Coach Paul Stevens left the dugout to greet southpaw Eric Jokisch on the mound with two outs in the eighth inning. The junior had allowed only two runs on seven hits to that point, but his pitch count was up to 117, and the bases were loaded. Before Stevens could get a word out, Jokisch said, “Give me this one. Give me this one more guy.”
Jokisch was especially determined to get the out, remembering an Ohio State batter knocked a grand slam off him last year. Excited by the junior’s enthusiasm, Stevens turned around and walked right back to the dugout.
“I really wanted that guy,” Jokisch said. “I felt like I had it. I knew where to pitch him and he popped it up on the first pitch, and Chad’s the best at catching those back there. It was really a huge, huge out for me. I really needed that.”
Jokisch wasn’t the only one who wanted to get out of the inning. After ending up on the losing side of four one-run games, the Wildcats needed this close contest to stay in their hands. No more than one pitch later, the top half of the inning was over-Jokisch’s first pitch fastball drew a pop-up that senior catcher Chad Noble caught for the last out. After Northwestern scored two more runs in the bottom of the eighth, sophomore Paul Snieder closed out the game in the ninth, giving the Cats an 8-2 win over the best team in the Big Ten.
What made the difference between last season’s grand slam and Saturday’s first-pitch pop-up? At a mid-February practice, Jokisch said the trouble last year was his mental game. He had problems thinking he could get batters out. This mentality translated to Jokisch giving up 60 runs on 105 hits over 88.2 innings. The 6-foot-3, 180-pounder said his sophomore year struggles began to take a toll on him and he stopped enjoying the game of baseball.
At the end of NU’s 2009 season, Jokisch joined the Harwich Mariners in the Cape Cod League, where the lefty had fewer batters on base (31) than innings pitched (33) and almost as many strikeouts (26). Jokisch said playing in the Cape made him like the game again.
“The Cape was the best experience of my life,” Jokisch said. “What I learned out there will absolutely transfer to (the 2010) season.”
Jokisch’s summer in the Cape started to build up his confidence; he just needed an extra push to find the success he predicted in February. Where did he look?
“I actually read an article on Roy Halladay the other day, ” Jokisch said. “It really changed my mentality on going out and pitching. I went to just execute each pitch instead of trying to win a ballgame. And it really helped. I really felt relaxed on the mound. I feel good now.”
Having caught Jokisch’s pitches all day, Noble noticed the hurler’s confidence boost, saying Jokisch “just came in there challenging them. Inside fastballs like crazy, just saying, ‘Hey, if you can hit me, you can hit me. But you’re not going to.'”
Jokisch ended his eight-inning day with two strikeouts under his belt and only two earned runs allowed.
Stevens said Jokisch deserved the accolades after his Saturday outing. He nodded to the seats behind home plate, where a number of scouts sat during the game with their “little (radar) guns.”
“I just want them to put away their guns and take out their checkbooks,” Stevens said. “Write him a great big bonus check and see if we can get a stadium out of part of it.”[email protected]
