Hit-Man
May 21, 2008 11:19 PM | General
May 21, 2008
 |
||
| Jedd Gyorko |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The guy with most of the West Virginia University baseball records next to his name is senior Tyler Kuhn. The guy standing 15 feet to the left of Kuhn on the baseball diamond may one day wind up breaking all of them.
Freshman Jedd Gyorko showed Wednesday afternoon against Notre Dame at Bright House Field why he was voted Big East Rookie of the Year by the league’s coaches. In the second inning, Gyorko broke open a 4-1 game with a bases-clearing laser beam over the left field fence that had everyone in the ball park oohing and ahhing.
It was the kind of blast people will be talking about 10 years from now when they say, do you remember the kid from West Virginia who almost put a hole in that outfield seat?
“The first at-bat he threw a sequence of pitches that he got me out with,” Gyorko explained. “The way he was throwing me, the second at-bat he was pretty much going the same way and I was pretty much sitting on the pitch and he left it up in the zone and I made good contact.”
There are some guys when they’re out on the field with their actions and their mannerisms that just have the look of being a ballplayer. Jedd Gyorko has the look of a ballplayer.
What makes Gyorko so unusual is how poised and consistent he is for a freshman. Most first-year players have good stretches and bad stretches. Gyorko started hitting from the moment he pulled a bat out of the rack and he hasn’t stopped. His .408 batting average is second on the team to Kuhn, as are his 93 hits, eight home runs and 60 runs scored. Gyorko’s 62 RBI are four short of Vince Belnome’s team-leading 66.
Remarkably, Gyorko’s batting average has never dipped below .400 this year.
“I don’t want to be one of those guys on a rollercoaster throughout the season with the high ups and the low downs,” Gyorko said. “I try to stay consistent as I can.”
Veteran coach Greg Van Zant says the most surprising thing about Gyorko is how rapidly the Morgantown native has adapted to college pitching. Van Zant has watched high school baseball around here for a long time and he has seen many local kids struggle with increased velocity, hard breaking balls and left-handed pitching when they get to college.
Not Gyorko.
“He’s got a real good eye for a guy coming in that has never seen this kind of pitching before,” Van Zant said. “That is really the biggest adjustment high school kids need to make - and especially kids in rural areas like we are. They don’t see a lot of good pitching in high school.
“They struggle with the velocity and picking up better breaking balls,” Van Zant said. “A lot of them have never seen a changeup where they’ve got to keep their hands back. Also, there are not a lot of left-handed pitchers in high school. They might see a lefty once a month and here you’re getting a steady diet of lefthanders.”
Gyorko admits he’s had a lot of help along the way. Former Mountaineer player Jerry Mahoney has been working with him since he was barely able to pick up a bat. And Gyorko’s American Legion coach Ernie Galusky and American Legion general manager Dale Miller have made summer baseball a big deal in Morgantown. Both flew down to Clearwater to watch the tournament.
“I can’t say enough about what those people have done for me,” Gyorko said. “I wouldn’t be here without those guys. They pretty much gave me a place to play against great competition.”
That strong support system made it easy for Gyorko to turn down offers from St. John’s and Clemson to stay home and play for the Mountaineers.
“I pretty much narrowed it down to West Virginia and St. John’s,” Gyorko said. “Being able to stay home is what it came down to.”
Because he has such a grounded approach, Van Zant expects Gyorko to continue to grow as a player. Hitting coach Pat Sherald says Gyorko has barely scratched the surface at the plate, which is a pretty frightening thought.
“He’s got bad speed and he’s one of those guys when you watch him play two or three times you find yourself saying that kid’s a pretty good hitter,” Van Zant said. “He doesn’t swing at a lot of bad pitches and that will keep you out of slumps.”
Gyorko’s bat has helped the Mountaineers live another day in the Big East Tournament. It gives senior Tyler Kuhn at least one more opportunity to add to his records, making the bar just a little bit higher for Jedd Gyorko to one day reach.
“I knew he was a good player but even the very best players sometimes struggle to put up big numbers right away.
“He’s definitely a special kid,” said Van Zant.
