Some called to the game while others born to play

Joe Jacquez
Mesa Legend

JoeJacquez_picThe sport of baseball has always been in Nick Ohanian’s blood: something he simply was destined to do. “My cousins both played professionally,” Ohanian said. “It’s in my blood, and I really liked the sport.” Ohanian grew up watching his cousins make their mark on the game on television and was surrounded by the game. As a result, he learned about the nuances of the game at a young age, and quickly realized he wanted to play baseball as well. He started playing when he was six years old, but it wasn’t till eighth grade when he played for a Hamilton High School feeder team that he started taking the game seriously.  “It turned from just kind of messing around with your friends into something important,” Ohanian said. “It was important to us, and it was important to the school.”

Nick Ohanian
Photos: Tania Ritko/ Mesa Legend

Ohanian played with the same guys for five years by the time he got to high school, and in his sophomore year, he got his first big opportunity.  Two seniors got injured that year, and Ohanian was given the opportunity to move up to varsity as a starting pitcher.  Ohanian was a catcher for the majority of his life, and he pitched occasionally whenever his team needed it. As a catcher he was able to learn about the science of pitching, and grew fond of it. Once he was promoted to varsity, he became a full time starter, investing all of his time into pitching.  “I did really well my sophomore year, and I already knew a lot of guys on the team so it was pretty comforting,” Ohanian said. “When I did well, everyone was really supportive because I was a young kid on the team.”

Ohanian missed his entire junior year due to injury, and that season is regarded as the most important recruiting years, and as a result the offers he received during his senior year from Division 1 programs just weren’t what he wanted.  Mesa Community College ended up being the best choice for Ohanian financially, As a result, he knew he would have a chance to play at the next level anyway.  Plus, Ohanian relished the opportunity to play for one of the top junior college programs in the country, a school that won a national championship just two years ago. “That is what brought me to Mesa,” Ohanian said. “When you look on the wall on our field, the guys that have played professionally, not just gotten drafted, but played in major league games, that is 30 guys.”

 Nick OhanianOhanian loves playing Tony Cirelli said and he has never met someone that knows as much about the game as Cirelli does. Cirelli has nothing but nice things to say about his freshman closer. “He’s really good and has great stuff,” Cirelli said. “He has a slider that he can throw for in any count.”  Ohanian is a hard throwing right-hander and has already enjoyed consistent success pitching in the ninth inning for the T-Birds putting up unbelievable numbers. In 11 appearances across 11 innings pitched this season with stats up to date through the team’s game against Scottsdale on March, Ohanian is 2-0 with a 2.38 ERA, a 19/2 K/BB ratio, and a 15.09 K/G. He can do all of this with one pitch in particular; a pitch that most hitters don’t want to see, let alone swing at.

“I guess it’s pretty well known across the state about my slider,” Ohanian stated. “A few times that I have been on the mound this year I can hear someone yelling from the other dugout talking about my slider.”  According to him, he was just playing around and he moved the ball around in his fingers, and he called it a slider. He doesn’t hold it like a slider, or any other pitch; that is just what he calls it, and he always grips it the way he did when it was first thrown. “Our pitching coach was talking to the staff a couple of weeks ago and said if I told you that I was going to give you a million dollars if you threw the next pitch for a strike what would it be, and everyone there said fastball, and I said slider.” “Then he said what if I told you I was going to blow your brains out if you don’t throw it for a strike and everyone said fastball, and I still said slider.”

Currently, Ohanian is the best closer in the nation for Division II with 6 saves, and his 11 appearances is 3rd in the nation. Ohanian consistently dominates opposing hitters thanks to his ability to throw any pitch in any count or situation, and his pinpoint control and command helps. As a closer, Ohanian’s mindset is to be efficient and quick, and ultimately close wins out.  “You don’t really need to work guys, you need to get outs as fast as possible,” Ohanian said. “You can’t go out there and say well I’m going to paint this and paint that.” Part of getting fast outs is having a great relationship with your catcher, and he understands how valuable that relationship is.  “Your catcher is your guy,” Ohanian said. “If they’re just going to catch it and you’re just going to throw it, there is nothing there.”

Ohanian just started closing this year at Mesa, and he doesn’t have any closers in the MLB that he looks up to, but he does have favorite players.
“I look up to Jake Arrieta and Jose Fernandez,” he said. “Arrieta is just a workhorse.” He watches videos of a lot of pitchers, but he tries to do what works best for him. Ohanian is majoring in Macroeconomics at MCC because he is good with numbers and he realizes that not everyone gets drafted, but there is no question that he wants to make a career out of baseball. “Everyone’s dream is to play professional baseball,” he said. “If you don’t play in the show, at least you’ve made it farther than other people.”
Outside of school and baseball, the guy his teammates call “rehab” enjoys going hunting, camping, lifting weights with his friends, and he plays a lot of PlayStation.

As far as goals go, Ohanian is focused on doing his job, and hopefully that translates into team success.  “Just win the next one,” he said. “Winning the championship is one thing, but you can’t think about the championship in March.” Ohanian thus far has done his job, and his team is on top of the ACCAC conference standings. There is still a lot of season left, but so far so good.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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