New Richmond – When Clark Kent takes his glasses off he becomes Superman. For Jacob Howard it seems to work the other way around.
A key bench player for the Wyoming East basketball team, when Howard steps on the diamond in the spring he swaps out his contacts for glasses and becomes the school’s top baseball player.
“Where the ball’s smaller it helps a lot,” Howard laughed after a doubleheader sweep against Summers County on Thursday. “For basketball I can’t wear them in basketball because I’m afraid they’ll get knocked off but I can see perfectly fine for basketball without them.”
Opposing teams are probably hoping he misplaces his spectacles down the stretch.
Through 14 games, the junior first baseman is hitting .649 in 37 at-bats, forcing those he’s facing to make a decision and it’s never an easy one. They can walk him and make somebody else beat them or pitch to him and risk watching him round first base.
The chances of the latter are pretty good.
Of Howard’s 24 hits, only eight are singles with 10 doubles, two triples and four home runs accounting for the other 16. For those keeping track, 66 percent of his hits have gone for extra bases. Take away the singles and he’d be a .432 hitter on the strength of his extra-base hits
“I don’t really know,” Howard said when asked where the power surge has come from. “I’ve just been on it this year. I was looking forward to coming into this year and I’ve had motivation through the season so I’ve just been able to hit the ball a lot.”
The motivation largely comes from making up for lost time. While Howard’s a junior, like all other juniors around the state he lost his freshmen season to the pandemic. It was disappointing for an athlete who found some playing time in basketball towards the end of his freshman year and hoped to keep that level of excitement going in the spring.
It was not to be, but it’s also spurred him to post the type of season he has thus far, wanting to make up for lost time.
“I have a lot of motivation since I missed out my freshman year,” Howard said. “I’ve been trying to make up for that time and realizing I have one year left, I’m trying to make the most of it. But I’ve been working on my bat speed too. The past couple of years it’s been going down but this past summer I worked on it a lot and it helped a lot.”
While motivation plays a key role, morphing into the hitter Howard is requires more than a strong will. It takes a combination of factors including hard work, patience, situational awareness and mental preparation.
You also have to have an idea of what you want in a plate appearance and wait for your pitch.
“You’ve got to have the vision and be able to tell what pitch is coming,” Howard said. “You’ve got to stay focused on the ball and I think I’ve been doing a good job this year because I have a lot of walks and I’ve only struck out once this year. I’ve been looking for the ball inside and that’s my hotspot.”
Of course when Howard isn’t scorching the ball for an extra-base hit it’s usually because he’s been given a free pass down the first base line which he takes at his own leisurely pace. The down side to being a solid power hitter slotted No. 3 in the lineup is you often come to the plate with an opportunity to drive a run in.
Opposing teams have tried to take that option away.
In a 13-9 Wyoming East win against Westside on April 11, the Renegades elected to intentionally walk Howard three times. The first two free passes came with runners in scoring position and East went on to score anyway. In his fourth plate appearance Howard justified the decision, launching a two-run home run that gave East an 8-7 lead.
Howard came to the plate once more in the game and was issued his third intentional walk of the evening but his teammates carried their weight.
A similar situation unfolded in a 3-1 win over Summers County on Thursday when Howard came to the plate with a man on second in a 1-1 game. He was told not to worry about taking the bat off his shoulder as Summers happily put him on first base.
The decision ultimately backfired when teammate Hayden Blankenship broke the tie one batter later, but it’s been a common theme Howard’s had to handle, albeit a frustrating one. Still he tries got look at the positives – it gives his teammates an opportunity to shine and they have. While Howard leads the team with 25 RBIs – 11 more than the next player – he also leads the team in runs scored with 25, taking advantage of the 15 free passes he’s been issued this season.
It’s all a part of being a great hitter. Even when the bat’s taken out of his hands he finds a way to help his team, something that matters more in the long run.
“It’s really frustrating but it’s a show of respect,” Howard said. “It can be frustrating as a hitter but you’ve got to understand the situation. You’ve got to have confidence the guys behind you can hit you in and I think we’ve done a good job of that so far. At Westside we did a good job and (Thursday) I got into a double play but we’ve been doing a really good job making the most of our opportunities.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94