By: Trevor Hampton

Alexander Trautner, a 6-foot-3, 210 pound ambidextrous pitcher from San Ramon Valley High School has committed to the Creighton University Bluejays’ D1 baseball program out of Omaha, Nebraska.

Trautner had garnered interest from Kansas, Hawaii, and Utah Valley among other D1 baseball programs.  However, Creighton University had special interest in him because of his unique ambidextrous pitching ability. The school in Omaha had previous success with nationally recognized ambidextrous pitcher, Pat Venditte, drafted twice during college, now pitching with the New York Yankees’ AAA organization.

While Trautner did have interest in warmer-climate D1 baseball programs, he felt Creighton’s previous experience in successfully developing a collegiate pitcher into now a professional ambidextrous pitcher would work to his favor,  “Creighton certainly demonstrated their ability to develop an ambidextrous pitcher in the way of Pat Venditte, a special type of pitcher, and a player I truly admired and modeled myself after as a young little league pitcher”, Trautner said.

After a successful varsity baseball stint with San Ramon Valley High School, and the Danville HOOTS baseball program, Trautner is now playing with the Neptune Beach Pearl, a summer California Collegiate League team out of Alameda, CA, under 30 year baseball coaching veteran, Brant Cummings.  With the Neptune Beach Pearl collegiate team this season he has pitched ambidextrously on the fly during the game, lefty vs. lefty, and righty vs. righty with the help of his specially crafted custom Mizuno ambidextrous glove.  On Father’s Day at Washington Park in Alameda, CA, Trautner pitched six complete ambidextrous innings, surrendering just one run, and obtaining the win for the team.

Creighton University is the top-ranked academic school in the mid-west, a private Jesuit school with approximately 7,000 students, and also the home of TD Ameritrade Park, the venue of the annual College World Series.