Romak returns to Hillcats after struggling at Double-A Altoona

The ovation Friday was polite, the words encouraging. Still, Jamie Romak wishes he had never heard the calls from the City Stadium crowd as he strolled to he plate for the first time.

“Welcome back Jamie!”

Lynchburg was supposed to be in the past for Romak, who earned a promotion to Double-A Altoona after hitting 18 home runs in 77 games last season for the Hillcats. Scan the list of the Pirates’ top 30 prospects in Baseball America, and you’ll find only one other case of a hitter going backwards in the system.

But Romak’s numbers don’t lie. He hit .208 in 120 at-bats in Altoona last season and actually regressed in the first half this year. The average dropped to .175 in 211 at-bats, and he struck out 66 times. The coaching staff at Altoona tried every drill, every motivational technique and exhausted every avenue possible trying to get Romak to break out of an extended slump.

“We tried going three days without playing and working on my swing,” Romak said. “We tried just pinch hitting just a couple of times. We tried a lot of different things. But the bottom line was that I couldn’t keep it going consistently. I couldn’t get over that hump. It was becoming more than just a slump.

“This was the last thing we hadn’t explored.”

So after a meeting with Pirates director of player development Kyle Stark, Romak agreed to take the assignment to Lynchburg. It wasn’t an easy decision. But if the move proved anything, it was that the parent club wasn’t ready to give up on Romak, a former fourth-round draft pick who was a key part of the trade that brought Adam LaRoche to Pittsburgh in 2007.

Pittsburgh was willing to do anything possible to get Romak, the No. 11 prospect in the Pirates’ system, back on track. And that meant sending him down a level so he could get everyday at-bats.

“It’s a blow, obviously, taking a step back,” Romak said. “But at the same time, it’s a fresh start for me in a league here where I don’t have anything to do. It’s not a pressure situation. The team’s already in the playoffs.

“Honestly, I don’t care. I could be in the Gulf Coast League for all I care. I’m still going to be in the minor leagues, whether it’s rookie league or Double-A. The goal is to get yourself right, and then get yourself to the big leagues.”

Romak worked some with Dave Howard in spring training, and the opportunity to work again with the Hillcats’ hitting coach in Lynchburg appealed to him. The first time the two got in the batting cage, Howard noticed some easily identifiable flaws in Romak’s mechanics.

“I was getting real dominant with my top hand, and it was taking my swing in and out of strike zone real quick as opposed to as being quick to the strike zone and long through it,” Romak said. “The big adjustment was to be a little stronger with that bottom hand and lighten up on the top hand a bit, and see how that feels. Instantly, I was like, wow, there’s the feeling I had all of last year. I was starting to drive the ball a bit. It hasn’t been there all year.”

In the second inning Saturday against Myrtle Beach, Romak found a comfort zone, working deep into the count against Pelicans starter Erik Cordier before roping an RBI single to the left-field corner, an indication that Romak was absorbing some of Howard’s instruction.

“You always wonder about a guy’s mentality when something like this happens,” Hillcats manager P.J. Forbes said. “He’s got the decision, whether to come down here and do the work to right the ship or to fold the tent. I knew from just after sitting down with him and Dave that he was going in the right direction. He knows why he’s here and he wants to get back to where he’s been in the past. You can’t ask for a better attitude and more focus than that.”