Standing on the mound, two pitchers toe the line between throwing a strike or giving up a hit. First meeting through baseball, seniors Lucas Petrikas and Deven Pietrzak have grown both as close friends and as two of the best pitchers in SPC. Now team leaders, they’ve come a long way from their early days tossing balls in elementary school.
With fellow senior Jackson Williams out for the season due to injury, Petrikas and Pietrzak have shouldered most of the workload this season, starting nearly every single game. Over 90 innings, both pitchers have a combined 106 strikeouts. In terms of earned run average (ERA), the average number of runs given up by a pitcher, Petrikas has a 2.5 while Pietrzak has a 3.7. On top of low ERAs, batters struggle when facing Petrikas and Pietrzak, with the batting average against (BAA) being .230 and .275, respectively.
Petrikas’s journey began when he was ten. Growing up surrounded by baseball, with his father and brothers all playing, the sport was an obvious first choice. But within sport, pitching especially caught his attention, drawn to it by the power it has over the game.
“Pitching just entices me because it’s like the game is fully in your control, like you determine the pace of the game, the outcome,” Petrikas said. “I really liked having the ball in my court.”
Starting with the fundamental skills his father taught him, Petrikas steadily adapted his arsenal of pitches: fastball, cutter, change-up and his favorite, curveball. As he began to take the sport and his health more seriously, his pitching advanced further and further.
“After sophomore year, I started taking baseball and pitching specifically way more seriously. Developing into my body really helped me advance as a pitcher. I probably put on 20 pounds during my training,” Petrikas said.
Petrikas joined the Texas Baseball Ranch in the outskirts of Houston to train during the summer, the same place Pietrzak joined to help his pitching really take off.
Starting at nine, Pietrzak’s pitching journey also began very early on. But according to Pietrzak, his pitching really started to develop after his freshman year when he joined the Texas Baseball Ranch.
“At the start of ninth grade, I topped out at 65 miles an hour. That’s when I really started training a lot and focusing, and it’s just been on a straight upward journey from there. Texas Baseball Ranch in Houston really helped me take off. From there, I’ve put on over 20 miles an hour. I’ve gotten up to 88 now,” Pietrzak said.
Petrikas and Pietrzak’s paths came together due to baseball, and now, in their senior year, the friends have stepped up to lead the pitching together. Working as a two-man rotation, the duo has enjoyed their season pitching together.
“Luke and I are super close friends. We’ve been training together at the place in Houston and another place in Mansfield for a couple of years now, and so we kind of imagined it would be a lot like this,” Pietrzak said. “(As the two main pitchers) we’ve been discussing things like who wants to pitch when, what’s the best thing for the team and just managing everything. Both of us have been getting lots of opportunities. It’s been great to do this with one of my best friends.”
Sharing the field together, the two strike out batters with a wide variety of pitches, spanning from curveballs to sliders. According to Petrikas, they even complement each other even in terms of personality, with Pietrzak being more cool and calm and Petrikas being more amped up and emotional. But knowing they’ll be gone next year, they’ve made sure to help the younger pitchers as their seniors on the team.
“Everybody realizes that next year is going to be very different. We’re not going to be here next year, and the next person on the team has nine innings while we each have like 40 innings. So, we’ve been trying to help them out, organizing what’s going to happen and helping them out if they need anything,” Petrikas said.
But while the season has ended, the journey has been valuable for both pitchers. For Petrikas, he has been able to gain valuable memories through his pitching, making it all worth it in the end.
“One (of my favorite moments) was probably when I was able to throw to my brother, who’s a freshman, catching me on senior night. I thought that was really cool, being able to throw to him once in my career before I’m off to college,” Petrikas said.
For Pietrzak, baseball has taught him many valuable lessons. According to him, baseball and his journey through it have changed him for the better.
“I would say the biggest (lesson has been in) mindset, things like having a growth mindset and being focused toward the future getting better,” Pietrzak said. “One of my favorite stats is that in my entire career, since I was 11 years old, I’ve given up 13 home runs, and after those home runs, I have had seven or eight strikeouts. It’s getting even when you have a bad result, which will inevitably happen with pitching. It’s moving on from that.”
