Stockdale baseball star Austin Charles is SBLive’s Central Section Athlete of the Year

Charles hit .483 for the Mustangs this season and tied for the California lead with 13 home runs.

Author:
Bodie De Silva, SBLive Sports
Publish date:
Jun 26, 2022 12:14 AM EDT

Welcome to a continuing tradition at SBLive California – honoring the male and female athletes of the year in every CIF Section.

Because the SBLive crew gets so immersed in specific sports seasons, it is nice to take a step back to pick a Section honor on a broader scale.

The criteria isn’t too expansive: The starting point is finding athletes who are all-league/all-state performers. Totality of career is also a factor as is winning. Administrator/coach/fan recommendation plays a role as well.

Enjoy as we honor some of California's top athletes!

The 2022 season could not have started any better for Austin Charles and the Stockdale baseball team. The Mustangs won each of their first 16 games by an average of just over eight runs per game.

“We knew that we were one of the better teams in Bakersfield if not the best,” Charles said. “Going into the year we knew that we needed to bring that intensity and I feel like everybody wanted to see us lose.”

Charles, a shortstop and right-handed pitcher for Stockdale, had 29 hits during the 16-game winning streak including six doubles and five home runs.

After losing three games in consecutive days in the middle of April, the Mustangs caught fire to start their league season thanks in part to six straight multi-hit games from Charles.

They continued their hot streak into the Central Section playoffs as the two-seed in the Division 1 bracket and cruised through the three rounds, beating San Joaquin Memorial, Liberty, and Righetti by a combined score of 27-8, to capture their first section championship since 2018.

“My junior year we ended up losing in the semifinals and we pretty much had everyone coming back, we were a young team, so we knew coming into this year that we had a really good shot,” Charles said.

Charles, who hit .339 with three home runs as a junior, raised his batting average all the way up to .483 this season. He hit 13 doubles, 13 home runs and led all of California with 57 runs batted in.

Charles also showcased his talent on the mound for Stockdale, finishing with a 5-0 record and a 1.36 earned run average. He struck out 62 batters in 46.1 innings pitched including a complete game, ten strikeout effort in the Central Section championship game against Righetti.

“I was just trusting the process,” Charles said. “The numbers weren’t there my junior year, but it was all just leading up to this year, just doing little things that would work for me long term. I was able to put it all together this year.”

Following the high school season, Charles was one of 255 high school and college baseball players that were invited to the Major League Baseball Combine at Petco Park in San Diego, to showcase their skills in front of pro scouts and evaluators.

“It was amazing,” Charles said of the combine. “Something that you never thought you’d be participating in. It was nice just to be there around everybody and pick everybody’s brains to see what it took them to get there and just the process.”

Charles committed to UC Santa Barbara during his sophomore year and signed with the Gauchos this past spring, but his continued high-level play has him amongst the top 150 prospects in July’s Major League Baseball draft.

“It’s a win-win situation whether that’s getting drafted next month or going to (UC Santa Barbara) and developing for the next three years,” Charles said. “I feel like I can’t lose, and I have an older brother that’s been through the process, so I understand, and I feel like I’m ready to go, it just depends on the situation.”

BIO

School: Stockdale

Sport: Baseball

Next step: UC Santa Barbara baseball or the MLB Draft

Season highlights and accolades: Central Section Division 1 champion, SBLive California All-State selection, California leader in runs batted in, tied for California lead in home runs.