Angry Fastballs: Potojecki rides change in pitches to successful season at Longwood
Back in April, Longwood University Assistant Director of Athletics Communications Alex Kerstetter sent an email message to all media outlets in the Danville/Pittsylvania County region, including River City Sports …
Back in April, Longwood University Assistant Director of Athletics Communications Alex Kerstetter sent an email message to all media outlets in the Danville/Pittsylvania County region, including River City Sports.
Now, it’s not an everyday occurrence this outlet gets emails from Division I assistant directors of athletic communications but Kerstetter had some pertinent information.
Longwood had a redshirt junior righthanded starter that was having the kind of season that had the potential to be record breaking.
Who’s this righty starter? Why are we talking about him? You might be asking. Well, he’s none other than former Chatham standout and Class 2 state champion Andrew Potojecki.
As why we’re talking about him, Kerstetter proved prophetic as Potojecki finished the 2022 season with career highs in strikeouts (41) and innings pitched (67.2), put together a five-game winning streak midway through the season and was named to the Big South Pitcher of the Week.
The key to Potojecki’s success?
A new pitch …
Angry fastballs
Potojecki entered last season a thrower of angry fastballs. Four-seamers delivered as hard as he could deliver them. On most days, the approach worked. Even if it often required Potojecki to go deep into at-bats. Other days, when the heater was left up in the zone, not so much.
“Before the season, I was more of an over-the-top, four-seam type of guy and it wasn’t always going well,” Potojecki said. “I was going deep into at-bats which wasn’t allowing me to get very far in the game and give my team a chance to win. I was leaving the pitch up in the zone which at the D-I level, you’re going to pay for it.”
Knowing the Lancers were going to rely on Potojecki in the starting rotation, assistant coach Brad Mincey came up with a different game plan for the former Class 2 state champion.
The new game plan?
Adding a sinker to Potojecki’s resume.
“About a week before the season started, my pitching coach [Mincey] was like, ‘okay, we’re going to throw sinkers and anybody that’s knowledgeable about baseball knows that kind of changes everything,” Potojecki said laughing. “You have to change your slot if you want to be effective. It’s a lot.”
Knowing it wasn’t an overnight change and the season was a week away, Potojecki had some questions for Mincey about how they were going to pull it off.
“I was like, ‘what? The season starts in a week?’” Potojecki said laughing. “And he was like, ‘yeah, conference starts in a month, though, and that’s where we really need you.’”
Potojecki rolled with Mincey’s confidence and sure enough, the results came rolling in once the Lancers’ season kicked off.
News in coach’s office
Nearing the end of Longwood’s preseason scrimmages, Potojecki got bit by a hair. He felt like he had turned in a solid performance during the Lancers’ camp and wanted to know where he stood heading into the decision so he decided to pop his head inside Mincey’s office to find out.
A few laughs and cracks at his expense later, Potojecki knew just where he stood. Longwood’s Friday starter, a role usually reserved for a college team’s stud.
“I remember I asked them what they thought my role was and they said, ‘are you serious?’ You’ve been starting on Friday’s inner squads, what do you think your role is,” Potojecki recalled with a grin. “I was just being insecure about my performances in inner squads even asking them but they said they trusted me and knew I was going to compete even if I didn’t always have my best stuff.”
Potojecki’s thoughts immediately went to his coach’s words and team after getting the news.
“When they told me that we were opening at home against Maryland Eastern Shore and head coach [Chad Oxendine] had been saying anything less than a sweep is a failure so I’m like ‘can’t sweep if you don’t win on Friday’ and as soon as they told me I just wanted to make sure I was prepared and doing everything I could to help my team get a win on Friday.”
And get the Lancers a few wins was exactly what Potojecki was about to do.
The streak
In his first start of the year, Potojecki turned in a solid outing, scattering one run and eight hits and striking out four in six innings thrown against Maryland Eastern Shore. His effort was good enough to earn him the win in the Lancers’ 11–1 rout.
Potojecki struggled a bit in his next two starts against Elon and Purdue, the last giving him his first loss on the season. However, Mincey’s plan was about ready to kick in.
The magic started in Potojecki’s start against Bryant University March 11. The sinker finally started falling for the right hander and the result was a gem of the game as Potojecki threw seven innings of three-hit, shutout ball while fanning seven batters in Longwood’s 4–0 win.
While his next start against UNC Asheville didn’t match his performance against the Bulldogs, Potojecki was still solid against the Bulldogs, scattering five hits and two runs while striking out seven in six innings thrown.
Potojecki ran the win streak to three in his start against North Carolina A&T March 25 after only giving up a run in five innings thrown and pushed it to four with his performance against UNC Greensboro April 1 where he gave up two runs (one earned) and surrendered only three hits in seven innings thrown. However, his performance against High Point April 8 marked the highlight as he twirled seven frames of three-hit, shutout ball to win his fifth straight and move to 6–1 on the season.
All good things must come to an end though and Potojecki’s streak came to an end April 14 in a loss to Big South foe Presbyterian.
In all, Potojecki recorded two shutouts, gave up a combined 23 hits, a combined eight runs
In all, Potojecki recorded two shutouts, gave up a combined eight runs (four earned) and 23 hits and struck out a combined 24 hitters in 32 innings pitched over his five-game streak.
Numbers Potojecki credited to Mincey’s switch.
“When the sinker is going, you can get a lot of outs quickly so it allowed me to go deeper into games and give us a chance to win,” he said.
Career Bests (Strikeouts)
When Kerstetter sent the email back in April informing press Potojecki was on pace for a record-breaking year, he had no idea he was being prophetic.
By the time the dust had settled on the season, Potojecki had recorded career bests of 41 strikeouts and 67.2 innings pitched. On top of that, he also earned his first Big South Pitcher of the Week honor April 4.
The reason for his success? If you guessed the switch to the sinker, you’d be correct.
According to Potojecki, the addition of the sinker helped him to the career best in strikeouts in several different ways.
“When I was striking out a lot of guys this season it was because the sinker was moving and I was getting a lot of quick outs but it was taking them off the changeup that plays into the same tunnel, the same action, it’s just a different break. And a slider, when you can mix all three, throw all for three strikes, it makes things a lot easier.”
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“Another huge thing with that is throwing a sinker, guys will give up on it. I started outside the plate to a righty, they’re going to give up on it and it’s going to run back over so if you can do that, it’s unhittable.”
Going into the season, Potojecki’s scouting report read he was primarily a four-seam, up-in-the-zone kind of guy, giving hitters a pretty good idea of what to expect. However, the addition of the sinker gave him a different look that proved tough for hitters to adjust.
“My first time facing somebody, my scouting report says I throw four-seamers up in the zone and I come in throwing sinkers, knee-high, putting them where they need to be and I’m throwing it off of fastballs, they’re bouncing them off the plate,” Potojecki said.
Career Bests (Innings Thrown)
While Potojecki put in the work to learn the sinker, it was Mincey who had the idea to make the switch and his decision was something the righty didn’t forget when crediting his career-high 67.2 innings pitched this year.
“Our pitching coach might be a genius because I never in my life would’ve thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to start throwing a sinker a week before the season starts,’ and in less than a month I’m going to be throwing seven innings against a team like UNC-Greensboro I would’ve told you, you were crazy,” Potojecki said laughing. “But he saw something in me, saw I could do it and I’m glad I listened.”
“I got to give all the credit to my pitching coach for seeing that and being like, ‘Okay, this is what we need you to do if you’re going to throw six or seven innings for us.”
According to Potojecki, it was a combination of pitching approach and the sinker that helped him turn in the career-high mark.
“As a starting pitcher, especially on Friday, you want to save your bullpen arms for the rest of the weekend because the games are just going to get tougher so basically that’s what I was trying to do, I wasn’t trying to go out there and set a personal high for strikeouts, I was just trying to give us a chance to save our bullpen and win for the next two days as well as Friday,” he said.
“But the sinker really helps, you get swings and misses on off speed stuff the sinker sets up but more than that, you get swings on the fastball and you get them early and as long as you get ahead, you can get some quick outs.”
Big shot, ego checkin’
Potojecki had one heck of a senior year at Chatham. Not only did he start and win the Class 2 state title game for the ‘Cavs, he was named Class 2 player of the year, earned Region 2C player of the year honors and was named to the First-Team All-State.
That combined with the fact Mincey and current coach Chad Oxendine were in their first years in the program would’ve made it very easy for Potojecki to brush off Mincey’s suggestion and keep doing his own thing.
Unlike the main character in Billy Joel’s “Big Shot,” Potojecki didn’t act like a big shot, kept his ego in check and went along with the changes.
“I might not have listened quite as much when I was in high school but I was also able to get away with certain stuff in high school as well and coach [Mincey] really put it to me in a way that helped me understand and showed what kind of coach he is. He told me, ‘If you’re going to pitch on Friday’s, start and go five to seven innings like we need you to, you’re going to have to throw sinkers because you can’t go deep into games if you’re only throwing on top.”
“He told me it was crucial for me to throw sinkers, get quick outs and give us a chance to win. That’s what the team needs you to do and that’s pretty much all he had to say because I could care less if I started on Friday’s or threw 0.3 of an inning all year if we won. It comes from loving the guys on the team that are around me, wanted them to succeed because I love those guys. I don’t think any team is going to be really good with selfish players.”
Making the switch
In the 1993 flick “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray, while leading police on a wild goose chase through a rock quarry with Punxsutawney Phil on his lap, tells the world famous groundhog not to drive angry.
While Potojecki isn’t an actor or screenwriter and definitely not leading police on a chase through a rock quarry with a groundhog on his lap, one of the biggest changes he had to make when transitioning to the sinker was learning how not to throw “angry fastballs.”
“The biggest thing was learning not to throw angry fastballs,” Potojecki said. “You rare back and try to throw it as hard as you can but if you leave it up in the zone at the Division-I level, you’re going to pay for it. That was the biggest thing for me because when you’re over the top and throw four-seam fastballs, you can get away with being up in the zone just a little bit because guys will swing under it but if you throw sinkers and you’re up in the zone, that’s one of the easiest pitches to hit.”
For Potojecki, the hardest parts of the transition came in learning a new motion with his arm and changing his approach.
“It was re-learning how to pitch, when you’re in a different slot like that, you got a new breaking ball, everything is going to be different,” Potojecki said. “You got to re-discover the feel for your changeup. The biggest thing was changing the mindset. You can’t throw angry fastballs. Angry fastballs get hit and they get hit hard.”
Legacy, leadership
Potojecki isn’t first member of his family to pitch for Longwood. His oldest brother, Zach, was a four-year member of the Lancers program from 2015–18. In his time on the mound, Zach posted a 5.90 ERA, made 43 appearances, started 21 games and struck out 133 batters.
While Potojecki looks up to Zach and is proud of the success he had at Longwood, he entered his first season looking to stand on his own.
“It was a little weird for me my freshman year just because there were a lot of guys still on the team that played with my brother but after I was there for a while and established my own identity, which didn’t really happen until my sophomore year, I really didn’t feel any pressure,” Potojecki said.
“I like to set myself apart. He did a lot of great things, I look up to my brother a lot and he’s taught me a lot and he still does, but once I got there, I established who I wanted to be as a player and a person and with the new coaching staff coming in, I felt like it was a fresh start for me.”
The first identity Potojecki wanted to establish was that of a leader, something driven by his competitive nature and desire to be a solid teammate.
“I feel like it comes from just wanting to win,” he said. “I love every guy on the team but at the end of the day, we’re trying to win and if that takes people thinking I’m a hard guy and don’t care about anybody that’s fine. I’m not saying it’s okay but I’m willing to bear the brunt of it if it means the team’s going to succeed.”
“I’ll mend the relationship, I want to keep the relationships good because I do love every guy, but if somebody’s got to be mad at me for 15 minutes because I had to jump on them about something, then so be it.”
Longwood went through a bit of a transition at the end of the 2021 season. After the Lancers finished 17–32, including a 10–24 mark in Big South play, Longwood decided to part ways with then coach Ryan Mau. The job didn’t stay vacant for long though as Oxendine and his staff were hired this past June.
With a new coaching staff trying to enact a new culture, Potojecki felt it was his responsibility to step up and help Oxendine and his staff get acclimated.
For Potojecki, that involved making sure his teammates were held accountable for their actions.
“Last year because everything was so new a big part of it was holding each other accountable, if you miss a 7 a.m. lift, somebody’s got to let you know that can’t happen,” Potojecki said. “We’re trying to change the culture and I’m very grateful that I can help coach [Ox] and the rest of the staff with changing the culture, holding people accountable, holding yourself accountable. It’s doing the little things. Setting a good example, leading by example, not being afraid to speak up.”
A true leader isn’t always the most liked person on a field, court or in the boardroom. However, he or she accepts that as a part of their responsibilities and doesn’t worry about always being liked. Being the true leader he is, Potojecki isn’t any different.
“When you’re the captain of a team and you’re really trying to make a change, you can’t worry about friendships,” Potojecki said. “You want good relationships with everybody but it’s my responsibility to grab them and say, ‘hey, we don’t do that here,’ or, ‘hey, you’re doing great, keep it up, but maybe take a second look at how hard you’re working, maybe you can give a little more.”
“It comes down to not being afraid to say what needs to be said and making sure guys know I still love you but we need you to push yourself more. I still love you, but you didn’t run out the ground ball, you’re not sweating enough in the weight room.”
Bad Day, Dancing In the Moonlight
A visiting pitching coach or general manager walks out to the mound during a Danville Otterbots game this past season. As he’s walking to his visibly shaken pitcher, the choruses of Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” or Dan Powter’s “Bad Day” blares from the speakers.
Potojecki, sitting behind in a computer in the press box, looks over and smiles. Pleased with his choice in song. One of his many responsibilities as an intern with the Otterbots this past season.
Later that night, after the final out, Potojecki clicks a button and King Harvest’s “Dancing In the Moonlight” starts playing across the speakers.
“It was great, I think there’s not enough of that in baseball,” Potojecki said. “A lot of people say that’s bad for baseball, it’s not sportsmanlike, but baseball is evolving and like everything going on in sports right now, baseball needs something that will keep people’s attention spans on it and keep them entertained.”
“I know how it feels to be the man in the arena, but it’s all light hearted because I know what it takes to be an athlete and what people could go through so I try not to get too heavy on them but it’s all in entertainment and when you’re out there on the field, the opposing dugout is chirping and it’s a lot worse than “Take Me Out.” So, it’s fun and lighthearted.”
Potojecki may only be in his early 20s, but his musical taste suggest someone much older as he knows as much, if not more, about music from the 60s and the 70s as he does about today’s music.
For Potojecki, music is an outlet, a way to connect with folks and pass time in the dugout.
“It’s great, music is an outlet for me and I use it as way to not only relax but I think music is one of the coolest things to talk about with people,” Potojecki said. “One of my buddies on the team, his name is Nelson, and if I’m not pitching, every song they play we’re in the dugout talking about their whole discography because he’s a music guy and I’m a music guy.”
“We were talking about Billy Joel today. He doesn’t like Billy Joel and I was kidding him because who doesn’t like Billy Joel? It’s a way to connect and have fun with people because you can find a song for just about everything you go through in your life.”
