BY STEVE KRAH
Jacob Bosse was honored as Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week on April 23.
The junior left-hander at NAIA member St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, threw an eight-inning complete game with a career high-tying 12 strikeouts and four walks in a 14-1 win against Judson University. He had a shutout going until the seventh inning.
In eight mound outings (all starts) for the 2024 Fighting Bees, Bosse is 2-1 with a 6.00 earned run average, 53 strikeouts and 36 walks in 36 innings. Opponents are hitting .218 against him.
In his first season at St. Ambrose in 2023, he pitched 11 times (six as a starter) and was 1-0 with a 3.82 ERA, 53 strikeouts and 38 walks in 30 2/3 innings.
SAU head coach Tony Huntley and pitching coach Hunter Keim could decide to send Bosse to the bump Sunday, April 28 against visiting Calumet College of St. Joseph (the school in Whiting, Ind., has players familiar to Bosse including Jorge Santos) or save him for next week’s CCAC Tournament in Joliet, Ill.
Pitching wasn’t always the thing for Bosse.
Growing up in Crown Point, Ind.,and playing Little League and Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth ball and travel ball with Top Tier, he was an outfielder.
At Crown Point High School, he only stepped on the mound once in awhile.
“I’d go in if we needed a guy,” says Bosse. “I had no real feel for how to be a pitcher.”
He went up the ladder for the Bulldogs, playing on the frosh team as a freshman, junior varsity squad as a sophomore and varsity as a junior. He could be found in left field or center field.
Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Steve Strayer leads the CPHS program.
“He’s probably one of the best coaches I’ll ever have,” says Bosse of Strayer. “He’s a great guy. He really gave me confidence.
“He helped me become a better baseball player and a better person.”
While working out for a 2020 senior season that wound up canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bosse began to get serious about pitching.
After graduation, the left-hander stuck with it.
As fits his personality, he threw himself the task of getting better at the craft.
“I’m a very fierce competitor,” says Bosse, 22. “I care a lot about what and how I’m doing. If goes beyond the game for me. I’m planning my days out around what I’m going to do to get better.
“My competitiveness and hunger to do better every day are my best qualities.”
Delivering from a high three-quarter arm slot, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Bosse mixes a four-seam fastball, “circle” change-up, 12-to-6 curveball and a slider.
He has topped out at 92 mph and sits at 87 to 91 mph with his fastball. His change travels at 75 to 78, curve at 70 to 74 and slider at 76 to 79.
“I try to get more arm-side sink (with the change-up),” says Bosse. “I try to get a lot of fade to it to miss more barrels. It plays really well off my fastball.
“I do get a lot of natural run. When I pull it down, I get more back spin than side spin. I try to create a rise effect with it.”
Bosse attended a Prep Baseball Report showcase through Top Tier and was drawn to South Suburban College, a National Junior College Athletic Association member in South Holland, Ill. It was where he became a pitcher-only.
Toeing the slab for the Steve Ruzich-coached Bulldogs, Bosse pitched in 37 games (29 as a reliever) in 2021 and 2022 and went 5-3 with 5.72 ERA, 96 strikeouts and 70 walks in 74 innings.
Pitching for the NWI Rippers in a Babe Ruth district game in the summer of 2021, Bosse struck out a record 20 batters. He faced 24 batters and gave up one hit in 6 2/3 innings. Of 106 pitches, 69 were strikes.
“I do consider myself to be a pretty high-strikeout pitcher,” says Bosse. “I do take into account how many pitches I’m using. If I can strike out a guy as fast as I can, I try to do that and really challenge him.”
Through Twitter (now X), Bosse was recruited to St. Ambrose by assistant coach Joe Vaccaro.
“I came out here for a visit, loved it and decided it was the place for me,” says Bosse. “It is a really nice place.”
In the summer of 2022, Bosse played for the Crown Point-based Lake County CornDogs of the Northern League. In 2023, he was with the Northwoods League’s Rochester (Minn.) Honkers. This summer he’s due to play for the NWL’s Fond du Lac (Wis.) Dock Spiders.
A Sport Management major, Bosse expects to finish his undergraduate degree in the fall then begin masters classes. He says he plans to play 2025 might come back in 2026 as a graduate student. The pandemic plus his time in junior college has added to his eligibility clock.
Bosse’s favorite MLB team is the Los Angeles Dodgers. A recreational basketball player growing up, his favorite athlete is former Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose.
“I got to see him play a couple of times when I was a kid,” says Bosse. “That’s how I grew to love Chicago.”
Jacob is the oldest of Brad and Diana Bosse’s two children. Allyson Bosse is studying Business at Indiana University South Bend.
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