CENTERVILLE --- Former Indian Hills baseball player Jordan Piche certainly made an impression in his first season of NCAA Division I competition. Now at Kansas University, Piche was named the Big 12 Conference Newcomer of the Year and was also selected to the All-Big 12 First Team.
A righthanded pitcher from Greeley, Colorado, Piche capped his junior season at KU by appearing in all four of the Jayhawks’ games in the Big 12 Championship this past weekend. And Piche continued his stellar pitching out of the KU bullpen, hurling shutout baseball in those four contests. He allowed only five hits in a total of six innings, with no walks and six strikeouts.
The Jayhawks, thanks to Piche, went undefeated in pool play and advanced to the championship game where they were beaten by Oklahoma.
Piche ended the season with a 6-4 record and a 1.68 ERA and recorded 12 saves in 32 appearances. In 64 1/3 innings, he allowed only 53 hits and 12 earned runs with 49 Ks and 10 walks.
The former all-region pitcher at IHCC finished his first Big 12 season with a 3-3 record and five saves in league play en route to the Newcomer of the Year honors. He is only the second Jayhawk to claim the award. Piche was the recipient of three Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors this spring, becoming the first player to earn more than two in a single season since the award began in 2011.
“It’s a great compliment to the year Jordan had,” Kansas head coach Ritch Price said about the postseason honors. “Look at the impact he’s made on our team………we finished 12-12 in our league largely because he’s been so special at the back end of our games.”
Piche was 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA and five saves as a freshman for the Falcons and, after being moved into the starting rotation fulltime, posted a 9-4 record and 2.66 ERA his sophomore season.