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Look for the guy doing handstands but earlier his beginning. That is where you lot'll find the bullpen who throws100 mph and leads D1 college baseball in ERA. He'due south Fordham lefthander Matt Mikulski, who is vi-0, 0.92 in eight starts, and his ERA could exist even lower had one of his fielders

Await for the guy doing handstands just before his start.

That is where you'll find the bullpen who throws100 mph and leads D1 college baseball in ERA.

He's Fordham lefthander Matt Mikulski, who is half dozen-0, 0.92 in viii starts, and his ERA could be even lower had ane of his fielders non lost a ball in the sun against Delaware.

Mikulski's pre-game routine includes cartwheels and handstands as well as vertical and lateral leaps, which are all designed to maintain his athleticism.

"I don't know where he got all that from, but I just leave him alone," Fordham charabanc Kevin Leighton said sheepishly. "I've never seen anything like it before, but hey, maybe it'll get-go a new tendency."

Calisthenics aren't the but things Mikulski does to prepare for a start. Mikulski, a big fan of mixed martial arts, borrows from MMA star Conor McGregor when information technology comes to mental and emotional approach.

Mikulski fifty-fifty wears a McGregor-esque hoodie at times while doing his pre-game stretches.

"Baseball game is essentially my livelihood," said Mikulski, who will turn 22 on May 18. "Anybody who steps into that batter'south box is trying to take away my livelihood. That'south the fashion I look at information technology."

Fordham, i of the oldest higher baseball game programs in the nation with a history that dates to the 1850s, has had just ane first-rounder so far – righthander Pete Harnisch, who was the 27th pick in the 1987 MLB Draft.

Harnisch, whose son Jack now plays second base of operations for Fordham (18-12), was an MLB All-Star in 1991.

Mikulski dreams of reaching the MLB level. But for now, he's dominating college baseball game and has a shot at becoming Fordham'due south 2d beginning-rounder when the draft begins on July eleven.

In 48.2 innings this season, Mikulski has struck out 91 batters. He has allowed just 18 hits and 19 walks, and batters are hitting just .111 against him.

He ranks second in the nation in total strikeouts likewise strikeouts per nine innings and fewest hits per game.

"Everything is there," Leighton said when asked virtually Mikulski, the reigning Atlantic 10 Conference Bullpen of the Calendar week afterward striking out 15 Saint Joseph'southward batters on Sabbatum. "He has the frame (6-4, 205 pounds). He has the work ethic. He has a legit 4-pitch mix. He is effectually the zone. He has an upper-90s fastball, and he is putting up serious numbers.

"It's all there."

How Information technology Began

Mikulski is from Mohegan Lake, New York, virtually 50 miles from Fordham's Bronx campus.

The youngest of two brothers, Mikulski played 4 sports growing up, including quarterback in football likewise every bit lacrosse and basketball game.

"I was throwing him a ball since he was in diapers," said his father, Dennis Mikulski, who played outside linebacker and H-dorsum at Division III SUNY Albany.

Sheila Sheridan, Mikulski's mother, said her son was talented in all four sports.

"If at that place were conflicts, he would afflict," she said. "He would say, 'Mom, you don't sympathise.' He didn't want to let anyone down.

"I don't remember the kid missing a exercise, even if he wasn't feeling proficient."

Yet, past the time he entered loftier schoolhouse, Mikulski had dropped the other 3 sports to focus on baseball.

"Information technology was confronting my Dna to pull Matthew out of football," his begetter said, "but it was the right call."

A pitcher since age viii, Mikulski was a late bloomer physically. He was five-eight and 175 pounds every bit a high school freshman and virtually 5-11 and 190 upon entering Fordham.

Leighton, though, liked Mikulski's arm activeness and breaking ball.

"We tried to move on him early," Leighton said of Mikulski, who was drawing interest from Villanova, St. John'southward and Stony Beck. "Nearly of the guys nosotros get at Fordham are not 'tin't miss' prospects. They are guys who come hither, work hard and develop.

"Matt was throwing 83-84 when we offered him some scholarship coin. I would exist lying if I said we knew at that fourth dimension Matt would become a superstar."

Mikulski grew while in college – physically and also in his knowledge of pitching.

As a freshman in 2018, Mikulski went 4-five with a five.eighteen ERA in 12 games, including seven relief appearances.

"I was the only lefty on the squad, and I got put in some tough situations," said Mikulski, who struck out 41 batters in 41.ii innings that year. "But I learned."

As a sophomore, Mikulski improved, going six-6 with a 4.06 ERA in 18 appearances, including 14 starts. He pitched 5.1 scoreless innings in the Atlantic 10 championship game that yr. Fordham went on to win that game, 4-3, in a 12-inning walk-off victory. It was Fordham's second-ever A-10 tournament championship and its kickoff since 1998.

A Breakthrough

That summer, Mikulski pitched in the Cape Cod League, boosting his conviction.

For the 2020 flavor, Leighton brought in Elliot Glynn equally Fordham'south new pitching coach. Glynn, a one-time lefthander for UConn and in the Milwaukee Brewers concatenation, made an immediate connectedness with Mikulski.

The two lefties "spoke the same language", Glynn said,

From watching film, Glynn noticed that Mikulski "ran hot" at times with his emotions. When things started to go wrong, he would overthrow, leading to walks and big innings.

Glynn got Mikulski to irksome the game down in those instances, focusing on his breathing, and the pedagogy worked. As a junior, Mikulski went 2-1 with a i.29 ERA in four starts with xviii strikeouts in 21 innings before COVID canceled the rest of the season.

During the 2020 MLB Draft, Mikulski said he got calls during the fourth and fifth rounds, but the financial offers were not substantial enough. At one point, his father asked if it would be prudent to have an undervalued bonus and simply start his minor league career.

Only Mikulski held firm.

"I was listening to my intuition and my gut," said Mikulski, who is on pace to graduate this summer with a degree in Communications & Culture. "I felt I was slighted. That happens in the draft.

"I told my dad, 'I'm going to become dorsum to schoolhouse and prove people wrong.'"

Once that decision was made, the adjacent key, Glynn thought, was to ameliorate Mikulski's ability to generate swings and misses. Glynn encouraged Mikulski to experiment in the offseason.

That's exactly what Mikulski did during the long COVID hiatus. He met with two of his friends, Anthony Fava, now the hitting coach for Iona; and Jonathan de Marte, a former minor league pitcher.

Working at The Training Zone, a New York facility owned by former East Carolina pitcher Mike Anderson, the guys took a critical look at each of Mikulski's pitches.

"That summer, I asked (Fava and de Marte) what I could do to split from the pack," Mikulski said. "They said, 'Cheque out (major leaguers) Robbie Ray and Lucas Giolito. They have gone to a shorter arm action, and they are throwing way harder.'

"It was a good adjustment. Information technology reminded me of the arm action from when I played quarterback."

Pitching With Purpose

The new delivery took about half-dozen weeks to implement, starting right after the 2020 draft. Mikulski debuted the new version of himself at a tournament in Baronial, and he hit 97 mph for the beginning time in his life.

The family unit'southward running joke is that no one exterior of the people who run Amazon benefitted more from COVID than Mikulski did concluding year.

But fifty-fifty later a bang-up summer, there was more work to do once he arrived at Fordham for the fall. That'south when Glynn fabricated a tweak, getting Mikulski to hide the ball improve.

"When we filmed it from behind the catcher, you lot could run into the brawl coming out of my glove the whole time," Mikulski said. "We simply turned my shoulders a fiddling chip and the rest is history."

Glynn said Mikulski deserves massive credit for the improvements.

"You can't see the ball now until it's out of his hand," Glynn said. "He made 99 percent of these adjustments on his own.

"Guys who are invested in their ain careers – those are the ones you want in your organization."

Only there's more to Mikulski than simply the physical authorization. There's a sentimental side, likewise.

Before each start, Mikulski writes the following messages in the dirt behind the mound:

"RIP NGSE"

The meaning behind information technology is to honor some of the people in his life that he has lost. RIP, of form, is for Residual in Peace. The North is for "Nanny", his maternal grandmother Kate Dunn, who passed away this past yr on the eve of Thanksgiving. The G is for Andrew Gurgitano, a lefty bullpen and summer-league teammate who died of a seizure. Southward is for Sandra Mikulski, his paternal grandmother. And East is for his mom's sister, Eileen Sheridan.

"I like to think they sentinel over me," Mikulski said. "Losing them has shown me that life is precious, and it can exist taken away in an instant."

Building An Arsenal

Mikulski has destroyed opponents this year with four pitches: four-seam fastball, slider, changeup, bend.

His fastball sits 94-97 and touched 100 for the first fourth dimension against Delaware on March 27, and he holds his velocity.

"He'll run into the finish line," Glynn said. "His velo will be the same or a tick higher in late innings."

Mikulski's slider is thrown 86-88. Information technology looks like a fastball initially only then disappears off the plate.

His changeup is his nigh improved pitch. Hitters this year are 1-for-19 with 15 strikeouts against that changeup, and fourteen of those punchouts are against righthanded batters.

"He throws information technology with the same spin every bit his fastball, and he gets a ton of bad swings," Glynn said.

The curve is thrown 76-77.

"If he gets that over," Glynn said, "it's impossible for hitters to cover that and a 96-97 fastball."

This yr, Mikulski is throwing his fastball 63 percent of the time, while mixing in his changeup (15 per centum), slider (fourteen per centum) and bend (8 pct). The biggest difference from his first three years is an increased reliance on the changeup, which is up from eight percent; and fewer curveballs (downwardly from thirteen percent).

Righthanded hitters batted .272, .251 and .237 confronting him for his offset three years, only they are flailing with a .124 batting average this flavour.

Lefty hitters batted .234 and .184 his commencement two years. Concluding year, lefty hitters were rarely used against him (1-for-3). This twelvemonth, lefties are hitting .061 against him.

Glynn and Leighton both believe Mikulski volition be a showtime-round pick.

Mikulski is not ane to disagree.

"I feel there's no other lefthander in the typhoon improve than me," Mikulski said.

The merely apparent knock against Mikulski is that he's dominating at a mid-major every bit opposed to the Ability Five level.

Mikulski scoffs at that notion.

"Information technology doesn't matter the name on the breast," he said. "My stuff plays anywhere."

Mikulski believes he's the perpetual underdog.

"My whole life," he said, "I've been overlooked."

That perception may before long modify.

Mikulski points to his most contempo start against St. Joe's as a sign of growth. He gave upwardly a solo homer in the sixth inning.

In the past, that negative issue might accept snowballed on him.

Not at present.

"I struck out the side after that homer," Mikulski said. "I have a way better response now.

"I'1000 like an MMA fighter. I merely go on coming."

D1Baseball.com is your online dwelling house for college baseball scores, schedules, standings, statistics, assay, features, podcasts and prospect coverage.

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Source: https://www.usabaseball.com/golden-spikes-award/news/topic/golden-spikes/nine-hits-lead-team-usa-past-stu-300859770

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