Salisbury University junior Jackson Balzan has collected many honors this season for Sea Gulls baseball.
The left-handed pitcher received three Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week honors this season. The pitcher was also named to the D3 Baseball National Team of the Week March 27.
Balzan won his fourth straight start in the doubleheader against Hood College and struck out a career-high 13 batters over eight one-hit innings. The junior pitcher has started seven games this season, with a record of 4-1 with an earned run average of 2.56.
The junior credited his recent honors to his “hard work and trust” in the people behind him. As an athlete, Balzan said he is “trying to perfect every aspect of baseball.”
Head coach Troy Brohawn said Balzan “doesn’t talk to lead but [instead] leads by example” and described the athlete as “very quiet … [but] gets after his work every day.”
As an athlete, Brohawn called the lefty “tremendous” and credited Balzan’s success to his work habit, mentality and aggressiveness on the mound.
Balzan said while the recent awards “feel great,” the team’s success has varied through its first half of the 2022 season.
But Brohawn said SU baseball retains “high expectations” with the goal of reaching Regional competition after the team “struggled early but is now playing good baseball.”
The eleventh-ranked Sea Gulls are scheduled to take on more conference opponents in the coming weeks. With the season winding down, Balzan is most excited for the chance to potentially “make it back to the [NCAA Division III] World Series.”
By HAILEY DEARES
Staff writer
Featured image courtesy of Alex Christ.