BY STEVE KRAH
Will Moell’s last mound start was special.
The 19-year-old right-hander for the Northern League’s Southland Vikings took a no-hitter into the seventh inning.
Moell (pronounced Mail) surrendered the only hit two out into the last frame of his seven-inning outing against the Elkhart County Miracle Friday, July 14 at NorthWood High School’s Field of Dreams Complex in Nappanee, Ind. He finished with eight strikeouts, four walks and one hit batsmen over 113 pitches.
The 2023 Northern League All-Star Game is at 7 p.m. Central/8 p.m. Eastern Tuesday, July 18 at Oil City Stadium in Whiting, Ind., and Moell (announced today as NL Pitcher of the Week) is on the West roster.
A 2022 Munster (Ind.) High School graduate coming off his first season at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., Moell has made eight appearances (all starts; a league high) for Southland and is 4-1 with a 3.92 earned run average, circuit-pacing 45 strikeouts and 37 walks and 41 1/3 innings.
“It means a lot to me when I go out there and pitch because you only get so many opportunities to pitch compared to the amount of work you put in,” says Moell. “I love it.”
He enjoys giving other players a boost.
“I do a good job of knowing what the team needs,” says Moell. “Sometimes we need a strikeout to get the team going.
“Even though I haven’t swung the bat in awhile I think I still have an impact on that side coming off the field and going right into hitting.”
Moell subbed in a few games with the Northern League’s Crestwood Panthers in 2022.
Sullivan Stickann, a 2017 Highland (Ind.) High School graduate, is 2023 Southland manager. He was freshman coach at Munster when Moell was a senior and was an assistant at Olive-Harvey College in 2023.
“He’s really big into player development,” says Moell of Stickann. “He loves baseball than about anybody.
“That’s who I want to play for as a coach.
“He gave me the opportunity without even seeing me play.
“I’m just really thankful for this team that summer. We players who have the ability to pick each other up. It’s a long season and everybody has bad days.
Northern League all-star catcher Matt Merk has been there as a steadying force as has shortstop Jack Fitzharris.
“There are guys who have shown confidence in me when I haven’t had confidence in myself,” says Moell, who plays home games with the Vikings at Dowling Park in Hammond, Ind.
Johns Hopkins went 48-8 and finished as the NCAA Division III national runner-up in 2023.
Moell pitched two innings and had two strikeouts and one walk over two games.
“This summer I was able to figure it out a little more,” says Moell. “I got a little more confidence and I’m ready to go back and hopefully grab a spot.”
Centennial Conference member Johns Hopkins had many graduate students and seniors in pitching roles in 2023. Moell’s class is full of arms.
“We’re going to have a serious impact on the pitching staff (in 2024),” says Moell, who turns 20 in October.
Bob Babb, an American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer, has been JHU head coach since 1980. He has amassed 1,266 career victories with five D-III World Series berths.
“He just knows baseball all the way around,” says Moell of Babb. “He’s kind of a wizard with the stuff he knows.”
Babb works with pitchers. But Ryan Graves and Andrew Furman share Blue Jays pitching coach duties.
“Graves is big on pitch calling and how to work hitters,” says Moell. “Furman (who has a Master of Psychological and Brain Sciences and teaches at the University of Maryland) is really good with the mechanical stuff. He knows a lot. He’s a really smart guy.”
Furman is able to find other pitchers to compare to his Johns Hopkins hurlers for instruction purposes.
“He helped me out a ton this past year,” says Moell.
He’s also been in Baltimore long enough to appreciate Maryland Crab Cakes.
“With Old Bay seasoning,” says Moell. “I’ve got a feel for it.”
Born and and raised in Munster, Moell played at Munster Little League until he was 12. He was with the Larry Crisler-coached Indiana Playmakers for his 13U through 17U travel ball seasons (2017-21).
Crisler, a 2014 graduate of Hammond Bishop Noll Institute, hit .541 with 12 home runs, 45 runs batted in, 38 runs scored and six triples as a senior and was drafted by the Atlanta Braves. He played at Purdue Northwest.
“He was a really good hitter,” says Moell of Crisler. “That was something I never had as a pitcher. He could tell you how things looked from the plate.
“Another thing was that he was really big into competition. To that point I hadn’t been much of a competitor. By the time I was done with him I was really wanting to go out there and win.”
Moell got into a few junior varsity games as a Munster freshman in 2019, lost his sophomore season to the COVID-19 pandemic then played on the varsity as a corner infielder, outfielder and pitcher for Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Bob Shinkan as a junior and senior in 2021 and Mike Mikolajczyk in 2022.
The hurler was 5-1 with four saves and a 3.00 ERA on the bump while earning IHSBCA Academic All-State and all-Northwest Crossroads Conference honors his final prep campaign.
“Everything was Munster Baseball to that guy,” says Moell of Shinkan, who passed away Feb. 24, 2022. “It was definitely an honor to have him in his last year as a coach and to make that semistate run.”
The 2021 Mustangs won Merrillville Sectional and LaPorte Regional titles.
Prior to his senior year, Moell looked into many high-academic colleges and universities.
“I had really good grades,” said Moell. “I didn’t want it to go to waste and I still wanted to play baseball.”
After sending multiple emails to Johns Hopkins, he got an invitation to a camp there, performed really well and received an offer Oct. 24, 2021 to join the Blue Jays the following fall.
“I had to get all papers in by Nov. 1,” says Moell, who did meet that deadline and is now a Public Health Studies on the Pre-Med track. With his athletic background and interests, he is considering specializing in orthopedics or sports medicine.
Two Major League Baseball players that Moell enjoys watching are Chicago Cubs right-handed starter Marcus Stroman and Cleveland Guardians righty reliever James Karinchak.
“I love how (Stroman) plays,” says Moell. “He’s athletic and shows anybody can pitch. He’s not the biggest guy. But he’s a big pitchability guy.
“(Karinchak) and I throw similar pitches. He’s a big high fastball and 12-6 curveball guy. He throws with just a ton of emotion.”
The 6-foot, 190-pound Moell’s arm angle is way over the top.
Some have said it looks like he’s trying to launch the ball into orbit.
He throws a four-seam fastball, curveball and splitter.
The four-seamer tends to be clocked in the mid-80’s with the 12-to-6 curve in the low 70’s.
Moll tries to get lift on the four-seamer with batters swinging under a pitch that travel around 2000 rpm and over a curve that goes 2100 to 2200.
So it’s fastball up and curveball down.
“Where a lot of people like to see inside-outside, I think it’s easier to go up-and-down,” says Moell. “I think that’s why I’ve been successful.”
The splitter, which is similar to a change-up, is thrown with about 1100 to 1200 rpm.
“I try to kill the spin on that and the speed difference helps a lot,” says Moell. “I move my fingers away from the ball and that’s how I get it to drop.
“It helps especially late in the game when (the opponent) has been seeing fastballs all day.”
On a good day, Moell’s four-seamer gets 19 inches of vertical break and the splitter gets eight.
Will is the youngest son of Stephen and Ginger Moell and younger brother of Noah Moell (23).
Stephen Moell works in the finance department for speciality subcontractor Crown Corr Inc. in Crown Point, Ind. Ginger Moell is a music teacher at Aux Sable Middle School in Joliet, Ill. Noah Moell (Munster Class of 2018) is a former prep soccer player who went on to marketing and event operations with the Chicago Bears.
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