Down in the series 1-0 to the rival Florida Gators, Miami was in need of a stellar start. Head coach J.D. Arteaga turned to his junior pitcher, Rafe Schlesinger, to deliver in the biggest game of the season.
Schlesinger delivered.
The southpaw came out and delivered 6.1 innings, holding Florida’s potent offense to only three runs and striking out nine batters in a huge win for the Hurricanes.
“I’m very proud of our team, but especially Rafe,” Arteaga said. “Starting the game with a leadoff double and a walk, he could’ve easily imploded and gotten them off to a really good start. He showed a ton of maturity getting some big strikeouts early and the double play ball. Then, he really settled in after that. It was a great job of setting the tone.”
The junior from Holbrook, New York, has been dominant for the Hurricanes so far this year. Schlesinger is first among Miami starters in earned run average and opponent batting average and second in innings pitched, wins and strikeouts.
This is Schlesinger’s first season as a full-time starter for the ’Canes. In his first two seasons, the 6-foot-3-inch pitcher was working out of the bullpen. Schlesinger has established himself as a reliable arm in Miami’s weekend rotation along with juniors Gage Ziehl and Herick Hernandez.
“I think physically I was ready for it,” Schlesinger said. “But mentally, going from pitching like a third of an inning, and now you have to go out here and get seven, eight, nine. When you go in the dugout, you are not done for the game, you have to lock in. That’s kind of a big change but I feel like I’ve made the adjustment smoothly.”
Schlesinger arrived on Miami’s campus as a highly touted prospect. Miami was his dream school and he could not wait to pitch for the orange and green, but Schlesinger did not pitch all that much over his first two years in Coral Gables.
“The first two years were rather upsetting for myself,” Schlesinger said. “I expected to have 50 innings each year but I had 10 my freshman year. So now I’m kind of picking up the slack right now, so I’ll be out there as much as you need. I told Laz, I’ll close the mid-week game if you need. He does not allow that but that is what I want. I jipped myself in those first two years, I let myself down. Now that I’m confident enough to go out there I want every single inning I can get. If I’m leading the country in innings, and it’s by 30, I want that because I feel like I got slacked out of my first two years.”
Not being able to pitch was a blessing in disguise for him. This time allowed Schlesinger to develop the mental side of the game, as well as improve his physical tools.
“I started living with him in the dorms freshman year and have really seen him mature,” Ziehl said. “He hasn’t had the easiest road to where he is now, but I couldn’t be prouder to watch him start every week. He’s a stud and his potential is through the roof. I consider him a best friend and a tremendous leader.”
That development and that potential came from Schlesinger flipping a switch and getting back to what made him a successful pitcher before coming to Miami.
“When I got the confidence that I do belong here, that’s when I started getting angry again,” Schlesinger said. “I never pitched good as a finesse guy. I was straight up throwing it as hard as you can with the intent of hitting a spot. When I got back to that point of pitching angry which came with confidence, came with success, that’s when I started seeing even more consistent success.”
This anger did not come out of nowhere. Schlesinger has always had a chip on his shoulder, even from when he was a little kid playing baseball.
“On the back of the mound every day, I write the initials ‘PD’. That is the initials of the coach that cut me when I was nine years old,” Schlesinger said. “How I view it is like that kid is my son. I’m protecting that kid, you cut that kid, you piss me off, whenever I’m in a tough position I think about that and look down at that PD and think someone doubted me and I run with that and prove them wrong.”
Now, Schlesinger has found coaches and teammates who support him, not just as a baseball player, but as a person, and that has led to success on the field.
“When it came to believing in myself that guy instilled that in me,” Schlesinger said. “From day one he told me that he believed in me. It wasn’t just him telling me that, every day at practice he makes me believe that I’m the best I’ve ever been. If I get shelled, if I get hit around and my stuff is terrible that day, he’ll come back and say next week they are not touching it. When he tells me that stuff, I run with that and that is something I needed. I needed someone to believe in me and he came around at the perfect time.”