Baseball: Crutchley likes being a lost cause

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Thomas Crutchley is undefeated. He’s also his team’s biggest loser.

The senior reliever for Placentia El Dorado is thriving after dropping nearly 90 pounds two years ago in an attempt to revive his baseball career.

‘We told him at the end of his freshman year, if you have any chance of playing [varsity], you have to lose some weight,’ Coach Steve Gullotti said.

So Crutchley gave up soda, switched from white to wheat bread and hit the streets, running at least 1 1/2 miles a day. Gullotti often spotted Crutchley running in his neighborhood and pulled his car over to yell ‘Atta boy!’

Crutchley’s weight plummeted from 273 pounds at the beginning of his sophomore year to about 185 by year’s end.

But Crutchley, who had been big ‘pretty much all my life,’ lost more than weight; he also lost strength and struggled his junior season on the varsity team in a limited role as a first baseman/designated hitter.

Crutchley’s fortunes changed when he asked Gullotti to watch him throw in the bullpen, where he displayed a two-seam fastball that resembles a sinker as well as a nice cutter and slider.

Crutchley, who had pitched for the Golden Hawks’ lower-level programs, won a spot in the bullpen and has become a dependable setup man, going 2-0 with a 5.44 earned-run average.

‘The biggest thing with him is lack of experience,’ Gullotti said. ‘Every time out is a new experience for him.’

The 6-foot-2 Crutchley has added about 15 pounds of muscle and now weighs 200. He no longer has trouble running or making adjustments on the mound because of his weight.

‘I pretty much realized that I wanted to play varsity baseball, so I put a lot of work in and did everything in my power to get there,’ Crutchley said of his transformation.

Also a top student, Crutchley said he planned to attend UC San Diego and try out for the baseball team. But he’s already served as an inspiration to his teammates and coaches.

‘For us it’s tough to lose five pounds,’ Gullotti said, ‘and here’s a teenage kid with all the temptations and schedule demands losing about 100 pounds over an entire year. It’s incredible.’

--Ben Bolch