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09/01/2016 12:00 AMAny time Ryan Sullivan pitched for the Post 76 Prep Legion baseball team this summer, he instilled confidence in his teammates that they were going to get the win. In fact, Ryan pitched so well that he earned a midseason promotion to North Haven’s Junior Legion squad.
“One of the biggest assets he was to our team this year was on the mound. He was our No. 1 pitcher and he was phenomenal in every outing. He always gave us five or six strong innings and shut down opponents,” says Prep Legion Head Coach Jake DeRosa. “It was just a different ball game when he was pitching. We won a majority of the games he pitched and it’s great because, when Ryan was on the mound, he brought a different dynamic to the game. We knew we’d be in it, so we’d play harder and help him out with the bats. We were a different team with him on the mound.”
Ryan pitched to a 1.65 earned-run average and added 15 RBI at the plate for the Prep Legion team. A big part of Ryan’s success was the mental game as he would often visualize himself recording one out after another.
“I have confidence every time I go out there. You have to think you’re better than the batter every time,” Ryan says. “It was a good experience for me because I got to play with older guys and it was fun.”
Ryan features three pitches in his repertoire, throwing a fastball, curveball, and a split-finger fastball to keep opposing batters off-balance. The splitter is unique for someone as young as Ryan and he did his homework in order to lock it down.
“When I was in Little League, people would always tell me a curve would hurt your arm, so I waited to throw that until I was a little older. I wanted something with no stress on the arm that would be effective, so I chose the splitter,” says Ryan, who’s entering his freshman year at Notre Dame-West Haven. “I watched a lot of YouTube videos and just practiced with my brother in the yard. It worked pretty well, so I started to use it in games, and it was exciting because I taught it to myself.”
When Ryan isn’t on the hill, he primarily plays third base. Coach DeRosa says that Ryan worked hard to improve his hitting throughout the summer. Ryan, in turn, believes his approach at the dish changed for the better as a result of working with DeRosa. Ryan was one of two recipients of the Batting Award for the Post 76 Prep team.
“He made me more competitive. He had high expectations for us and he had a strong work ethic and he demanded the same from us. That’s how we were successful,” says Ryan. “In certain counts, you want to focus on certain pitches to hit. He helped with that in practice and we did a lot of drills to recognize different pitches out of someone’s hand. That really helped, too.”
Ryan would like to play baseball at Notre Dame and he also plans to try out for the Green Knights’ ice hockey team next winter. Ryan is a defenseman, but he’s played the forward position, too, and so he has a nice two-way game.
“I’m pretty big and defensemen are usually pretty big, but I try to be more offensive,” he says. “But I know I have to play defense first and then worry about offense.”
As Ryan gears up for what’s ahead at Notre Dame, he knows that his time with North Haven’s Prep and Junior Legion teams will have him ready to play baseball for the Green Knights next spring.
“It prepared me well. Those will be the types of kids I’ll be facing there,” says Ryan. “It’s better to be prepared now rather than trying to adjust at that time.”