Like , if something's on your mind , like , I , I've been through it . It's my 4th year here , and I know about balancing school . I know how hard the transition is freshman year .
And once I hit the summer and and got to Evanton in the fall , ready to roll and , and jump in , you're ready to go . I've always been an academic person , so for me , I was trying to find a balance of the best possible academics with the best possible baseball . Um , and I think when a , you know , a school like Northwestern calls and , you know , you get a top 10 .
Um , and when you get to college , the pitchers improve , the stuff is better . And you really have to be able to do a multitude of things kind of in the box . Like , you have to be able to hit a 95 mile an hour fastball , but you also have to be able to , you know , if he leaves a 00 hanging slider over the middle of the plate , like in high school , it was like , all right , you might be able to just take that cause you probably , one , it's not that good of a pitch , wo , you probably can't repeatedly throw it for a strike .
At what times I may have some downtime and , and you might have to make some sacrifices , you might not be able to , you know , go out with your friends , you know , do kind of social aspirations or social things kind of and , and stay in and catch up on work or start , you know , studying and get ahead . Um , but I think that's sacrifices that , you know , all student athletes have to make , um , and especially at Northwestern , you get pretty good at kind of balancing the two and , and knowing what you have to get done , when you have to get it done by , um , and how to kind of be prepared both athletically and academically . Yeah , that's a great question .
With , you know , high velocity pitching machines , just getting reps of catching your arms as much as possible . Um , all , all that type of stuff helps kind of get you adjusted and acclimated . Um , and I think that really helped me on a defensive side to be able to come in and , and be ready to catch right away at the college level .
