July 25, 2021

By Ryan Eakin

Canadian Baseball Network

The resume of an ace in the Intercounty Baseball League, for well over a decade now, has included experience in the minor leagues, whether it be Chris Chavez (Atlanta), Jamie Richmond (Atlanta/Oakland), Adam Rowe (Kansas City), or Emilis Guerrero (Boston/Pittsburgh).

In 2021, you can add Chris Lazar (Sioux Falls/D2) to that list.

The soft-tossing, strike-throwing southpaw for the Hamilton Cardinals has been the best pitcher in the IBL so far this season (3-0, 0.39 ERA), a season removed from winning the league’s ERA title with an earned run average of 2.21.

The former Sioux Falls Cougar said his road to the top of the IBL started with his decision to join Sioux Falls at the conclusion of his travel ball career.

“When it came to picking my college, Sioux Falls was the one school that was the most forthcoming,” said the Ontario Terriers alum. “I had talked to a couple of different schools but they were more ‘top end’ D2s, and as a lefty who threw 78 MPH, I probably wasn’t going to get a great opportunity when I am competing against guys who throw over 90.

“I also wanted to have a different experience. Growing up as a kid in Toronto, it’s a big city, so I wanted to have a different experience to see how the other half lives.”

After three seasons of minimal innings pitched and bloated ERAs, Lazar enjoyed a successful 2019 season.

In his senior season with the Cougars, the graduate of Loyola Catholic Secondary posted an ERA of 3.03 in 35 innings.

Lazar said that season is when everything clicked for him.

“That season, I realized that no one was going to care if I pitched well or if I didn’t pitch well, so I was there to have fun, to make memories, and to enjoy my senior season.

“Taking that pressure off of myself made it a lot easier for me to go out there and perform, compared to years past where I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well. When I didn’t do well, I got super upset.”

Lazar’s 2019 season is also when he broke out as one of the best pitchers in the IBL.

He joined the Cardinals in 2016, but struggled through his first two seasons before becoming a respectable starter in 2018.

He said joining the Cardinals at such a young age helped him become the pitcher that he is today.

“Dean Dicenzo was my coach in travel ball with the Terriers and he told me, ‘You can play summer ball down in the States or you can come home and play for me.’ It was a no-brainer because we weren’t good at the time, so I knew I was going to get innings, and that was a goal for me because I wasn’t getting a lot of innings in college.

“Being able to pitch in this league at such a young age against older hitters taught me how to pitch. When you are in high school, it’s easy. I have always been a guy who attacked hitters and threw a lot of strikes, so obviously that worked well for me in high school, because to be completely honest, high school hitters aren’t any good. If you throw strikes and get ahead of counts in high school, you are going to get guys out more often than not.

“Whereas in the IBL, I learned the difference between what a good pitch is and what a great pitch is. I learned how to use my off-speed pitches in different counts, I learned how to read bats and how to read hitters, and I learned what tendencies different hitters have. I learned how to pitch rather than just focusing on throwing strikes, because in this league, you have to be calculated when you don’t have the stuff to blow guys away. I had a lot of growing pains in those first couple of years but it eventually all clicked.”

Dean Dicenzo, a staple in the Cardinals organization for years, said he remembers bringing Lazar into the Cardinals.

“I had him with the Terriers as a 17 or 18 year-old kid,” said Dicenzo. “He threw a gem against East Cob in Georgia, and I think a week before that, he threw a no-hitter. So I knew he was capable of pitching, so I brought him in because we needed arms at the time and we didn’t have any money from the Cardinals to fill roster spots otherwise.”

For Lazar, his first start where he put the league on notice came on the last day of the 2017 season against the Barrie Baycats.

The Baycats, at the time, had only lost two games all season long, and had ace Claudio Custodio on the mound for the first game of the doubleheader.

Custodio went up against Lazar, and Lazar got the better of him, going seven innings while allowing just one earned run on five hits and two walks.

He said that start, and another start two weeks later against the Kitchener Panthers in the playoffs -- where he threw a complete game while allowing one earned run on six hits -- truly made him believe that he can hang against the very best in this league.

“Throwing a complete game against the Panthers in the playoffs at [Jack] Couch was the first time I thought I really belonged in the league,” said the 6-foot-2, 195-pound lefty.

“That was the first time I really figured out how to pitch against a lineup the second and third time through the order. The other outing I think about is when Barrie was 33-3 and I was going up against Claudio and we won that game in seven innings. That was probably the first moment I felt that I was capable of being the very best in this league. At that time, I had only done it in spurts, but it was the first time I had felt that way.”

From there, everything has been up for not only Lazar, but the Cardinals.

In 2018, Lazar put up a respectable ERA of 3.78 in 10 starts, and a 1.89 ERA in a pair of starts in the playoffs.

They beat London in the first round, and held their own against the powerhouse Baycats in the semis, albeit in a sweep.

Lazar said some of the best memories of his baseball career came that season.

“We 100% thought that we were going to beat London, which is interesting, because we finished sixth that season, so on paper we were the underdog, but we felt as though we matched up so well against them. We had already seen [Majors ace Starling] Peltera five times that season, so we knew our hitters felt comfortable against him and we knew we had the pitching to keep us in it.

“We were that young, stubborn team that refused to believe that anyone could beat us. If anything, we were disappointed that we didn’t sweep them that series.

“What I remember most about that series is game four, man. I was pitching on two days rest and I told Dean, ‘If we have the chance to win this game, I want to. I want to close the deal,’ even though I was supposed to start game five.

“Unfortunately I came in and allowed a couple of runs and we fell behind, but [Connor] Bowie hit the walk-off home run and to this day that is still one of the coolest moments of my baseball career. That was special, more so to do it with Dicenzo who has been a part of the organization for 40 years.

“That moment really showed us that we are on the right track.”

After that moment, Lazar and the Cardinals truly have shown that they are on the right track.

They made it back to the semis in 2019, while Lazar won the ERA title.

Lazar, who captured the ERA title on the last day of the 2019 season, recalls finding out how he won.

“I didn’t even think I had a chance. Guerrero was half a run better than me on the last night of the season and he was starting against Brantford, who were having a lot of struggles that season. So I thought it would be cool, but I was happy to finish second in the ERA race.

“But that night, [former Cardinals infielder] Grant Arnold texted me and said, ‘Check the score of the Barrie-Brantford game.’ It was the third inning and Guerrero was getting knocked around.

“At the end of the day, it is a cool feather in the cap. I’m at a point in my career where individual stats matter less to me but even so, anyone that says they don’t care about their individual stats are lying, because we all care a little bit.

“I was joking with Dicenzo that I have to be the slowest tossing ERA winner in the league’s history, but it was cool. This league has had a great history of a lot of great pitchers and the league had a lot of great pitchers that season, so it was cool for a slow-tossing lefty who played at a D2 in the middle of nowhere to win. It is definitely a season that I am going to remember for a longtime.”

Dicenzo said it has been amazing to follow Lazar’s rise to IBL dominance first-hand, while noting Lazar’s rise can be a great example for future young pitchers in Ontario.

“I still don’t think he’s dominant,” laughed Dicenzo. “I could hit him still.”

“It’s funny, though, because when I was signing him, he said, ‘How am I going to get outs in the Intercounty when I can’t get D2 guys out?’ And I told him, ‘You are going to find out, because you are going to throw it in a certain spot and they are going to hit it a mile and then you won’t throw it there any longer.’ I have always told him that he is two inches away from being a ‘crappy lefty’ instead of a ‘crafty lefty.’

“The thing with him is, he doesn’t think anyone is better than him. He has just gotten better year after year. He feels like he belongs and I think it’s a great message for other young kids. Look at Matt Duffy (Canisius) who we signed. Instead of barely pitching in a collegiate league in the States against inferior competition, you can come here and learn how to pitch.

“Chris did that and now he’s the face of our team. He embraces it.”

With plenty of personal accomplishments, Lazar only has one goal left to check-off in his IBL career and that is winning an IBL title.

He said he thinks the 2021 Cardinals have the talent to do it, but they need to prove to themselves and others that they can win against the IBL’s elite when the lights are the brightest in the playoffs.

“Winning a championship, it would be awesome. At this point, that is what I’m playing for -- the opportunity to win a title. This season is so wide open since we don’t know what’s going to happen with imports and what not, so everybody is on a relatively even playing field.

“I think we have the team to do it, but we have to go out and prove it. We have been in the semis back-to-back years, but we have yet to win a game in the semis, so to me, we have to get over that hump before we can start to worry about dog piles.

“I would love to win a title here in Hamilton, but we have to go out and do it. We can talk about dog piles until we are blue in the face, but we still have to go out and get it done.”