(Rochester Minn.) – The Rochester Honkers announced today that Josh Frye, pitching coach from the 2017 season, will return as the team’s pitching coach in 2018. Frye, 25, was just recently named the Pitching Coach at Cypress College in Cypress, California.
“I can’t wait to get back up there and team up with Thomas again for the 2018 season,” exclaimed Frye. “Being a pitcher in the Northwoods League and now a second-year coach, I feel my experience and insight can help take our pitching staff back to where it belongs, tops in the Northwoods League!”
Frye, playing his collegiate baseball at Long Beach State, was a late summer addition to the La Crosse Loggers in 2012. He came back to La Crosse with a vengeance in the summer of 2013, going 6-3 with a 3.31 ERA. Frye made 12 starts over the summer, pitching a team-high 76.0 innings, while striking out 79, also a team high. Frye was named a 2013 Northwoods League Mid and Post Season All-Star, and the 2013 La Crosse Loggers Cy Young Award Winner. He was nominated for the Loggers All-Decade Team in 2016.
At Long Beach State, Frye was named a 2014 First Team Big West Pitcher and a 2014 All-American Pitcher. He played his summer ball for the Long Beach Legends of the California Collegiate League, where he was their 2012 Pitcher of the Year and was inducted into the Long Beach Legends Hall of Fame in 2015.
Frye played professionally after college, spending two years in the Los Angeles Angels organization, a year in the Frontier League, and finishing his final two years in the Western Australia League. He began his coaching career in 2016 as the Assistant Pitching Coach at Long Beach State in 2016, before accepting his current position as Pitching Coach at Cypress College.
“I’m super excited to have Frye back with me next summer,” said Honkers Field Manager Thomas Walker. “We actually grew up together in California, took different college paths and now we are back together. He’s truly like a brother to me.”
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The Rochester Honkers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 24-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 180 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (LAD) and Lucas Duda (TBR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.rochesterhonkers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Honkers as your favorite team.
