GCU first baseman credits his mom for teaching him how to hit
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A Grand Canyon University baseball player is making a name for himself on the field and he credits his talents to the best coach he’s ever had: his mom.
GCU junior Zach Yorke is a preseason All-American who hits a lot of home runs even though he says he doesn’t try to. He’s the Lopes’ leader in batting average, singles, walks and just about every other offensive category. “I like to think that I’m a pure hitter that has power,” Yorke said.
So who taught him how to hit? “My mom. I’ve had some really good hitting coaches along the way, but my mom taught me, yeah,” he said.
But Robyn Yorke isn’t just any mom. In the mid-1990s, she was a four-time All-American softball player at Fresno State University, who to this day, has the 10th most hits in NCAA history. “You know, I was a left-handed slap hitter, so my goal was to get on base and it didn’t matter if it was a walk, a hit, a hit by pitch. It’s not going out of the infield most often,” said Robyn Yorke.
She put a bat in the hands of each of her three sons as soon as they could walk and had the natural righties swing lefty. “I taught them left-handed because that’s how I did it,” said Robyn Yorke. “2-3 years old, they were out with a Wiffle ball bat every day in the front yard.”
“She always just taught me like simple things like squish the bug, really get your back legs into it. And she always taught me to stay inside the baseball,” said Zach Yorke.
Her lessons for the boys went beyond the front yard, too. She was their little league coach and at times for two different teams at once. “Nick and I, my, our middle brother, we were on the same team and we ended up winning the league and we made it to Tournament of Champions and all that. So she’s a pretty good coach. She knows what she’s doing,” said Zach Yorke.
His mom may not take credit for some of said Zach Yorke’s home runs but she deserves credit for the good eye, smooth swing and blistering line drives. “Anytime I popped up as a kid, she was the first one to yell at me,” said Zach York. “And she was always there to check our egos growing up. If we hit a home run and then try to do it the next at bat, she was always the first one to get on us. So yeah, she’s, she’s amazing.”
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