'Knows how to hit:' Scott Mackiewicz's bat unlocks standout present, bright future

PERKINS TWP. — Those who sit in the stands and watch Scott Mackiewicz play a baseball game might see him take three or four at bats. When Mackiewicz is going right, that might result in a couple of hits and maybe a home run. But when asked what people don't see about him just by watching a game, Mackiewicz answered "work ethic." And it's that behind-the-scenes work that has brought Mackiewicz to this point and could send him much further. "When you're as good as he is, he easily could take a day off and not work as hard," said Mackiewicz's high school baseball coach, Greg Wilker. "But he never did that." Mackiewicz, a Millbury Lake High School graduate who this spring completed his freshman season at the University of Toledo, is a Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League all-star for the Sandusky Bay Ice Haulers. He's joined by six other Ice Haulers in the showcase event Tuesday in Mason, Ohio. The all-star nod for Mackiewicz was an easy one as he contends for the GLSCL triple crown. Through 38 games, Mackiewicz is hitting .390 (fourth in the league) with nine home runs (first) and 48 RBI (first). The big summer hasn't shocked those who've watched Mackiewicz reach this stage, because if there's one thing the 5-foot-11 middle infielder could always do, it was hit. "Hitting is definitely my favorite," Mackiewicz said, then he grinned. "I like fielding, but if I could be a DH, that would probably be ideal." 'You could just tell' These days, Mackiewicz bats left-handed despite being a right-handed thrower, but he initially batted from the right side. Soon after picking up a bat as a young child, though, Mackiewicz started switch-hitting. By the time Mackiewicz was 12, he realized he simply was better from the left side. "I probably should've stuck with being a switch hitter," Mackiewicz said, then laughed. "That probably would've helped me today. But I stuck with left." When Wilker saw that left-handed swing for the first time at Lake High School, he was sold. Wilker's won more than 600 games in a lengthy baseball coaching career, and Mackiewicz became one of a "handful" of freshmen to ever start for him, all because of the hit tool he displayed in an offseason open cage hitting workout. "You could just tell early on, he just had that swing," Wilker said. "… My first impression: We're not gonna have to do a lot of coaching with him, he knows how to hit at that young age." Mackiewicz hit better than .400 as a freshman, but a sophomore slump into the .270 range may have pushed him toward his present excellence. Before that point, Mackiewicz hadn't had to work extra hard to be a good ballplayer. But his relative hitting struggles showed him that had to change. At first, that meant extra swings and time with baseball-specific workouts, and it grew into a more frequent weight room routine, too. As a junior, Mackiewicz and Lake went 27-1, winning their first 27 games before falling in the district championship. "His ability to hit the ball to all fields, that was the big thing," Wilker said. "He could turn on the inside pitch, but smart pitchers tried to throw him away, and he's smart enough to hit it the other way." Breaking out In his first 11 Toledo at bats, Mackiewicz didn't record a hit. He struck out the first six times he stepped to the plate. There were doubts. "Maybe I just can't hit this pitching," Mackiewicz wondered to himself. Mackiewicz was initially recruited to Toledo under a previous coaching regime, but when head coach Rob Reinstetle came aboard, he still wanted Mackiewicz. The early slump, which followed Mackiewicz's canceled senior high school season in 2020, made Reinstetle also wonder whether Mackiewicz was ready. But instead of allowing his uncertainty to fester, Mackiewicz worked harder. He cranked the pitching machine up to 90 miles per hour in the cage to get his timing down. He "found the weight room," as Wilker put it. And when opportunity knocked, Mackiewicz answered. An injury combined with contact tracing protocol pushed Mackiewicz into starting duty in Toledo's first series in April, when he went 1 for 10 against Ohio. But back in the lineup the next weekend at Kent State, Mackiewicz's entire season shifted. His first time up, he walked and stole second base. Then in the fourth, he singled. In the sixth, Mackiewicz pulled his first collegiate home run beyond the right-field fence, and two innings later, he homered to right-center. "I think I was just thinking way too much and I calmed down after those couple hits," Mackiewicz said. "I started to be able to see the ball a little bit more after calming down." After a hitless game later that weekend, Mackiewicz went on an 11-game hit streak. His batting average, which had been .059 before the Kent State series, climbed as high as .356 before ending the season at .308. "He's very blessed in that he's a phenomenal athlete," Reinstetle said. "Any shortcomings that he might have as a baseball player he can pick up with athleticism. That's where the development piece comes in as coaches… The athleticism allows him to pick up things a lot quicker than the normal kid." Throughout the spring, Mackiewicz continued to surprise Reinstetle with one specific trait: his power. Reinstetle called it "sneaky" pop. Mackiewicz isn't the type of kid who intimidates an opponent when walking off the bus. While he's added 15 pounds of muscle since his underclass high school days, he's still one of the smaller players on Toledo's roster. But that's not all it takes to hit a baseball a long way. "He just has such quick hands," Wilker said. Mackiewicz hit seven home runs in his freshman season despite not getting going until more than a month into the campaign, and he's followed that with nine homers so far for the Ice Haulers. For that, Mackiewicz has a Hall of Famer to thank. Yankees great Yogi Berra once said, "You can't think and hit at the same time." "I pretty much go by that (quote)," Mackiewicz said. "... So I try to just not think. I try to think a little bit, situational-wise, but I try more so to just go up there and see ball, hit ball." We also had a chance to talk to Scott Mackiewicz tonight after he managed to score two home runs for the night and see what he had to say about his performance, his team, and even his coaches. @SFPsandusky @sbicehaulers pic.twitter.com/0MKNE5m2tU — BCSN Erie (@BCSNErie) July 16, 2021 'A phenomenal kid' There are no sure things in sports. But if there's a type of person to bet on, it's a guy like Mackiewicz. Wilker said that if he had a daughter, he'd want Mackiewicz to date her. And Reinstetle compared Mackiewicz to Toledo star Chris Meyers on the same day Meyers was drafted in the 13th round by the Detroit Tigers. "Scott falls into that same category as Chris," Reinstetle said. "He's just a phenomenal kid all around. He's a really good student. He takes care of his body. He does everything right off the field. He's a 'yes sir, no sir' kind of guy… This is a well-rounded human being. He's taking care of every facet of his life." For the Ice Haulers, that's turned Mackiewicz into a triple crown contender. For Toledo next year, it might mean a move from the infield to the outfield, where Reinstetle believes Mackiewicz's athleticism could shine in centerfield. Further down the road, well who really knows? Baseball, as with life, isn't always fair or easy. But if there's one thing Mackiewicz makes look easy, it's hitting. And when combined with the rest of the tools Mackiewicz brings to the table, Reinstetle sees a Meyers-like future for Mackiewicz. "That's why Chris was such a phenomenal player here," Reinstetle said. "He wasn't just a baseball player. He was awesome in every aspect of life. "It wouldn't shock me if Scott Mackiewicz was MAC Player of the Year in a few years." --- Triple crown watch Where Scott Mackiewicz stood in the GLSCL in three major hitting categories entering play Monday: Batting average: .390 (fourth) Home runs: 9 (first) RBI: 48 (first) --- Ice Haulers all-stars Scott Mackiewicz, IF, ToledoJordan Andrade, SS, UNLVMark Connelly, 3B, Lansing CCZachary Campbell, DH, TiffinLandon Smiddy, SP, East Tennessee StateOwen Kovacs, RP, East Tennessee StateGrayson Thurman, RP, LynchburgAlternates:Three Hillier, C, LibertyLuke Lashutka, RHP, St. Bonaventure