Green Bay, Wis. – Tim Shibuya (UC-San Diego) has a unique path to making it to the Northwoods League. He is one of the top pitchers at the division II level, but his way to making it to where he is now is an incredible story.

 

When you think of the top players, you think of players who are recruited into a program. This was not the case for Shibuya. Shibuya was not recruited out of high school, because Wyoming does not have high school baseball.

 

During High School, he played some American Legion baseball. In his eyes, he was good for the state of Wyoming, but he thought that was it. Shibuya planned to hang up the spikes once he went to college.

 

Shibuya heard about UC-San Diego from some of his dad’s clients. His dad is a ski instructor and some of his clients came from San Diego. They mentioned the great academics of UC-San Diego. Once he was accepted to the school, he went to orientation. Then, he went to the baseball field to see if they had any tryouts.

 

There were tryouts for the baseball team. Tryouts were a little bit of a blur for Shibuya, because there was so much going on. There were about 75 kids wanting to try out for the team. Shibuya sat there, waiting for his name to be called to throw his bullpen session. Once on the mound, Shibuya threw around four pitches in front of the pitching coach. The coach told him not to move and went to get the head coach. The head coach was talking to his assistant and said, “Who is taking me away from batting practice? I never miss BP.” Shibuya then threw two more pitches and the head coach said, “Who are you and where did you come from?” Shibuya said, “I’m Tim and I’m from Wyoming.”

 

After making the team as a walk-on, Shibuya played an important role on the UC-San Diego baseball team. His role on the team was middle relief. That means that he had to pitch from the starter to the closer, no matter how many innings that was. He logged around 70 innings in 29 appearances in his freshman year. Shibuya was named the Conference Freshman of the year in the CCAA. He also earned second team All-Conference, and second team All West Region.

 

As a sophomore, Shibuya served as the ace of the pitching staff. After posting an ERA of 2.28 in 118.2 innings pitched, he was named to the All-CCAA team, as well as NCBWA All-American. His success continued as a junior, as he helped lead the Triton baseball team to the Division II College World Series, where they took second place. He also picked up ABCA/Rawlings All-American honors as a junior.

 

Shibuya has some goals for his senior year out at UC-San Diego, but they are all team goals. First, he wants to win the Conference and then win the Conference Tournament. The next goal on his check list is to win the regional tournament, so that his team will advance to the Division II College World Series again. Shibuya’s final goal takes place at the College Worlds Series, when everyone on his team dog piles after they win the Division II College World Series. Shibuya said “We have been so close the last two years and in my last year, we are going all the way.”

 

Playing with the Bullfrogs will help Shibuya do his part to help UC-San Diego reach those goals. He said, “The opportunity to play in the Northwoods League is very special, especially for a team as competitive as the Bullfrogs. It is great to be able to play as many games against high level of competition to get ready for our season. “

Shibuya cannot put a number on how much time he put in to get to where he is now. But, he feels that there is always something he can do to make him better every day. Whether he is working in the weight room, or at pitchers fielding practice, to conditioning, to just throwing bullpens or long toss; there is always something that he can work on to help him improve. Even with all the hard work Shibuya puts in, he never thought that he would get as far as he has. He said, “The only way to beat talent is to work harder than the other team.”

 

Shibuya would not be where he is today if it was not for his hard work, and the excellent coaching staff at UC-San Diego. In his eyes, they are undoubtedly the best coaches in the nation. They have helped him transition from high school to being able to compete at the college level. His pitching coach has helped him with his mental game and also his outlooks on life. They put baseball into a perspective of just playing a game.

 

Come out and watch Shibuya and the other Green Bay Bullfrogs. They return to action after the all-star break on July 22, when they take on the La Crosse Loggers at Joannes Stadium. Don’t forget you can follow the Bullfrogs on Facebook and Twitter.