BY STEVE KRAH
Confidence has taken Riley Tirotta up the professional baseball ladder.
“Being confident is controlling the mental part of the game. You can’t be a mental warrior and be passive,” says Tirotta. “Not a single person who has his head on straight in the game of baseball is not ultra-confident.”
Tirotta knows that it’s the pitcher’s aim to keep the hitter from doing his job and vice versa.
“If the pitcher is on the mound with the mindset of ruining a guy’s career one pitch at a time, I have to have the same mindset,” says Tirotta, a 6-foot-3 righty-swinging/throwing corner infielder/outfielder. “Anything this guy throws I’m going to smash it. It doesn’t matter what it is. Oh, he got me out last time? I know what he’s going to try to do. He has no chance to beat me. He’s not better than me.
“These are the things that everybody thinks about that has success.”
A South Bend, Ind., native and graduate of Marian High School in Mishawaka, Ind., Tirotta was an Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association All-State honorable mention selection for coach Joe Turnock and an IHSBCA North/South All-Star Series participant in 2017.
The Jim Reinebold Fall Baseball Camp and Instructional League alum went to the University of Dayton, where he earned a Finance degree and played for four seasons (2018-21).
In 162 games (160 starts) with the Jayson King-coached Flyers, Tirotta hit .270 (160-of-592) with 24 home runs, five triples, 33 doubles, 126 runs batted in, 116 runs scored, 129 strikeouts, 59 walks and a .828 OPS (.363 on-base percentage plus .465 slugging average).
He played in the summer with the Northwoods League’s Battle Creek (Mich.) Bombers in 2018 and briefly with the Cape Cod League’s Harwich Mariners and Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in 2019.
Tirotta was hoping to be drafted after his junior season, but the COVID-19 pandemic came along and the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was shortened. He went back to Dayton and had a super senior year, hitting .337 with 16 homers, two triples, 13 doubles, 58 RBIs, 53 runs, 36 strikeouts, 24 walks and a 1.146 OPS (.450/.696) while earning all-Atlantic 10 Conference second-team honors a place on the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award Watch List.
In 2021, Tirotta was selected in the 12th round of the MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays out of Dayton and has logged three minor league seasons (2021-23).
In 200 games, Tirotta has hit .240 (162-of-675), with 19 homers, seven triples, 35 doubles, 99 runs batted in, 98 runs scored, 229 strikeouts, 106 walks and a .745 OPS (.348/.397).
In 2023, Tirotta played at both Advanced Class-A Vancouver and Double-A New Hampshire and hit .239 (75-of-314) with 11 homers, four triples, 16 doubles, 48 RBIs, 47 runs, 107 strikeouts, 52 walks and a .772 OPS (.351/.420).
Raul Pimentel is a mental performance coach in the Blue Jays organization that helps Tirotta and other players.
“He’s an ultra-human being,” says Tirotta. “He’s a guy you can run thoughts by. Am I out of line thinking these thoughts about this pitcher I’m facing? Is this good for me? Are these good thoughts?”
Tirotta, 25, points to Vinny Capra, a 5-foot-8 infielder who has played 375 minor league games and 17 for Toronto, as someone with loads of confidence.
“He’s incredible to watch play the game because it looks like nothing fazes him,” says Tirotta, who competed against former University of Richmond shortstop Capra in the the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Capra has told Tirotta to keep it simple and believe you’ve prepared for the moment.
“Once you get that confidence, that empty-mind, that see-ball, hit-ball mentality and just play the game free that’s when your career takes off,” says Tirotta. “When I truly figured out I can play on the Double-A level (and as a lineup regular) I was playing with confidence and the right mentality.”
It’s often been said that baseball is a “game of failure.”
“If you can’t deal with failure, you’re not doing to have success,” says Tirotta. “It’s rolling with the punches and having confidence when you’re hitting .150.
“You have to have confidence or else you’re not going to play well.”
Sometimes it means you sometimes have to fake it until you make it.
“I have to have a false sense of confidence at times in order to believe in myself through struggles and slumps,” says Tirotta. “I’ll be alright. It’s part of the process. That’s winning the mental part of the game. It really is. It’s a tall task to believe in.
“You’re still in a Double-A uniform. You’re obviously good at baseball. Act like you’re confident.”
After four years in NCAA Division I and three in the minors what has Tirotta learned about the two?
“Baseball never changes, but it’s at an unbelievably-heightened level (in pro ball),” says Tirotta. “Players get more polished as you go up (in level).”
Tirotta nows sees pitchers who can throw three plus pitches for strikes.
“The most important thing I’ve learned is to trust yourself,” says Tirotta. “You trust in your ability and the work you’ve put in and you’re really supposed to be there.”
It took some time but Tirotta learned to stop riding the roller coaster with extreme highs and lows.
While he has played first base and some in left field and right field, Tirotta prefers to think of himself as a third baseman and that’s where he is most comfortable.
Riley, who is the son of Mike and Stacey Tirotta and older brother of Jordan Tirotta (Marian Class of 2020), has spent much of his off-season in South Bend. In past years he has given lessons. This year he has switched it up and is leading about 15 youngsters through a progression camp with six sessions at a building in Osceola, Ind.
There’s a defensive and hitting component.
“We’re working on creating athleticism, moving athletically and creating hip mobility — things of that nature,” says Tirotta. “There’s a theme every week. Last week was more about body position and proper mechanics. This week is going to be pitch recognition and selection. Next week will be approach.”
Tirotta’s agent/advisor is Ben Simon. There is a 12,000-square foot training facility owned by Simon Sports in Aurora, Ohio, near Cleveland. Sometimes the player goes there to work with director of player development Tyler Mitchell.
While visiting his girlfriend, who is still a University of Dayton student, he will work out with the Flyers baseball team.
Mike Marks, who counts current Boston Red Sox minor leaguer and former Penn High School and Notre Dame slugger Niko Kavadas among the batsmen he advises, runs Hitters Edge in Sturgis, Mich., has been using a second location in Osceola. Tirotta also takes pointers from the instructor and coach.
“It’s good to work with Mike because he’s seen my swing since I was 15 years old,” says Tirotta. “He knows what made me good and got me to college.”
Marks has been assisting Tirotta with the fine points by helping him with posture and swing direction.
The Blue Jays train in Dunedin, Fla., and Tirotta plans to head to the Sunshine State ahead of spring training.
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