On Tuesday May 9, 2023 Tyler Stark ‘24 got the chance to throw out the first pitch at Redwood Baseball Senior Night against Mt Whitney.
Tyler Stark ‘24 is a student here at Redwood, on May 9th 2023 he got the chance to put on a “prosthetic arm,” to throw out the first pitch at the Baseball game. A few Rangers who are in the ACE Academy, started working on this around August. Miles Largoza ‘23 is known as the group leader, he says, “The entire project took about 8 months (August 2022-May 2023), with us working for only 2 hours a week. There were delays that we ran into with the 3D printers, which slowed down the project enormously.”
Largoza adds, “It was a very fun and unique experience. It has been one of the first times that I was able to take all of the skills and information I have learned in the engineering program, and apply them to a real life scenario outside of the classroom.”
The group consisted of 5 Redwood Students, Miles Largoza ’23, Isaiah Largoza ‘25, Sam Kindschuh ‘23, Eric Barrios ’23, Orlando Ortiz ‘23 and Andrew Ramirez ‘26. The idea for this came from former ACE Academy student Alex Cortez, who was working with the XL program here at Redwood. Largoza says, “He saw Tyler and recognized that he might want to be able to throw a baseball, which led to him creating this program.”
Seth Lopez ‘23 got the opportunity to catch Tyler’s first pitch. He says, “It felt great! I was honored that I was able to catch the heater,” he adds, “It was just a great moment. It was almost like a season recap. The season was coming to an end and Tyler got to throw the pitch, something that we have been waiting for all season.”
Not only was this a heartwarming event for Tyler, the baseball team and the creators, but also for people who have known Tyler forever. Megan Perch, Jacob ‘23 and Alex Perch’s ‘24 Mom has known Tyler for a long time. “I was his first t-ball coach when he was 4 and from the first time I played catch with him, I knew that he’d be able to participate in any activity or sport that he wanted to and in any capacity,” she says.
Mr. Miller gets to spend first period with Tyler, Miller says, “ I asked Tyler “What’s your game plan?” He said “to throw strikes.””
Sevee Johnson ‘23 is a friend of Tyler’s, Johnson knew of him when he was playing Oak Grove in junior high football for George McCann, Tyler was on Oak Grove’s team. Tyler was given the opportunity to score the first touchdown for Oak Grove. He got super close with Tyler in his junior and senior years. Johnson says, “I took him to lunch the day of and he seemed pretty hyped about it. He said he was going to throw 95 mph like Joey right down the middle.”
This was such an amazing accomplishment for Tyler and everyone around him. Largoza says, “I feel great about it. As Mr. Miller said, “Redwood is a place where every kid should be celebrated”, and I’m glad I got to do that for Tyler.”
Tags: rangers, Redwood, redwood baseball, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, redwood sports, rhs, sports, visalia ca