Justus Agosto entered the summer with just two pitches — a fastball and a slider — and the slider had become easy for hitters to pick up because of his arm slot.
After wrapping up his redshirt-junior season at North Alabama, Agosto returned home and got to work with longtime mentor Jim Gulden, a local coach who has guided him throughout his baseball journey. The goal? Rebuild his arsenal. He joined the Philly Fightin' Quakers of the Philly Collegiate Select League and, over the past several weeks, has completely reshaped his game.
Agosto now commands a four-pitch mix: a four-seam fastball that sits between 91-93 mph, a new cutter, a split-change that acts like a splitter to righties and a traditional change-up to lefties, plus a curveball he developed this summer. And as the summer’s gone on, Agosto has grown right along with his new repertoire.
His latest outing? Arguably his best yet.
On Wednesday night against Rake, Agosto spun four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit while striking out 10. Every pitch in his arsenal was working, and his dominance helped lift the Quakers to a 3-0 win — a statement performance with the postseason looming.
"It's been so much better from the start of summer to now," Agosto said. "I think my first start I had like four or five walks and I was all over the place. But today it felt great. Ten Ks is a lot for me. I can't remember the last time I had a double-digit strikeout game."
The Quakers currently sit atop the league standings with a 9-3-1 record, and with the playoffs right around the corner, Agosto has emerged as a steady and increasingly dominant presence on the mound.
He arrives at the field at least 90 minutes before every game, locked into a detailed throwing and stretching routine. That consistency, both physical and mental, has paid off — and he’s fallen into a rhythm that’s made his mechanics repeatable.
"He's gotten his mechanics repeatable and you can make little tiny tweaks," said Quakers assistant coach Benjamin Raab. "Oh, I missed a pitch a little bit low. I can make a little tiny adjustment and get that next pitch. If the rest of your timing is repeatable every single pitch, you can make those little tiny adjustments.
"If you're making multiple adjustments at a time, that's typically when you get into trouble — when you get wild, when you get into your own head. He's done a really good job simplifying everything, keeping everything down to one consistent rhythm."
This is Agosto’s first summer in the Philly Select League, but the transition has been seamless. A Neshaminy High School product, he already knew several of his Quakers teammates before arriving. Despite his local ties, he chose to head south to pursue his college career, embracing the challenge of playing at one of the highest levels.
Agosto is now preparing for his redshirt-senior season at Division I North Alabama, where he helped the program notch its first-ever conference tournament win this spring. He doesn’t take the opportunity lightly.
"It's always a blessing," Agosto said. "I feel like some people, myself included, I've been caught up with just going through the motions, but I take a step back and truly appreciate every day out in the field, every day I get to lace up my cleats, put on my jersey — it's a blessing, and I'm forever grateful."
Before he shifts focus back to North Alabama, though, there’s one more mission: help the Quakers bring home a championship. They’ve won four of their last five, with one regular season game left before the postseason begins. Still, Agosto knows momentum doesn’t mean much once playoff baseball arrives.
"It's been good having this momentum up to the playoffs, but from my experience, the playoffs are kind of a reset," Agosto said. "It doesn't matter where your record was before. It doesn't matter who you've played before and what those outcomes were. The playoffs are a new season and we're just looking to win the championship."
And with Agosto set to take the mound, the Quakers know they’ve got one game already in good hands.
“Essentially, we have a lot of freedom with the rest of the games, because we've got one taken care of with Justus,” Raab said. “Justus can shove for the better part of almost a game most times. So we have to worry about Game Two a lot more. Not saying that we're not worried about Game One, but we can almost say he'll take care of us for that one.”
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