Punches to punchouts for Notre Dame's Ryan McLinskey
Punches are thrown on the mound, one after another after another.
Three, total. Three, always.
Three that never miss the face of Ryan McLinskey.
They are self-inflicted shots, part ritual and part missive.
They likely are going to be on display this weekend as Notre Dame (12-1, 2-0 ACC) travels to Louisville (13-4)
Hockey still runs in the McLinskey family, with brother, Liam, on the nationally ranked Quinnipiac squad and cousin, Drew Fortescue on the United States’ U-17 national team, but Ryan McLinskey brings that ice mentality to the pitching rubber.
“Before each inning, I’ll give myself three punches in the face just for three outs,” McLinskey tells Irish Sports Daily. “As a freshman, it kind of started at Seton Hall, actually had a senior pitcher, Matt Leon, when I was a freshman, he told me, ‘You kinda want the hitter to think you’re a little crazy out there.’ It’s just a tough mindset. You want to try to make the hitter uncomfortable with every pitch.”
Opposition discomfort – foes have 20 strikeouts against just five hits facing McLinskey this season – shows McLinskey’s immediate ease fitting into the Notre Dame baseball program, which is defending its 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference title and sits atop the Baseball America poll with a No. 1 ranking.
A 6-foot-1, 195-pound Seton Hall transfer, McLinskey already is emerging as third-year Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett’s top-leverage arm from the ’pen, and his background starting for the Pirates gives him the flexibility to work longer outings.
“I think that’s kind of the attitude that he brings; that he’s punching himself between innings, he’ a crazy guy,” says Irish outfielder Brooks Coetzee III, the team-leader in hits (19), homers (5), RBIs (14) and total bases (38). “But we’re feeding off that energy and when he comes in, you know he’s in control.
“That’s what we feed off of.”
Back in the dugout following his first outing this season for Notre Dame during its season-opening trip to Stetson’s Hatter Classic, McLinskey remembers teammates checking on him after the self-immolation.
“I didn’t really do it in preseason or in the fall,” McLinskey says. “Then first game, I went out there and did it. And when I got back to the dugout, they were like, ‘You know you just punched yourself in the face?’ I said it helps me get locked in, fired up and helps me get the job done.”
McLinskey is balancing that ‘Wild Thing’ approach with continually improving pitch location, selection and command.
"I think he came into his own in the preseason and some of that is in Loftus,” says Jarrett, noting McLinskey’s work in the campus indoor facility. “We saw the velo start to tick up. We saw the slider get a little bit better and the changeup is not just a deceptive speed pitch, but a power pitch that has movement.”
It helps that McLinskey isn’t overly reliant on any of his arsenal – working the changeup, slider and elevating his fastball.
“I think it’s been a little different for each outing,” McLinskey says. “Sometimes it’s the changeup, sometimes it’s the slider, but the slider’s really gotten much better the last couple weeks. Same with changeup, I made a little change and started throwing it harder.
“In the past it’s been 80 to 83 (mph), now more so 85 to 87. It’s more of a power pitch. And the slider, I’m just really trying to play that off my fastball, and I’ve had some success off that up in the zone and the slider plays down.”
In essence, McLinskey keeps landing body-shots.
“I think that stems a little bit from my hockey background, just kind of having conviction in each thing I’m doing,” McLinskey says. “Everybody’s got a little psycho, a little weird in them.
“Whether it’s coming in with runners on first and second or a clean inning, it’s just about getting the job done and helping us win. So far it’s been pretty good with the strikeouts, but I’m just trying to get outs any way that I can.”
He’s got a puncher’s chance.
WEEKEND PITCHING ROTATION
Game 1, Friday, 4 pm.: ND LHP Aidan Tyrell (3-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. UL LHP Tate Kuehner (3-0, 1.74 ERA)
Game 2, Saturday, 1 p.m.: ND LHP John Michael Bertrand (4-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. UL RHP Jared Poland (1-1, 1.38 ERA)
Game 3, Saturday, 1 p.m.: ND RHP Austin Temple (2-0, 1.70 ERA) vs. ND LHP Riley Phillips (2-0, 2.37 ERA)
