As coach Paul Stevens likes to say, “Seeing is believing.”
You have to see Eric Jokisch in action to believe in what has major league talent evaluators, and Stevens, so excited.
If you watched Jokisch in NU’s 11-4 win over Indiana on Saturday, you might have started to buy into the hype. The junior held the Big Ten’s leading power-hitting team-Indiana leads the conference in slugging percentage (.511) and home runs (67)-to eight hits, only three of which went for extra bases.
Jokisch pitched nine innings of four-run ball Saturday, while striking out seven and walking three. Most importantly, Jokisch never let the Hoosiers within striking distance.
“(Jokisch) has had some issues with having a couple tough innings here and there in every outing that he’s had,” Stevens said. “(Saturday) he minimized them, and the team maximized their opportunities to score. When he minimizes and we maximize, it becomes a pretty good situation.”
This game’s “tough” inning for the 6-foot-3, 180-pounder was the sixth, when a two-out walk started the wheels turning for Indiana. The Hoosiers scored two runs on a homer off a 2-1 fastball, and added one more after another walk and a double. Even with that 25-pitch inning, Jokisch averaged 13.67 pitches per frame on his way to recording his second complete game of the season.
It wasn’t just Stevens or Indiana’s potent lineup that got to see and believe Jokisch’s talent this weekend.
Scouts were in the stands of Rocky Miller Park for Saturday’s gem, much like they have been throughout Jokisch’s starts this season. The scouts have seen the southpaw’s commanding repertoire, which features what Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt referred to as a “quality three-pitch mix” with a fastball that sits at 87-89 mph, a solid breaking ball and a changeup-Jokisch’s best pitch.
“The general consensus among scouts in the Midwest is that (Jokisch) projects as a 7th- to 10th-round pick,” said Fitt, BA’s lead college writer, in an e-mail. “But he could go as high as the fifth round.”
But scouts’ interest in Jokisch didn’t start in 2010. Jokisch enjoyed 2008 Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors after posting a 4.68 ERA in conference play his first season in Evanston. All eyes were on the Virginia, Ill., native when he started the 2009 campaign, as scouts looked for Jokisch to continue to dominate. But that didn’t quite happen. After two solid outings against Purdue and Michigan State, Jokisch’s performance dropped off, and he ended his sophomore season with a 6.88 conference ERA.
Then Jokisch spent an enlightening summer in the Cape Cod League with the Harwich Mariners.
The hurler said his time with Harwich helped him enjoy baseball again after he became disillusioned with his 2009 shake-up. Fitt said Jokisch’s performance in the Cape improved his draft stock. In Massachusetts, Jokisch posted a 1.36 ERA and struck out 26 batters over 33 innings.
A rocky start (7.57 ERA) over six appearances in NU’s 2010 nonconference season didn’t bulldoze the confidence Jokisch gained in the Cape. The lefty said he just needed to work on his mindset and get healthy after dealing with back pain throughout the beginning of the season. Jokisch started to feel better just in time to record a win over Ohio State in the Cats’ first conference series.
“I got stronger, and I feel good now,” Jokisch said. “It just so happened that conference play was the start of that.”
When Jokisch’s health improved, his pitching improved. And his pitching continues to dazzle every time he takes the mound.
“Every week it gets a little better,” Stevens said. “He is an individual that has tremendous talent. When you get to see him do what he does on the mound for nine innings, it’s a special day.”
So how is Jokisch’s Big Ten performance this year stacking up to the last two seasons? Through six starts, the southpaw boasts a 3.38 conference ERA, lower than his standout freshman-year mark. While the numbers suggest Jokisch is on the way to completing his most impressive campaign yet, Stevens maintains you won’t be able to truly believe in Jokisch and his teammates until you look a little deeper.
“You’ll have to come and see,” he said.[email protected]
