By STEVE KRAH
Peyton Oljenik has gotten better as his college baseball career has progressed.
A junior right-handed pitcher in his first year at the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is driven to put away hitters and add to the RedHawks’ win column.
Miami is 25-23 overall and 17-13 in the Mid-American Conference in no small part to the contribution of 6-foot-10 3/4, 210-pound Olejnik, who has made 17 mound appearances (14 in relief) is 7-1 (seven straight victories) with one save, a 5.29 earned run average, 71 strikeouts and 23 walks in 56 1/3 innings. He has faced 249 batters and opponents are hitting .250 against him.
In his last two trips to the bump, Olejnik worked 1 1/3 hitless innings Friday, May 10 against Ohio and picked up the win then came in for four frames the next day, giving up four hits and three runs against the Bobcats.
“I’m a competitor,” says Olejnik, a 2021 graduate of Hanover Central High School in Cedar Lake, Ind. “I hate to lose and I love to win. The love-hate relationship makes me try even harder for the team. At the end of the day, it’s about how many victories we get as a team. It’s been like that since Day 1.
“(Miami head coach Brian Smiley) tells us all the time that you make your bed, you lay in it. He’s told me that I just need to produce. I have that hard-working, blue-collar grit mentality. You don’t give up. You get knocked down and you get back up.”
Polish-American Olejnik (pronounced Oh-len-ick) has also seen that kind of spirit from his team.
“We may get down and we may get punched early in the game, but we don’t ever give up,” says Olejnik, 21. “We’re going to fight all the way to the end. For myself, there’s a few pitches I wish I could get back. But I still need to do my job and minimize the damage. I go out there with that grit and give my team the best chance to win the game.”
Larry Scully is the RedHawks pitching coach.
“Coach Scully’s been around the game for many, many years and has top draft picks year in and year out,” says Olejnik. “I’m picking his brain as much as I possibly can, learning about myself, hitters and things I could do right.”
Olejnik is often called on to take the baseball in latter innings or be a bulk guy out of the bullpen.
“It’s about a trust thing,” says Olejnik. “(Smiley and Scully) trust me late in the game. That’s a huge role to have. I’ll close the game on Friday and if they want to bring me back on Saturday or Sunday for long relief and let somebody else close in the ninth, that’s what we’ve been doing.
“We’ve seen a lot of success with it.”
Miami’s regular season is winding down. The team has a three-game home series May 16-18 against East Tennessee State before heading to the MAC tournament after an extended absence from the postseason. The 2024 six-team event is slated for May 22-26 in Avon, Ohio.
Throwing from a high three-quarter arm slot and whip-like release, Olejnik mixes a four-seam fastball that hits 96 mph, a slider that goes 84 to 86 when adrenaline takes over and a “circle” change-up. He did not have a slider in high school or the beginning of his college days and used an 11-to-5 curveball and can still show that pitch to batters when needed.
Olejnik was at the University of Oklahoma in 2023, making five appearances with a 4.15 ERA. Opponents his .154 against him.
“Mentally, I grew stronger,” says Olejnik of his time with the Sooners. “It was a learning experience for me and I just needed to get better, put on weight and get stronger.”
He entered the NCAA Transfer Portal after the season and wound in Oxford.
“I really didn’t know what to expect coming to Miami. Now that I’ve been here for almost a year now, I love it. There are guys here I will be friends with for life. There are great relationships with coaches and teammates.
“It’s crazy to see how we’re changing the culture here. This is where I belong.”
Triton College in River Grove, Ill. was Olenik’s baseball home in 2022. At 6-9 and 175, the righty pitched in 11 games (eight starts) and was 2-1 with a 2.14 ERA, 73 strikeouts and 26 walks in 46 1/3 innings.
“Going through that grind has helped me,” says Olejnik of his time in junior college baseball. “For me, a JUCO Bandit is a guy who gets down and dirty and plays hard. It takes a different character to play JUCO ball.
“You’ve got to be there to experience it.”
Olejnik spent the summer of 2022 with the MLB Draft League’s West Virginia Black Bears and the summer of 2023 with the New England Collegiate League’s Martha’s Vineyard Sharks.
He has options this summer. Depending on his work load at Miami, he could pitch in the Cape Cod League or train in preparation for the July 14-16 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
The Sport Management major has one year of remaining college eligibility.
Born in La Porte, Ind., to Tom and Toni Olejnik, Peyton moved with his family to Lake County by 4.
Peyton played until 14 for the St. John Tomahawks (now part of the Indiana Bulls) and was coached by his father.
Tom Olejnik pitched at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Ill., and then Michigan State University in the mid-1990’s and now gives pitching lessons at “The Armory” in Cedar Lake.
Peyton’s mother was a cheerleader at Monmouth (Ill.) College. Sister Brooke Olejnik (Hanover Central Class of 2024) is a dancer bound for the University of Alabama.
From 15U to 18U, Peyton experienced his travel ball with Top Tier.
Along the way, he was headed toward being at the top of his teams on the height chart thanks to quite a growth spurt.
As a Hanover Central freshman in 2018, Olejnik was 5-foot-10. That means he has grown more than a foot in the past six years.
In his senior prep season, Peyton was part of a IHSAA Class 3A state runner-up team and earned Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association honorable mention all-state honors. The Wildcats were coached by Ryan Bridges.
“My senior class is still close to him today,” says Olejnik. “We’re grateful for the spot he got us to. He’s one of the best thought-out coaches I’ve had.”
www.IndianaRBI.com 