Knoch’s 7-foot pitcher Zane Pacek giving up basketball to focus on baseball: ‘It’s just so much more natural’
Zane Pacek has a towering stature ready-made for the basketball court.
The rising Knoch senior has been a key part of the Knights’ front court the past three seasons, helping lift the team to its first state tournament appearance in over two decades last season.
However, he’s giving the sport up to better position himself for a future on the baseball diamond.
“It’s definitely a difficult decision because I don’t really want to step away, but I feel like I have to,” the 7-foor-1 Pacek said. “I can’t just be a kid playing high school sports anymore. I’ve got to kind of grow up.”
Pacek is focusing on attracting more attention from Division I baseball coaches. He’s visiting Central Michigan later this month and is hoping to receive an offer that would drive more recruiting attention. He has more camps planned, some with plenty of coaches from that level in attendance.
Knoch went 10-12 last season, reaching the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs, and Pacek proved one of Butler County’s top pitchers as he threw a no-hitter against Greensburg Salem. His full-season stats were not available. He said he has “more fun pitching than any other thing I do in life.” Basketball was keeping him from reaching his full potential.
Hitters seldom, if ever, have to deal with 7-footers on the mound.
“In baseball, there are none,” Pacek said. “At least, I’m the only one that I know of over 6-foot-11. ... Whenever college coaches are walking past your field or come to watch you, they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s 7 foot.’ Usually a taller pitcher is 6-5 or 6-6. I smurf that guy, so I think it’s very eye-catching whenever people walk past.
“It also helps me with getting down the mound and being that much closer to the plate. (It) makes my fastball look that much faster.”
He plans on diving into a velocity program and weight training during the time he’d otherwise be playing basketball. He wants to push his fastball to 92-93 mph before his senior season on the diamond.
“I would like to reach 100 mph eventually on my fastball,” Pacek said. “That would be really cool because you don’t even know how fast it would be whenever you’re 5 feet closer (to the plate) from your stride.”
Pacek noticed he lost any muscle gained before the basketball season while running up and down the court. The duration of the hoops season prevented him from throwing for long periods of time, as well.
“I’m just not in baseball shape whenever baseball season comes around,” Pacek said. “I just think if I can only focus on baseball I can ... get myself more exposure in the baseball recruiting process by being able to go to more camps.”
Pacek’s uncle, Jason Hammel, pitched for a half-dozen teams over a 13-season MLB career. According to Baseball Reference, pitchers Jon Rauch and Sean Hjelle are the tallest major league players of all time, both standing 6-foot-11. Pacek would claim that distinction if he one day reaches that level.
“Obviously, people are going to be like, ‘Why aren’t you playing basketball? Because you are that big. You’ve got that gift,’” Pacek said. “Well, also, I think God gave me a good gift of baseball ability. ... I’m not saying I don’t like basketball. I love basketball. But I think, with baseball, it’s just so much more natural.”
