'Just try to pitch with confidence': St. John's grad Tyler Nielsen boosts Bravehearts bullpen this summer

WORCESTER — Tyler Nielsen started the summer with a plan to relax, play a little golf, and take a break from baseball before returning to the University of Maine for his senior season.

Then the Grafton resident received a call from Worcester Bravehearts manager Alex Dion in mid-June. The two first met a decade or so ago when Dion coached Nielsen’s youth travel team.

“He was like, ‘Hey, do you want to play?’ ” Nielsen, a 2020 St. John’s High graduate, recalled at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field. “He asked if I wanted to do a 10-day (contract). It was pretty easy not to say no. I had to.

“Dion was my coach when I was 12 years old and playing for the Worcester Heat, so we go back a long way, and I’d do anything for him. Now I’m playing full time, and I’ll be here for the rest of the summer.”

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound left-handed reliever, who previously pitched for the Bravehearts in 2021 and spent last summer recuperating from a strained ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, had a strong finish to his junior season as the Black Bears advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

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Nielsen joined the Bravehearts looking to continue trending upward, and he’s done just that, pitching 10-2/3 innings over four appearances — three of them scoreless — while recording 16 strikeouts and allowing 8 hits, 4 walks and 3 runs for a 2-1 record.

“I struggled at the beginning of the year for Maine, and then I really found my groove,” Nielsen said. “So just try to pitch with confidence and try to develop. If I get off to a better start this year at Maine for my last year and just keep getting better and see what happens after that, there’s a lot of possibilities.

“I think this is a good segue for that, to make dreams become reality. It’s laidback here, but you can still get good work in. That’s what I really admire about the Bravehearts organization and what Dion does here.”

Keeping opponents off base

Nielsen, a “cutter and curveball guy” whose pitches have plenty of movement, has characteristically pounded the strike zone and limited base runners.

His fastball sits in the mid-80s, which is why he believes a spot in independent baseball rather than the minor leagues might be within his reach after college.

“He has really good stuff,” Dion said. “He’s a tall, left-handed pitcher who can start or come out of the bullpen, and he can throw the back end of games if we need him, too.

“So another really versatile piece we were able to add and just a kid who is competitive and all of that, so it’s nice to have him back.”

Nielsen justifiably takes a great deal of pride in his versatility and his ability to be ready to enter a game, no matter the situation.

One of the earliest instances of him displaying those traits occurred during his sophomore season at St. John’s when he pitched five innings of one-run relief in a 6-3 loss to Leominster in the Central Mass. Division 1 semifinals in 2018.

“It was my first major exposure to high school baseball after being called up from the JV halfway through the year,” Nielsen said. “I was just kind of like this funky lefty. Nobody really knew anything about me, so I just went out there and competed.”

Nielsen's teammates included the likes of former Bravehearts Michael Bean, Andrew Eppinger, Carson Hauben, Matt Livingston, Tyler Mudd and Christian Sciliano. The Pioneers again came up short in their championship quest in his junior season before his senior year was canceled due to the pandemic.

Connecting on the course, too

Nielsen was part of a tremendously talented team that won the CMass Division 1 title in golf under the direction of coach Sean Noonan in 2019.

Despite having a handicap in the 5-to-7 range — it’s currently a 6 — he mostly provided steady senior leadership while occasionally playing in matches as current Temple standout Ethan Whitney & Co. handled the heavyweights opponents.

“We had so much fun,” said Nielsen, who recently played 18 with Whitney, who carded an 8-under 64, and LPGA pro Alexa Pano, a former Westborough resident who checked in at 1 under, at Pleasant Valley.

“I don’t get to play that much golf with baseball, but when I do, I have a blast.”

Nielsen is majoring in communications and minoring in business administration and has a 3.5 grade point average. He’s interested in pursuing a career in sports writing or perhaps working in the front office or coaching for a team once he’s done pitching.

“I just want to do something in sports,” said Nielsen, who has unexpectedly, enjoyably and rewardingly been playing more baseball and doing less relaxing this summer.

 —Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichGarvenTG.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: St. John's grad Tyler Nielsen of Grafton boosts Bravehearts bullpen