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People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Mr. Charles "Thad" Montgomery
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Home Phone: 337-235-6495 Baseball: Locals bring relief April 29, 2005 – Dan McDonald Their grins tell volumes. Kraig Schambough is riding a streak of solid relief outings, restoring the confidence of a pitcher who thrives on emotion. Thad Montgomery is one pitch away from having seven straight quality appearances, and after four years finally has a role with Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajun baseball team. But they’re not grinning about their personal success, the Cajuns’ current 36-8 record and a national ranking as high as 13th, or even their roles in the squad’s winning ways. They’re laughing about how much they enjoy embarrassing hitters. “We love making our opponents look stupid at the plate,” said Montgomery. “That’s just what pitchers love to do.” “Knowledge is power,” said Schambough. “We have the knowledge. They don’t.” Cocky? Probably so. But pitching, especially relief pitching, is as much about attitude as it is ability, and Cajun coach Tony Robichaux likes both of those characteristics in a duo that has emerged as his right-handed stoppers. “With their seniority and having been here, they know our pitching system backwards and forwards,” Robichaux said. “Our biggest goal this year was to take care of pitching in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, because if we took care of that we were going to be very tough to beat. They’ve pretty much been rock solid from the right side.” Schambough has been the Cajuns’ most consistent reliever for the past three seasons and is tied for UL’s career record for saves (10). But this season has been his best, with a 4-1 record and a 3.24 ERA with three saves, and 16 of his 19 appearances have been strong ones. And Montgomery? He’s just happy to be near the front of the bus after four years of struggles. He’s 1-1 with three saves and a 2.45 ERA in 13 outings. “It absolutely feels great,” said Montgomery, who threw the ninth inning in Wednesday’s 6-2 Cajun win at McNeese State. “I haven’t been able to contribute like this in past years, and that makes it so sweet to do this.” Very few anticipated this much sweetness nearly five years ago, when Schambough came out of Carencro and Montgomery finished at St. Thomas More. Schambough was a non-qualifier had had to sit out his first year, and Montgomery was a walk-on to the Cajun squad. They both had some prep success. Montgomery was 14-1 in his STM career and may have been a better position player, earning All-State honors twice. Schambough went 8-0 in one of his American Legion seasons and was also more of an all-around player and saw some action at all nine positions at Carencro. But neither reached their potential as pitchers, Robichaux said, until they learned the secret – the change-up. “They were two-pitch people, and now they’re three-pitch people,” he said. “That makes a huge difference. If you don’t have the change, batters can guess right 50 percent of the time. If you can change speeds on a linear path, it becomes an enormous weapon on a hitter. “It’s tough to develop. You have to throw it with a fast-ball delivery, and you’ve got to master the grip and at the same time throw it with the same arm speed. Both of them have developed that over time.” The two former prep rivals started working on the change between their redshirt and freshman seasons, when the two played together in a summer collegiate league in New York. “I used to say I had a change, but I never really did,” Montgomery said. “It’s like learning the pitching system here. You hear all of it, but you don’t understand it until you put it to use in game situations.” “I always had a problem with left-handed hitters,” Schambough said. “But the change helps me get lefties out. Now I feel like I can get either one of them out when I have to.” Schambough’s holding right-handers to a mere .156 average this year. Lefties are at .319, but that number’s dropped considerably over the past month. Montgomery has been solid against both – .200 against left-handers and .209 against righties. And both have had big numbers on the emotion meter. Schambough has become a Moore Field favorite with his bullpen-wall hopping and sprints to the mound from the left-field corner, and Montgomery has fist-pumped his way to the Cajun dugout several times after ending innings with strikeouts. “It’s different when you’re a reliever,” Schambough said. “Starters have to pace themselves. When we come in, it’s to switch the momentum, and when you get the crowd going it helps. It’s something I do, just to get the tempo up.” “You have to be emotional when you come in from the bullpen,” Montgomery said. “You get some outs, the crowd gets pumped up and we feed off each other. When you go in with guys on base and you leave them out there, it makes it awesome.” Originally published April 29, 2005
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