Lombardozzi off to outstanding start at Double-A

Harrisburg Senators second baseman Steve Lombardozzi is off to an outstanding start following his promotion to Double-A last week. Lombardozzi is hitting .346 with two doubles in his first seven games for Harrisburg, after hitting .293 with 71 runs and 38 RBI for Potomac. His manager at Potomac, Gary Cathcart, says Lombardozzi is pretty special. "He is probably as focused a minor league player that I have seen at any level in all my years of coaching. "He is 21. The thing I would say about Stevie is, everything matters to him. Every pitch matters. Everything matters. He is the one guy that every single night I knew he was ready for every pitch on defense, and every pitch at home plate when he was swinging the bat. "It is a credit to his ability to focus, the way he stays in his routine. The way he plays every day. I think he is going to play for a long time." Cathcart says Lombardozzi was a quiet leader for the P-Nats and will do the same for the Senators. He wouldn't say it was a long time coming for the promotion, but he knew he would eventually get called up. "It is the minor leagues. It happens. You know you are going to lose your best players eventually, that is what we are here for. As for the team, oh that is a big loss, big loss. I was kidding last night, we are going to see how the body reacts without the I.V. in it. He was the I.V. He was the constant supplier of everything we needed: top of the order, defensively, running the bases." With Lombardozzi getting called up prior to the August 17 deadline for players to be at the Double-A level, so he is eligible to make the Arizona Fall league roster as one of the participants from the Nationals organization. Michael Burgess also could qualify. Pitcher Tom Milone is an excellent candidate for the AFL with his tremendous pitching, especially his 32 strikeouts in the last three games.