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University of Minnesota Athletics
Catching up with Jordan Jess
4/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Jordan Jess (Ripon, Wis.) has not allowed a run in his last four relief outings. The redshirt junior left-hander pitched the last 2 1/3 innings of Minnesota's shutout win at Nebraska last Friday. Jess has overcome injuries and up-and-down seasons to find success on the mound.
Q: What was the feeling like coming in with two runners on base and getting a strikeout to hold the lead at Nebraska?
A: That was one of the best moments in my career here up to this point. Just coming in and picking Ben (Meyer) up was the biggest thing I wanted to accomplish there, and then going back out there and finishing what Ben started. He pitched unbelievable. It was huge for my confidence, too, just to get out there and have a little bit of success against a good team.
Q: You had another good outing a couple days later. What's been clicking for you that has allowed you to pitch so well lately?
A: I think the biggest thing for me is just throwing the ball over the plate and throwing strikes and letting the defense work and letting the hitters on the other team get themselves out was the biggest thing for me, just a little more focus on the mound. I'm another year more mature, knowing a little bit better what to do, and the confidence I have this year is a lot different than I had last year.
Q: You've worked with three different pitching coaches here with Todd Oakes, Tyler Oakes filling in for a while in the past and Scott Matyas as interim coach right now. What are some similarities, differences or things you can take away from all three?
A: I think they're all very similar. Obviously Tyler's T.O.'s son, and Scott played for him, too. I think they're all pretty similar. Tyler and Scott bring a little younger approach to it. But they're pretty much all the same principles, all the same stuff we do, and that's good because we've had some guys leave and obviously T.O. got sick. It's been good to have some consistency with the philosophies and all that stuff.
Q: Which off-field road trip experiences have been your favorite this year?
A: I really liked the off day in Washington, D.C. I'd never been there before, so that was huge to see all that stuff. And I would say the Twins game, too. Obviously we didn't do a ton of stuff off the field because it was a day trip, but that was one of the coolest experiences here as well, just to play against a Big League team.
Q: After all those games on the road, is it nice to have 13 straight home games at Siebert Field?
A: It's going to be so nice. We're going to have the fans back on our side. Obviously Nebraska's a tough environment and it wasn't easy to play there. So we'll have some fans in the stadium and get on our side. That's going to be huge for our confidence. We need to win a couple games to hopefully make a push towards the end of the season, but being at home is definitely going to be nice just to relax a little bit, have some time to catch up on things we haven't been doing.
Q: It's been a couple years since you were a stem cell donor through Be the Match. Do you still think about that experience often?
A: It's one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. I follow a lot of things on social media, so I see a lot of people that have had the same opportunity. It's still a big part of my life. I believe in it strongly and I was grateful that I got that opportunity. Actually we just had another person here--her name is Kaela Anderson and she used to be a swimmer--she's actually a match, too, now. I still think about that all the time, how cool that was for me, and I was able to do some good.
Q: People always say left-handed pitchers are weird. How do you respond to that, and do you think there are some righties on the team who are actually weirder? Anyone you want to call out?
A: I would agree. Lefties can be a kind of weird. We have our quirks. But I feel like righties are just as weird or weirder. I just want to call out Ben Meyer, just because. He's a weird guy. He's pretty below average at video games. I beat him all the time. So in terms of lefties versus righties in that area, lefties are way better.
