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Guelph pitcher enjoying baseball south of the border

Jacob Kush has a 5-1 record, 4.93 earned-run average and 53 strikeouts and 31 walks in 49 1/3 innings through 10 appearances with the Austin State Peay Governors

If it’s a Friday and the Austin State Peay Governors are playing a U.S. university NCAA baseball game, their starting pitcher is likely to be Guelph’s Jacob Kush.

“I've started a whole bunch of different days, but I've started Friday the last four weeks now so kind of on a routine,” he said in a video chat.

Unlike his twin brother Kyle, an infielder who has been with the Canisius College Golden Griffins all five years of NCAA eligibility, Kush is exhausting his eligibility with Austin Peay, his third school. He played two years of junior college ball with the Northwest Florida State College Raiders before transferring for two years of NCAA ball with the Missouri Tigers and now a year at Austin Peay.

That means he’s had to get used to three systems and three completely new sets of teammates.

“I think it's pretty easy to bond over baseball, but for me it was pretty easy because I knew I wanted to go junior college so that entails you're only going for two years,” Kush said. “So I went there for two years and then you get recruited so I ended up going to Mizzou and that switch honestly wasn't too hard. I'd say probably the hardest switch was coming here this year for my grad year because I had so many different options and I was playing summer ball in Rhode Island so I didn't really have any time to visit the school. I actually came to Austin Peay without even visiting before.”

Deciding to go to Austin Peay wasn’t a mistake, though. And it’s in Clarksville, Tenn., which is about the same size as Guelph and is less than an hour’s drive northwest of Nashville.

“Yeah, it's awesome,” Kush said. “I love it here.”

And it’s been good for his pitching, too, as he’s back to being a starter. He’d been a starter at Northwest Florida State where he had an overall 13-6 record, 3.28 earned-run average and 118 strikeouts and 45 walks in 93 1/3 innings.

He transitioned into being a reliever at Missouri where 22 of his 25 outings were in relief appearances. There he was 5-3 overall with a 6.53 earned-run average, 53 strikeouts and 32 walks in 51 innings.

“There was definitely a really big change from my junior college to the University of Missouri,” Kush said. “My junior college is one of the best junior colleges and (junior college) conferences in the country. But I think the biggest difference when I got to Mizzou, it was just everyone was bigger, faster and stronger.

"I was used to striking out lots of guys at my junior college and it seemed like when I got to Mizzou, guys weren't swinging at my stuff in the dirt that guys at junior college were.”

At Austin Peay, he has a 5-1 record, 4.93 earned-run average and 53 strikeouts and 31 walks in 49 1/3 innings through 10 appearances, all starts. All of his stats are either team-best or second best.

“The difference from Mizzou to here, honestly, isn't that big of a difference,” he said. “We're still playing high-level teams that we would have at the University of Missouri, so that hasn't been that big of an adjustment. The only thing that I've had to adjust to is going from reliever to a starter this year.”

And Austin Peay’s season has turned around. After starting 2-9 including a seven-game losing streak, the Governors have gone 20-11 including a five-game winning streak.

“I think we're just starting to play how we want to play right now,” Kush said. “We started off with a tough schedule at the beginning to get us ready for what we're playing for now. We're in second place so we're playing for the conference championship and I think we're trending in the right direction right now.”

By now, the Kush twins are used to being apart, but that was something both had to get used to once they graduated from Guelph CVI and headed south to continue their schooling and baseball careers.

“It was super weird and we actually talked about this,” Kush said. “We had been with each other 24/7 365 days of the year, literally. And we were talking about it right when I got to school. I think it was like a week and a half into it and we were like, this is the longest we have been apart from each other – like a week and a half, and we were 20 years old. That's the longest we'd been apart from each other. So it was a really tough transition.”

But they kept in touch, talking numerous times a week with video calls.

And how has Kush schooling gone?

“I graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in sociology, a minor in criminology and a certificate in multicultural studies,” he answered. “I wanted to come here and get my masters, but since I'm an international student, you need to be in class for 75 per cent of classes. That's been the requirements of every school I go to.

"That program that I wanted to get into was just offered online. So they said you can either do a different masters, but it would be a two-year degree so you wouldn't finish it or you can try and get another degree. So I'm completing my second degree in psychology right now."

After graduation, it’ll be more baseball, although at the moment he’s not sure where that will be.

He’s played in the U.S. the last two summers as he was with Holly Springs, N.C., Salamanders of the Coastal Plains League in the summer of 2021 and with the Williamsport, Pa., Crosscutters of the MLB Draft League and the Ocean State Waves of South Kingstown, R.I., of the New England Collegiate Baseball League last summer.

“I think it's the third-best summer league right behind the Cape Cod and the Northwoods League,” Kush said of the NECBL. “It was kind of another last-minute thing. I started off in the MLB Draft League on a temporary contract. After two weeks, all the temporary contracts they shipped out and they brought a new two-week contract so I had to find a spot really quickly. I had a connection with the coach (at Ocean State) so I went down there for probably a month and a half. I threw 30 innings. It was awesome."

As for this summer, Kush's plans are up in the air.

“I'm exhausting my eligibility this year, it's my last year, so I'm hoping to either sign as a free agent or get drafted or sign to play independent ball, something like that,” he said.

His brother Kyle is considering playing overseas this summer. Could Jacob join him?

“I don't know if overseas would be for me this year,” Kush said. “I kind of want to play in the States for a bit longer, see if anything comes out of it. But if nothing does, overseas is definitely an option. I've always wanted to go to Australia so I think that'd be pretty cool to play summer ball there.”

How about returning to Guelph to play Intercounty ball with the Royals?

“I don't know about for this year,” he said. “(Field manager) Dino (Roumel) of the Royals just texted me today, funny enough. He's been in contact with me the last four years trying to get me to play every summer. But he just told me to keep him in mind. Anything falls through, just keep him in the loop. So it's definitely an option.”