Before he became an Arizona Wildcat, pitcher Kevin Ginkel had two opportunities to become a professional baseball player. He turned them both down. If he gets drafted again next month, he’ll probably sign.
“I think my time’s come now,” the junior right-hander said. “I’ve proven a lot of people wrong, and hopefully there’s more to come.”
Those people include UA coach Jay Johnson.
When he was the top assistant at the University of San Diego, Johnson scouted Ginkel, who played at El Capitan High in nearby Lakeside. The Toreros were loaded, and Ginkel wasn’t quite good enough at the time to draw Johnson’s interest.
But they maintained a relationship, and as Ginkel developed at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California, Johnson’s interest grew. Johnson recruited Ginkel to Nevada, where he signed a letter of intent.
“By that time it was a no-brainer,” said Johnson, whose team hosts Oregon State in a three-game series starting Friday. “He had an electric arm when we went and saw him.”
Johnson thought so much of Ginkel at that point that he wanted to bring him along to Arizona. First, Ginkel had to get out of his letter of intent. Once that was taken care of, he followed Johnson to Tucson.
Deep into what might be his one and only season at the UA, Ginkel is starting to make the impact Johnson envisioned.
Ginkel earned Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honors after throwing a two-hit shutout against Arizona State last Tuesday. The 6-foot-5-inch, 213-pound junior took a perfect game into the seventh inning.
“It was only my second start, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible,” Ginkel said. “My teammates were there to support me. We played great defense. Got a lot of runs on the board. After the game I got a lot of texts, and my phone was kind of blowing up.”
Ginkel also pitched well in relief on Saturday at USC, allowing one run in 2º innings. For the season, he has a 2-0 record, a 3.29 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) in 27ª innings. Opponents are hitting just .196 against him.
“He’s got a great arm,” Johnson said. “He’s made some strides in terms of his arm conditioning and his body. The fastball command up at ASU was spectacular. He’s going to be a big part of what we’re doing the last four weeks here.”
How that will play out exactly remains to be seen. Ginkel could be a Saturday or Sunday starter — only Nathan Bannister, on Fridays, is a sure thing — or he could work out of the bullpen. What seems fairly certain is that Ginkel will be drafted again.
The San Francisco Giants took him in the 16th round in 2014. The Boston Red Sox took him in the 26th round last year. Pitchers who stand 6-5 and can hit 95 mph on the radar gun generally draw a lot of interest.
Ginkel didn’t sign with the Giants or Red Sox mainly because the money wasn’t good enough. But he didn’t feel he was ready either.
Now he is. But first things first: helping Arizona finish the season strong, earn an NCAA playoff berth and possibly host a regional.
“If we could host here, that’d be quite a spectacle,” Ginkel said. “It’d be awesome.”
Packed 12
Arizona is in prime position to return to the postseason for the first time since 2012. But the Wildcats can’t afford a letdown in the tightly contested Pac-12.
Entering Thursday, Arizona (28-16, 11-10) was in fourth place in the conference, 1½ games behind co-leaders Washington and Utah. But the two teams tied for eighth — Cal and UCLA — were just a game behind the Wildcats, with three 9-9 teams in between.
“Every team could go into an NCAA regional and be fine, and possibly come out and win it,” Johnson said. “It speaks to the depth of the conference, the amount of good players in the West.”
The Pac-12’s coaches did not expect Washington and Utah to be atop the standings. In their annual poll, the coaches picked the Huskies and Utes to finish eighth and 11th, respectively.
Oregon State (29-12, 10-8) is one of the few teams in the league that has lived up to preseason expectations. The coaches picked the Beavers to win the conference. They’re currently third.
Inside pitch
- Entering Thursday, Washington (32) and Arizona (33) were neck and neck for the top RPI in the conference. Oregon State (41) was next, followed by Cal (48). Utah, which is just 16-23 overall, had an RPI of 125.
- Oregon State ranks first or second in the Pac-12 in batting average (.298), slugging percentage (.437), on-base percentage (.394), runs (272), doubles (78) and triples (28). The Beavers’ breakout star is junior catcher Logan Ice, who’s batting .373 with a league-best .500 on-base percentage. Ice has walked 32 times while striking out only 13 times in 126 at-bats. He also has six home runs and 36 RBIs.
- Arizona senior outfielder Zach Gibbons leads the conference with a .391 average. Senior infielder Cody Ramer ranks ninth (.356) and leads the league in hits (64). He’s seventh in OBP (.453).
- Arizona’s Bobby Dalbec and OSU’s Bryce Fehmel are tied for the Pac-12 lead in wins with eight apiece. Both have the lowest ERAs on their teams.
