EDN BASEBALL PLAYER & PITCHER OF THE YEAR: Effingham's McDevitt showcases his dominance with brilliant senior campaign

Jul. 6—EFFINGHAM — Chad Green. Nick Gardewine. Brian Shouse.

Those are just three former Effingham High School baseball players that were drafted by Major League Baseball teams.

Now-graduated hurler Josh McDevitt hopes to add his name to that list, too, and so far, the future Missouri Tiger is right on track.

His senior season backed that up.

McDevitt finished his final campaign for the Flaming Hearts leading all qualified pitchers in innings pitched (80.1), earned runs (seven), strikeouts (140), earned run average (0.61) and walks and hits per innings pitched (0.77).

With those numbers, McDevitt earned a spot on the Apollo Conference All-Conference First Team and the Illinois Baseball Coaches Association All-State First Team.

What McDevitt also earned, though, was the Effingham Daily News Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Year. An honor that is typically given to one outstanding athlete who performed on the mound (EDN Pitcher of the Year) and at the plate (EDN Player of the Year), McDevitt's performance throughout the season proved otherwise.

His brilliance didn't stop once the regular season ended, either.

Instead, McDevitt's play ramped up.

"He's someone that never let the situation dictate what would happen," Effingham head coach Curran McNeely said. "He was able to push the outside noise away and when it was time to lock down and go, he did a very good job of it. That's a testament to him and all of his preparation and training he's done."

McDevitt finished with a 0.90 walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) and a 0.00 earned run average (ERA) in his four postseason starts. He added 41 strikeouts over those outings, too.

McNeely said a player like that was easy to coach.

"Anytime you can get a kid that is so in tune with what he wants to accomplish and knows how to go about it — it's pretty easy," he said. "You guide him as much as you can, give him as much direction as you can and watch him blossom and develop; he knows what he wants to do."

McNeely knows that the same edge McDevitt competes with will only carry over into the collegiate ranks.

The fourth-year Flaming Hearts' head coach said McDevitt has a "huge upside" with him; it's now Missouri's time to unlock it even more.

"[He's] someone that will never back down from a challenge," McNeely said. "I don't think it will ever matter what situation you put him in; he's going to get on the mound and, for him, he's going to believe he will get out of any situation, whatever it may be. They're getting an extremely hard-working kid.

"He has a huge upside."

EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner asked McDevitt a series of questions.

Below is how he answered those.

AW: When you look back at your time as an Effingham Flaming Heart, what will you remember the most?

JM: "I'll remember our run in the playoffs this year. Just being able to go out there and compete like we did and play against good teams like that. That's what I'll remember."

AW: How have you grown as a pitcher throughout the years?

JM: "Throughout high school, my velocity has continued to go up gradually, but as time has gone on, I've realized the importance of having good command and good off-speed pitches and I've learned that having velocity isn't everything. I know if I'm throwing hard, but I'm walking a bunch of guys, I'm not going to make it very far in games and that's the biggest thing I've tried to work on. That's what has allowed me to get so many innings this year. It's been a big help."

AW: Your first two years were limited — COVID in 2020 and an abbreviated 2021 season. What did you do to improve?

JM: "I felt like for two years it was an offseason. I got in the weight room, got as strong as possible and used that time to develop. Then, the last two years, it has been going out and competing, using what I learned and what I got better at and putting that into the game. It worked well."

AW: Talk about what you do during the summer.

JM: "I played for Adidas Athletics [Baseball Academy] last year and we traveled throughout the Midwest and played the best teams that we could. We had 13 Divison-I commits on the team, so it was good to face good competition, play against the best in the country and get ready for the next level."

AW: Does playing those types of teams bring the best out of you?

JM: "They make you be your best. Knowing that you're going to face those kinds of lineups challenges you. You know you have to pound the zone with all of your pitches, keep them off-balanced and have a good game plan going into those games. So, that's been a huge help."

AW: Talk about your biggest influences in baseball.

JM: "I've had many people help me, especially in the last few years. My family has helped me more than anybody. Coach McNeely and all of the assistant coaches we've had, all the pitching coaches I've had. I go to a facility in Collinsville in the winter and those guys have helped me. Ben Hecht has helped me the past couple of years, so I've been super lucky to have a bunch of people in my life who have made me who I am today."

AW: Talk about learning from Ben Hecht.

JM: "He's probably the person I talk to the most about college or professional baseball, just because he's been through it. He knows a lot more than I do and he's helped me in pretty much everything — lifting, mechanics — and then, as I've progressed, he's helped me through what it's like to go to college and play at the Divison-I level and then playing professionally, which I hope to do. He's been a great resource for me."

AW: Talk about overcoming the start of the season and ending it with a bang.

JM: "The first half of the season wasn't great and, honestly, the whole regular season wasn't great. We were barely .500 and I felt like we were in every game and could have won pretty much every game we played, but we couldn't finish many of those games. Mentally, that's pretty tough for a team, knowing that you have the potential to go far but you're not playing the way you should. There were a few weeks there where it felt like it would have been easy to give up, but we just continued to work hard and came out here every day and more than anything, we just tried to have fun."

AW: Talk about the senior leadership.

JM: "A big thing this year was holding each other accountable, whether seniors holding underclassmen accountable or younger kids holding us accountable. We know what the expectation is, we know what the standard is and if somebody's not working as hard as they can, then we'll let them know and that was a good thing to happen this year. Everybody holds everybody accountable."

AW: What superstitions do you have?

JM: "Not a lot; I try not to let those factors play into it. Probably the only one is that I have pasta the night before a game. There were probably about 10-straight Saturdays where, the night before, I would have shrimp alfredo every single time and, sometimes, even for breakfast on Saturdays so that I would have plenty of carbs in me and get ready to go."

AW: There have been a lot of great pitchers come through Effingham. Talk about being the next in line.

JM: "It's cool. I wasn't able to watch Chad [Green], Nick [Gardewine] and some of those guys come through the program, but I watched Zack [Lee] throughout his time in Effingham. Just looking up to those guys and seeing that it can be done and that even if we're from a small town, you can still make it big if you work hard enough, those are a bunch of really good role models and it's cool to step into their position and try to be a role model for younger kids."

AW: Talk about Missouri and the recruitment process.

JM: "Mizzou checked all the boxes for me. I visited a few schools, but once I stepped on campus, met with the coaches and saw all the facilities, I knew it was the place for me. I chose [Mizzou] because of the conference and playing in the SEC [Southeastern Conference]. It's a great opportunity and I know it's somewhere where I can go and develop and they know how to develop pitchers and send them to the next level. It's somewhere where I know I'll have a shot to compete as a freshman, which is big, but it's also where I know I can get better and potentially move on."

AW: What do you like about the new Tigers' head coach, Kerrick Jackson?

JM: "The thing about him is that he's competitive. I've talked to him a handful of times, but it's easy to tell that he wants to win and that's most important and that's what I want in a coach. I've been lucky to have that with Coach McNeely for four years. That's what I want in a coach."

Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 618-510-9231 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.