Russ Michna is fairly confident he’ll never appear in an instructional video on pitching.
Even he has to laugh at his unorthodox pitching style. Michna always works from the stretch and he operates at a breakneck pace.
“I don’t consider myself a pitcher,” Michna said. “I’m a thrower. I just throw whatever pitch they tell me to throw.”
Michna made it look as easy as it sounded Saturday. The Conant senior pitched a complete-game gem to lead the Cougars to their first Mid-Suburban League championship with a 3-2 road victory against Rolling Meadows.
Michna (5-1) gave up four hits while striking out seven and walking one. Not bad for a guy who hadn’t pitched at the varsity level until this season.
“I love being out there in pressure situations,” he said.
Michna ignited Conant (22-5) with a double off the left-field fence on the second pitch of the game. It came after some good-natured banter with opposing catcher Kevin Nelson.
“I’m really good friends with (Nelson),” Michna said. “I dared him to call a breaking ball. And he did.”
It was one of only a few mistakes by Mustangs pitcher Charlie Hahn, who lost his third straight game. Hahn (8-3) pitched well, giving up seven hits and two earned runs. He also had seven strikeouts and one walk.
“It’s not like he got pounded,” Mustangs assistant coach John Walen said. “They just made fewer mistakes than we did.”
A throwing error and a base-running blunder by the Mustangs (25-6) proved to be the difference. So did Michna.
“Michna definitely was the MVP of this game,” Walen said.
