FREMONT – After three years of serving as the ace of the Fremont Ross baseball team’s pitching staff, Trey Ickes has every intention of maintaining that role at Heidelberg University.
Trey Ickes
The Little Giant senior officially committed to continuing his career at the collegiate level Friday, signing to Heidelberg where he plans to make himself an indispensable part of the Student Prince’s pitching rotation.
“I’m going to work my butt off because I do not want to sit the bench, I want to play,” Ickes said. “And I don’t just want to be No. 5 in the pitching rotation, I want to be the No. 1 as a freshman, as a sophomore, and until I’m a senior.”
Given his performance for the Little Giants the last three seasons, it’d be wise not to bet against him.
For his career, Ickes compiled a 2.90 earned run average and struck out 163 batters, with 68 strikeouts and a 2.76 ERA his senior season with 58.1 innings pitched.
Ickes knows his role won’t be just handed to him, but will have to be earned.
“I really have to lower my pitch count in games and throw more strikes,” he said. “That’s a huge thing, I have to throw more strikes. If I throw strikes all day, I have a chance.”
Ross coach Jared King believes Ickes’ large toolbox of pitches, and the experience he gained pitching against the top hitters in the TRAC will serve him well at Heidelberg.
“The key for him is to continue to mix his speeds and hit his spots,” King said. “I think he’s mentally tough enough. Look at the league we play in and the opponents he’s faced the last three years, he’s faced highly talented opponents in Northwest Ohio and I think that’s a nice building block for him at the next level.”
Ickes, who plans to study business and accounting, said he chose Heidelberg because of the interest the coaching staff showed in him.
“Coach (Chad Fitzgerald), he called me two or three times a week and really signified he wanted me to be a Student Price,” Ickes said. “He wanted me to be on the baseball team and I wasn’t just another player to him. The other schools that were recruiting me, they didn’t really call me, I’d hear for them every month and a half.”
Said King: “He’s got a live arm. And he’s got five or six pitches he can throw. Being able to mix up his speed will be his key at the next level. I’d like to see him again more strength. He’s already a pretty strong kid but if he can gain more strength it’ll add a few miles per hour to his fastball.”