbanek has been pitching with both hands since Little League. Urbanek also plays first base, strictly as a left-hander, and has a left-handed catcher's mitt. Urbanek bats primarily from the right side.

STORY CITY, IA. — Alex Urbanek’s parents taught him to throw left-handed when he was a youngster. Several years later, he discovered that he could throw right-handed, too. Now the Roland-Story baseball player is a rare commodity: an ambidextrous pitcher. Read more

Interview with ambidextrous pitcher Alex Urbanek (video)
..

Baseball: Urbanek is Roland-Story’s ambidextrous pitcher


STORY CITY — A chorus of screams blurted from Webster City’s dugout along the third-base line.
“New pitcher.”
A smile broke on Alex Urbanek’s face as he threw his final warm-up pitch before the top of the sixth inning. His teammates chuckled from the diamond and in the dugout along the first-base line.
The joke was on the Lynx.


Baseball: Urbanek leads rout of Gilbert

By Dan Wright, June 26, 2013

Like any hitter, Roland-Story first baseman Alex Urbanek would like to be able to look at his batting average and be able see the results from all the work he puts in at practice. 

He just missed a fourth hit in the seventh but lined out to the Tiger second baseman.
But getting three hits on four solid swings? Urbanek can’t complain.
Read more


Alex Urbanek Baseball Profile | Perfect Game USA

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pitchers Glove Rules - Size and Color

What are the rules on a pitchers glove? According to the official baseball rules, a pitchers glove can be up to 12 inches in size , of any weight , and any color except white or gray as long as it is not distracting.  The Akadema ABX-00 glove, pictured above, is 12 inches,  solid black and is not distracting according to local umpires. Little League Rules Gray glove is not allowed for pitching  White glove is not allowed for pitching Little League Rule 1.14: Each fielder, other than the first baseman and the catcher may wear a glove not more than 12 inches long nor more than 7 3/4 inches wide, measured from the base of the thumb crotch to the outer edge of the glove. The glove may be of any weight. Little League Rule  1.15 (a) : The pitcher's glove may not, exclusive of the piping, be white or light gray, nor, in the judgment of an umpire, distracting in any manner. (source: Little League Baseball Rules Regarding Bats and Gloves ) Off

Fastball Velocity - How fast do kids throw?

How fast does a Little League pitcher throw? The average fastball is between 50-60 mph for a  pitcher in the Majors division of Little League (11-13 yo). Pitchers in the Little League World Series throw fastballs 60-70+ mph. Only a few pitchers touched 70+ mph in 2015 and 2016. One man-child hit 81 mph on the radar. This velocity is almost unhittable from 46 feet  and extremely rare for a 13 year old. #18 RHP Carlos Gonzalez - Panama 79-81 mph fastball  105 mph MLB equivalent reaction time #18 RHP Jaekyeong Kim - South Korea 75-76 mph fastball #19 RHP Ryan Harlost - Mid-Atlantic, Endwell, NY 71-74 mph fastball Threw a complete game to win the 2016 Little League World Series Loreto Siniscalchi , a 6'1" pitcher from Canada, threw in the mid 70s and completely dominated the hitters from Japan.  He led Team Canada to its first victory over Japan in 18 years. Big right-hander Isaiah Head from Kentucky threw 70-73 mph fastballs. His record was 3-0, 12 I

Baseball Glove Options for Switch Pitchers

Custom made  Mizuno ambidextrous glove Looking for a glove for a switch pitcher? Before spending hundreds of dollars on a custom glove, please think about age of the player and how much time they will spend pitching. Here are glove options for ambidextrous pitchers, based on age: Age 3-5 Kids don't pitch at this age. They should be learning the proper way to throw. Young kids should try catching the ball with two hands. Use tennis balls or foam balls for throwing. Forget about the low quality plastic glove - it's in the landfill within a year. Gloves are awkward for young kids. If they learn two hand catch when they are young and continue with the skill, they will do well fielding balls when they are older. Learning to throw with both arms is easy at this stage. If a child can throw with either hand when they are three-years-old, it doesn't mean that they are talented or ambidextrous - it just means that they are a typical kid. Gloves:  Buy a small leath