Burlington Central’s Chase Powrozek is held up as an example by coach Kyle Nelson.
Some players come into high school and immediately realize their potential. Then there are players who have to put in the work to get to where they want to be.
Powrozek is one of those old-fashioned players, and Nelson gets satisfaction watching him get there the right way — through his work ethic.
“He’s the example of show up every day, work hard for four years and it turns out like this,” Nelson said. “That’s what he is. He’s at all of our offseason stuff. He takes his arm care seriously. He takes his throwing program seriously.
“He’s done that for four years now.”
The senior right-hander has parlayed that into becoming the ace of the Rockets. He had another solid outing Wednesday during an 11-2 Fox Valley Conference victory over Jacobs.
Powrozek, a Wisconsin-Parkside recruit, worked six innings and struck out seven for Burlington Central (11-9, 4-7). He allowed two unearned runs on four walks and three hits.
Zane Pollack and Wagner Viebrock each totaled three hits and two RBIs, while Bennek Braden added three RBIs for the Rockets. Aaden Colon, Gavin Grummer and Andrew Robertson had the hits for Jacobs (7-12, 2-8).
A moderate success for the past couple seasons, Powrozek has progressed into one of the top pitchers in the Fox Valley Conference. And it wasn’t by accident.
“I’ve had some success the past two years, but not the level that I’ve had this year,” Powrozek said. “At times, I had really good games on varsity, but it wasn’t always what I wanted.
“This year has been way better. I put in the work, so I figured it would be a big year.”
It sure has been a big season so far. Powrozek improved to 5-2 with a 1.56 ERA after Wednesday’s win. He has a whopping 64 strikeouts, allowing 15 runs and 23 walks in 36 innings.
Those were the kinds of numbers Powrozek was shooting for working all of those long hours in the offseason and preseason. That’s a mindset he said he learned from his parents.
“My goal since I was younger was to take baseball as far as I can,” Powrozek said “They’ve instilled that you have to work to get there. I would say at times it hasn’t always been great.
“The past two years, I put in a lot more work just to keep improving. Part of it is just that I love playing baseball. I just want to get better and prove to myself that I can do it.”
Along with the success is the calming confidence that comes from experiences.
That came in handy Wednesday. After recording two quick outs in the first inning, a single, error and walk followed. Two runs scored on another error and he was in an early 2-0 hole.
“He didn’t look as sharp as he normally is in the first inning,” Nelson said. “He didn’t have real good command and his breaking ball wasn’t quite there yet.
“It just shows the mentality where he’s at, too. It bothered him a little bit. But for him to bounce back after that and shut it down the rest of the game is pretty impressive.”
Powrozek acknowledged relying primarily on his fastball to get through it.
“It’s again that confidence of being here for four years,” Powrozek said. “I’ve had that in almost every start this year where it’s like I have one rocky inning.”
Jacobs coach Jamie Murray has seen plenty of good pitching against his team this season, but he listed Powrozek near the top.
“I thought Chase was really good for them,” Murray said. “He did what he was supposed to do with a lead — a senior like that. He didn’t let us back in the game.
“We’ve seen good arms all year, but he’s definitely one of them.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
