Kevin Needham, who led the Jackson Memorial High School baseball team to its first Shore Conference A South Division and conference tournament titles in many years, is eager to get back into game condition after sitting out this spring as a medical redshirt.
Needham, who signed to play this summer for the Riverhead Tomcats of the Hamptons League on Long Island, N.Y., is working his way back in practices at St. John’s University, Jamaica, N.Y., after a preseason injury allowed him to be granted another year of eligibility by the NCAA during his first spring there.
He will play this summer as a pitcher and first baseman as he did at Jackson Memorial, where he led the Jaguars to a 22-3 season last spring.
“I got injured two weeks before the [2010 college] season and missed half of it, so the coaches thought it would be better for me to redshirt,” said Needham, who has been working out with the Red Storm in practices in recent weeks.
Needham declined to specify the injury that did not affect his throwing arm but happened while he was pitching during preseason.
“I feel fine now,” he said this week. “I am getting a lot stronger. I still have four years [of college] eligibility, so I have the opportunity to get twice as strong. It will only get better.”
Needham pitched in fall workouts with the Red Storm and was pitching and hitting during practices and intrasquad scrimmages this spring once he became healthy again.
Last spring, Needham was one of the leading hitters with a .415 batting average and won six games on the mound for Jackson Memorial, which won its first A South title since 1994 and its first Shore Conference Tournament title in 25 years.
He said he has learned a lot since arriving at St. John’s.
Of pitching, he said, “It’s just command and the importance of hitting spots. You can get away with missing the spots a little in high school, but not in college.”
Needham said he is focusing on his change-up a bit more this spring to go with his four-seam and two-seam fastball, knuckle curve and spot change.
And he said the perspective is more intense than high school.
“I like it, baseball and studies,” he said. “Life is baseball here, which I love. It’s an extreme commitment.”
Needham could use the additional year of eligibility on a young staff that has only four seniors and four of the other 14 pitchers are freshmen, including Kyle Hansen, who has a 4.08 ERAand is 4-1 as one of the leading pitchers for the 29-13 Red Storm.
The team, which had won 10 of its last 11 games coming into this week, has won every Big East Conference series after its first one as it gets set to head into the Big East Tournament later this month.
Needham will lend his support to his teammates before heading off to Long Island to pitch and hit in a wood-bat league. He said pitching against players using wood bats is not really different from pitching to hitters who are using metal alloy bats.
“You have to be aggressive on both sides,” he said. “You pitch a little more to the inside because hitters are guessing outside, so pitchers go inside to tie them up. It keeps hitters honest.”
And Needham said he enjoys swinging wood bats.
“I’ve been playing with wood bats since my freshman year. I like it,” he said. “You have more gratification when you hit the ball. You have to hit it perfect. There are no cheap hits.”