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Ho-hum approach works for Dunedin's Kreuter

By Bob Putnam, Times Staff Writer
In print: Thursday, May 8, 2008

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ADVERTISEMENT [MICHAEL C. WEIMAR | Special to the Times] Dunedin’s Max Kreuter doesn’t worry about nerves: “When you get to this point of the season, you’ve got to have fun.”

DUNEDIN

Max Kreuter's fastball is not fast (nearly 89 mph on his best day). His curveball barely curves. He has never thrown a no-hitter.

All he does is win games.

How?

The Dunedin left-hander finds a batter's weak spot and throws right at it nearly every time, which is probably why he has tied a school record with 11 wins this season.

In fact, the only loss in Kreuter's career came in last season's opener against Winter Springs, ranked fifth in the nation at the time. Kreuter has since won 20 straight and 22 overall in his career.

"Max is not going to wow you on the radar gun," Falcons coach Tom Hilbert said. "He just knows how to pitch."

Kreuter doesn't get tons of strikeouts. He doesn't pitch a lot of shutouts. In other words, he doesn't starve batters — he just serves them table scraps, stuff they can't really smack.

Lots of his pitches dribble into the infield. Almost none fly out of the park.

He does this by making his pitches dance away at the end, eluding the bat when it's flying forward. He tries to throw, from the same unhurried motion, at a wide variety of speeds.

"Basically I just try to throw strikes and pitch to contact," Kreuter said. "I let the guys play defense and we score a lot of runs."

In the second half of last season, Kreuter assumed the role as Dunedin's ace. He kept that position this year and pitched in the conference and district title games, as well as the region quarterfinals.

On Friday, he will pitch the opening game against North Port in the region finals, which is a best-of-three format this season.

"I don't really have a lot of nerves pitching in a game this big," Kreuter said. "When you get to this point of the season, you've got to have fun."

Bob Putnam can be reached at putnam@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4169.