The wait is over for FR's Thwaits

Sometimes things don’t go as planned.
After the long wait and the frustration of not being able to play, Nick Thwaits finally got his chance on Tuesday.
It just didn’t turn out the way he, or his team, anticipated.
Thwaits, a Fort Recovery High School sophomore flamethrower, made his season debut on Tuesday in a 9-7 loss to the Parkway Panthers in Rockford, Ohio.
“It felt good to be out there,” Thwaits said. “Of course it wasn’t the way we were hoping but I got some good things from that. Command was good. Of course I was more toward the middle of the plate than what I was liking, but we can take away that I was throwing strikes and getting ahead of guys.”
He was touched up for six runs — four earned —on eight hits in five innings of work. He struck out six and walked three. Fifty-nine of his 93 pitches were strikes, and he threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of the 27 batters he faced.
“He threw the ball well,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup. “They hit it. They hit the ball and we made a couple mistakes.”
The Indians (10-4, 1-1 Midwest Athletic Conference) committed three errors, helping the Panthers score four unearned runs.
Despite the rough outing, Thwaits and his coach still have high hopes for the remainder of the season.
“Nick is a talented young man,” Kaup said. “We are still going to expect a lot of things from him and from everybody else that’s on that field.”
Until Tuesday, Thwaits wasn’t able to pitch for the Indians because he had to sit out 13 games after transferring from MAC-rival Marion Local.
The OHSAA bylaw for transfer students says: “If a student transfers … the student shall be ineligible for all contests until after the first 50 (percent) of the maximum allowable regular season contests … .”
In baseball, half a season amounts to 13 games. Because of this, to help get in the required games as quickly as possible, the Indians played in weather most would deem not fit for sports played on diamonds —rain, snow, sleet, hail and high winds. Some of those even made an appearance during the same game.
But it helped the Tribe get to 13 games, giving Thwaits the opportunity to make his Fort Recovery debut.
It was a difficult three-plus weeks for the 6-foot, 1-inch kid. While he practiced every day with his teammates, come game time there was not the slightest chance he would get to play.
He was in uniform, in the dugout, cheering on his teammates as best he could, but deep inside it he was chomping at the bit to get out on the field.
“It was tough to watch,” he said. “You’re a competitor, but also you have to be able to take something away from it.”
So that’s what he did. He charted pitches for his teammates, tracking location of every pitch thrown and the result.
It was more than that too.
He used that time as a learning experience —picking up tendencies of opposing hitters and pitchers, while also learning how the Indians do things both on and off the field.
At Marion Local, Thwaits was the guy. As a freshman he led the Flyers in innings (47 1/3), ERA (1.04) and strikeouts (49).
He made 11 appearances, starting six, had a 2-4 record and converted all three of his save opportunities. He had a 2.13 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
For the Tribe, a team that advanced to the state final four last season, he is just another pitcher. But a talented one. His fastball has been clocked in the high 80s. His curveball is in the low 70s.
“He’s another piece,” Kaup said. “He’s a quality player. I think we want to be a competitive team. He is a player or a teammate on a competitive team.
“This team still needs to be led by the seniors. They are the ones that dictate. Nick, when he gets to be a senior, he will be in that position. Right now he is a talented sophomore. That is what I expect from him. I expect him to contribute.”
Although Tuesday’s outing was far from stellar, coach and the youngster are not disappointed.
It was just a bump in the road, a journey the Tribe hopes ends in Columbus.
And Thwaits is happy to be part of it.