Negrych wins all year round

It’s the middle of December, and snow is falling on the streets of Oakland. The sun has been… It’s the middle of December, and snow is falling on the streets of Oakland. The sun has been down for a few hours, and street lamps keep the roadways lit — just enough so Jim Negrych can navigate his way in the wintry mess to the far top of Pitt’s campus into the Cost Center.

Inside, it is snowing baseballs off the tee and into the net, as Negrych pounds ball after ball. He’s alone, throwing baseballs off the wall and fielding them. He understands that baseball games are sometimes won on December nights such as this one.

“A lot of baseball is effort, you have to put time in on your own, and we don’t need coaches near us every time we work out,” said Negrych, who is the Pre-Season Big East Player of the Year. “It sucks every time you have to walk up to the Cost Center, because it’s freezing, but it’s just something you have to do.”

Negrych, who attended St. Francis High School in Buffalo, N.Y., started 55 of the Panthers’ 56 games a season ago. In his first collegiate game, Negrych had three hits, including a game-winning solo home run in the seventh inning off All-American Thomas Diamond, who went on to be the 10th overall pick in the Major League Draft.

En route to being named Big East Rookie of the Year, Negrych hit .378 and pounded out 20 doubles, breaking the school’s single-season record. He tied the school’s all-time hitting record with 76 and had a 13-game hitting streak that covered three weeks in May. His rookie campaign was one of the best in Panther history, and the national media was quick to take notice. Baseball America and Louisville Slugger both named him a Freshman All-American.

He is currently a candidate for one of the most prestigious awards in college baseball, the Brooks Wallace Award, given annually to the best player in college baseball.

Negrych, however, leaves awards and all the extra attention in the dugout.

“Most of it is just kind of comical because you get jokes from your teammates,” he said. “I don’t really think about those things, because they are all in the past, and if I don’t do well this year, all of those accolades are going to be worthless. As far as I am concerned, it brings more recognition to the school than it does to me personally.”

And Negrych has done more than just perform at Trees Field to bring recognition to Pitt. Following the Panthers’ two losses in the Big East Tournament last May, he played for the Keene Swamp Bats in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

There, Negrych hit .354 and led the league with nine home runs, 39 RBIs and 90 total bases. On his way around the base paths, he picked up a mid-season All-Star selection before being named the league’s Co-Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and the fifth best prospect in the league.

That’s a sizeable amount of awards for one player, but Panther head coach Joe Jordano says Negrych earned every one of them.

“He did everything he needed to do, and what he did as a freshman [was] become one of the most feared hitters in the Big East conference,” he said. “When you perform against that level of competition, you definitely deserve everything that comes your way. In addition, he went out in the summertime and did an unbelievable job against great competition against all the other college programs he faced.”

His high school coach Paul Bartell echoed Jordano’s beliefs.

“I have been coaching for 14 years. And even though he had great ability, he worked every year at different parts of his game, and he really led by example,” said Bartell, who coached Negrych at St. Francis. “He played with confidence, but he wasn’t arrogant. He let his game do his talking.”

A three-sport star in high school, Negrych always let his game do the talking, whether it was basketball, football or baseball. But it was always clear that baseball was his priority and passion. Negrych made a splash with the St. Francis baseball program from the very beginning.

“He was on varsity for four years, and right away, not only did he have the talent, but he had a great work ethic,” Bartell said.

Jordano does not officially name captains for his team, but he expects Negrych to take control this season and lead his teammates, both on and off the field. Jordano stresses that leading the team does not mean carrying them.

“In baseball, one individual does not make a team. And with what we lost [to graduation], this year’s nucleus, their role has completely changed,” Jordano said. “They were in a supporting role, and now we are going to be extremely young, and I don’t know how that translates in the field yet.”

This year, Negrych and the Panthers’ goals are beyond just winning games; they’re more about winning championships.

“Our goal is to play 68 games, and the season is only 56,” Negrych said in reference to the team’s post-season goals. “We want to make it to the College World Series and win the Big East on the way. We want to put the University of Pittsburgh on the map.”

And pinpointing Pittsburgh on a map won’t be too hard. All one has to do is listen closely for the sound of baseballs cracking off Negrych’s bat at the Cost Center.