Firing the same number of pitches (101) as the number of fans reportedly in attendance at the Huntington, West Virginia, YMCA’s Kennedy Center Field Sunday, March 8, 2020, Taed Heydinger pitched himself into University of Akron (Ohio) baseball history as he ended up the pitcher of record in the reborn program’s first victory.
Five days and two losses after the 7-4 road win – former major leaguer Chris Sabo’s first as Akron’s skipper – over nonconference Marshall University, the Zips’ season was terminated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But Heydinger – a 2016 Bayfield High School graduate who’d started Akron’s Feb. 16 debut, a 4-3, 14-inning loss to Rochester, Mich.-based Oakland University in Game 1 of a home doubleheader – wasn’t deterred, despite Akron managing a 1-12 overall (0-0 Mid-American; NCAA Div. I) record.
Cleared for a full-length schedule in ’21, Akron rose to 15-36 (8-32 MAC) with Heydinger on the pitching staff, and despite finishing a similar 15-41 in 2022, posted an improved 11-29 MAC mark.
The Zips couldn’t have gone out on a higher note, either, blanking University of Purdue-Fort Wayne 11-0 on May 21 with graduate student Nick Arrivo polishing things off with a game-ending, seventh-inning grand slam. He’d also ended Game 2 of the previous day’s home doubleheader at Skeeles Field with a homer, giving Akron a 7-6 win over the Mastodons – who’d unfortunately swiped a 6-5 win in Game 1, with Heydinger taking a nine-inning complete-game loss (but striking out seven) in what would end up being his final appearance atop a collegiate mound.
On July 12, he collected one last recognition as the Mid-American Conference announced its 2022 Academic All-MAC selections. One of a conference-most 16 Zips, including Arrivo, honored, Heydinger posted a 3.642 GPA while majoring in marketing; Akron Baseball as a whole boasted a 3.021 GPA for the 2021-22 school year.
To have qualified for the award, a MAC student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and have participated in at least 50% of a particular sport’s contests.
Located in Muncie, Indiana, Ball State University had 11 baseball players earn Academic All-MAC, and though 2017 Durango High School grad Tyler Ruetschle wasn’t among them, the former Demon was still a contributor on a quality crew.
Compiling a first-place 32-7 MAC record during regular-season play, the Cardinals finished the season 40-19 overall – just the third 40-win campaign in BSU Baseball history – after losing 11-7 to Central Michigan University in the BSU-hosted MAC Tournament’s championship game May 29.
Advancing to the NCAA Tournament via the conference’s automatic bid, CMU improved to 42-17 at the time.
Two weeks earlier, on Senior Day upon Ball Diamond at First Merchants Ballpark Complex, Ruetschle made what would be his last appearance for the Cards. And though Ball State fell 15-10 to Ohio University, Ruetschle was outstanding. Working the final 1.1 innings, he allowed zero hits, zero runs and fanned all four Bobcats he faced.
Ruetschle saw no action in BSU’s four-game road sweep of Miami (Ohio) wrapping up regular-season work, nor in any of Ball State’s four MAC Tournament clashes.
By an unlucky twist of fate, Heydinger (previously of Fullerton, California, College) and Ruetschle (Lamar, Colorado, CC) never actually stepped foot onto the same ground in the same game during their time in the Mid-American.
Unable to go head to head in 2020 because of the aforementioned pandemic, when the Zips welcomed the Cardinals to Skeeles for a four-game set in ’21, Heydinger received a no-decision (6-2/3 IP, 8 H, 2 R, ER, 0 BB, 4 K) in his Game 2 appearance. Ruetschle worked one mop-up inning in Game 4 as BSU swept the series by an aggregate 34-7 margin.
Heydinger’s last win in Akron togs came April 8. He started and threw six innings in a 10-6 home win over Western Michigan. Exactly a week later, he took an 8-3 road loss at Ball State in Game 1 of the teams’ four-game set. Ruetschle, meanwhile, fired a frame of relief in Game 3 as BSU booked a 16-0, seven-inning shutout.
During Ruetschle’s three seasons at Ball State under longtime boss Rich Maloney – who in July was named one of two winners of the American Baseball Coaches Association’s Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award – the team went 85-46 overall, and 61-18 in MAC play.
Continuing his baseball career this summer in the independent, Utica, Michigan-based United Shore Professional Baseball League, Ruetschle registered his first win this month. Pitching for the Westside Woolly Mammoths on July 2, he logged one scoreless relief inning and struck out three, and his team then scratched out two runs in the bottom of the sixth – and last – inning to upend the visiting Utica Unicorns 2-1 at Jimmy John’s Field.
Through July 27, Ruetschle was 2-0 with a 1.86 earned-run average, plus a 19:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in eight games and 9.2 innings. He finished 2-2 with a 7.49 ERA, 55 strikeouts and 32 walks in 26 total appearances (45-2/3 IP) at Ball State.
One of Ruetschle’s teammates with Westside is outfielder Greg Vaughn, Jr., son of the former slugger who mashed 355 home runs in 15 MLB seasons ending in July 2003 with the Colorado Rockies. Vaughn also blasted 103 homers in four minor league seasons, 26 coming in 1989 – his last summer in the minors – with the Denver Zephyrs.
