Martin perseveres, dominates in college ball

There was a point when Connor Martin was wondering if he would ever earn a victory in a college baseball game.

As it turns out, he’s won a lot more than that.

The 19-year-old farm kid from Nesbitt returned to Valley City State University for his second season, and after a tough start, was named all conference and the Frontier Conference’s pitcher of the year.

“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t really expect it,” Martin said. “I didn’t realize what my stats looked like at that time. It was pretty cool to hear my name called.”

He received even more good news on Thursday when he was named the college male athlete of the year by the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He topped University of Mary wrestler Jacob Strausbaugh and North Dakota State track and field star Ryder Bickett for the honour.

He’s the first Valley City athlete to win the award since it was first handed out in 1968.

It’s something no one saw coming after a tough first season. He posted an 0-6 record with a 6.87 earned run average, which was an eye opener for Martin, who was absolutely dominant in his age group in Manitoba.

“I was disappointed with my first year,” Martin said. “I was one of our four starters but didn’t win all year, and that just kind of says it all.”

Even so, he said returning to school this year was completely different. With the benefit of a year’s experience under his belt, he immediately felt at home, and that mattered.

“I think it was probably one of the most important parts,” Martin said. “Also just having the confidence to say ‘Screw it’ and be better than these guys is the mindset you need to have.”

His second year didn’t start like he might have hoped, however. After two losses, he earned his first win on Oct. 8 when he pitched seven innings in a 6-1 victory over Bismarck State. After the split season resumed in the spring, he lost two more games, and his record was 1-4.

“Obviously there is better pitching in college,” Martin said. “Manitoba is not a great place to struggle against hitters. If you can throw strikes, you can do OK usually. This past year and the struggles in my freshman year, my stuff was better than it was through high school, it was just that I was struggling with location and confidence.”

That’s the point it all came together for him. He won his next four starts, and after a tough outing, reeled off a six-game winning streak

His best performance was against Dickinson State on April 25. He faced 25 batters and struck out 13 of them in a two-hit, 6-0 shutout.

“Leading up to that, I had a pretty good streak going already with good starts in a row,” Martin said. “I went in there and I knew if I executed my pitches I could be dominant, and that’s what happened.”

During that stretch, he didn’t allow an earned run in five games.

“It was a breath of fresh air because I had been struggling before that in college,” Martin said. “Just finding that one good game and realizing that was where I needed to be at, and then being able to be there and have the same routine, everything sort of clicked for me.”

The team’s season ended on May 4 in the Frontier Conference championship in 10-7 and 16-5 losses to Bellevue University (49-4), who entered the tournament with the top seed, on a 33-game winning streak and second ranked in the country

Valley State beat them in the semifinal but fell to the Bruins in the final.

Martin finished the season with a record of 9-4 for the 26-24-1 Vikings, with a 3.66 earned run average, three complete games and two shutouts, while leading the entire National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in strikeouts.

He set two Valley City records last season, breaking Darin Loe’s 39-year-old strikeout mark by 13 when he whiffed 134 batters. He has also averaged 12.62 strikeouts per nine innings, tops for pitchers who have thrown a minimum of 75 innings.

His 208 strikeouts in 148.1 innings are third most in school history.

Martin hasn’t made any significant technical changes to his delivery — he uses a fastball, a curveball and a changeup — but has improved because he’s been able to throw all winter.

“It’s being robotic,” Martin said. “Everything you do when you’re on the mound needs to be the same. The rest of it is mostly mindset.”

MOVING SOUTH

Valley City, a community of about 6,800 people, is located 99 kilometres straight west of Fargo, and 421 kilometres southeast of Nesbitt. While it’s not exactly an urban metropolis, it was a big step for Martin.

“It wasn’t anything too crazy,” Martin said. “Valley is not a big city by any means. It’s bigger than what I’m used to living on a farm but our team is super good at getting guys included early. I felt right at home within the first two weeks. It was good.”

He is one of six Manitobans on a roster that also includes Strathclair’s Kaden Rozdeba.

It’s a different country but he didn’t feel it was that unfamiliar, noting the similarities are bigger than the differences. The more impactful change was going from high school to university and all that entails in the classroom.

“That was probably the biggest adjustment, going from having more of a strict schedule in high school to maybe being on your own a little bit more and making your own decisions,” Martin said. “It took me a while to figure it out, but after a couple of months, time management I learned was very important.”

The team seldom practises in the morning, so he would wake up between 8 and 9 and go to class. He would have a workout before or after lunch, return to class and head to practice around 4. He lived on campus in his first year, so he would race back to grab supper and then have his evenings to work on school.

This season, he lived off campus so it was less stressful because he could cook on his schedule.

He still eats at the cafeteria once a day but likes the ability to choose his own meals at home.

Another change is the athletic workload.

It’s certainly different athletic than when he was home, and he said it did take time for his body to adjust.

“In the fall, there are sore bodies for the first month and then you find your rhythm pretty quick after that,” Martin said.

SUMMER FUN

After Martin gets to Manitoba, he joins a dominant Boissevain Centennials squad in the South West Baseball League. When the Cents were in Brandon on Tuesday to face the Cardinals, he lined up in centre field and scored the tying run in an 8-1 victory.

“It’s a blast,” Martin said with a chuckle. “This is pretty much my off-season until August when I get serious. It’s nice to be able to go out and not so much worry about the result. Obviously I like to win but there’s less pressure and playing the field is a breath of fresh air.”

In the last two years, he’s thrown just two innings of senior ball, which is by design.

“I take a break,” Martin said. “I threw quite a few innings this year so I’m just slowly rolling back into it now, throwing more pitches every time. I’ll probably be at 100 per cent in a month or so.”

Martin doesn’t pitch much in Manitoba now, but has noticed a difference from college in his South West games.

Senior baseball has more older players, and while it does have some real talent and good clubs, college ball offers a unique challenge.

“The depth is the difference,” Martin said. “Good teams have guys you have to battle with one through nine in the lineup. With a senior team, it might be three or four guys who you have to battle against and then you can take your foot off the gas a bit. That’s the biggest thing.”

During the summer, he works at Cargill on the crop input side and also puts plenty time in around the farm.

He’ll be returning to Valley City in late August for his third season at the four-year school. He’s already looking forward to it.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Martin said. “We have a good group of guys down there. We all like having a good time.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com