BUFFALO TWP — Jarrett Heilman likes to show off his zany sense of humor.

The incoming senior on the Freeport baseball team listened to the children's song “Baby Shark” before each Yellowjackets' game.

He was always quick with a joke and he frequently attempted to keep his teammates loose on the field and in the dugout.

When asked if he has a reputation of being the team's class clown, he laughed.

“No ... well, yeah,” Heilman said. “I think I do a pretty good job at driving my coaches crazy. It wouldn't be a practice if 'Jarrett' wasn't yelled up to 20 times.”

But Heilman also knows when to get serious.

The right-hander put up some seriously outrageous numbers on the hill for the Yellowjackets this spring.

He was 9-2 with a 0.67 ERA this season.

That's not a misprint. His ERA was 0.67.

At one point in the spring, his ERA was 0.18.

Heilman also struck out 107 and walked just seven in 73 innings pitched.

This summer, Heilman is working to get even better.

That's a scary thought.

“I want to lower my ERA and drop my WHIP,” Heilman said. “I always look back on a start and see things I could have done better, things I could have improved upon.”

Heilman is also a stat junkie.

He'd go back and dive into some of the more obscure stats from his starts to try to get an edge.

“Coach (Ed) Carr had a tweet during the season about me where he pointed out I was more of a student of the game,” Heilman said. “I look at numbers most people don't look at.”

One of the big ones is an obscure one called “response rating.” It measures how effective a pitcher is after giving up a hit, run or having a fielding error behind him.

“That's more of a mental toughness stat,” Heilman said.

He looks at the usual ones as well.

A big one is first-pitch strike rate.

Heilman has that one down to a science.

“Our pitching coach, Joe Dougherty, is big on pitching to contact and first-pitch strikes,” Heilman said. “When I start off with a strike I usually attack. When I get two strikes, I go for the strikeout of a weak ground ball.”

That allowed Heilman to be very efficient in his starts this spring.

He only threw 718 pitches in his 10 appearances.

As a sophomore, Heilman showed his potential to be a dominating pitcher, going 5-0.

Coming into this season, he felt like he could continue his upward trend.

“I was expecting to have a decent year, an above average year,” Heilman said. “I was really hoping to extend my win streak and not lose a game, but I lost a couple of tough, one-run games. I expected to go out and give Freeport a chance to win.

“I wasn't expecting any of that,” Heilman added of his jaw-dropping stat line. “I didn't feel quote-unquote dominant. I never felt like when I was on the mound that I was owning it.”

Heilman added a slider to his repertoire before the high school season, which became his strikeout pitch.

Paired with a moving two-seam fastball that tops out at 88 mph, a curveball that he either drops overhand for 12-6 movement or sweeps across the plate and a change-up/splitter offspeed offering and it was easy to see how vexing Heilman could be on opposing hitters.

“Everything I throw I want to move,” Heilman said.

He's dialed back his pitch count this summer while playing for a Palomino team as well as Freeport in the Butler County Area Baseball League.

“I only throw about 60, 70 pitches a week,” he said.

That will change later this summer when he appears in some high-profile games.

He was selected for the Big 26 Baseball Classic, which will take place over three days starting Thursday in Harrisburg.

Heilman will also play in August.

“I've been working out this summer,” Heilman said. “Lifting with Coach Carr three days a week, doing arm care and cardio on the side. I've been trying to strengthen my shoulder and lower body so I hopefully can be even better.”