NEW PALESTINE — When the final out was made in the 2019 sectional championship game, New Palestine’s Jaden Jaques decided he wasn’t going to let his baseball career end like this.
The Dragons lost 10-2 on that May afternoon on their home field to Indianapolis Cathedral. Jaques was one of eight seniors, including his twin brother Josh; that had their high school careers come to a close.
“I knew that moment I didn’t want it to end that way (nearly) run-ruled in the sectional championship,” he said.
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That game didn’t define Jaques (pronounced jay-kwiz) or the Dragons, but the right-handed pitcher felt like he still had something to prove.
He wanted to play in college, in fact, he had hoped to throughout his high school career. His senior season was strong, but he felt like there was some unfinished business after he hung up the red and white jerseys.
As a senior, he was named the Dragons’ Pitcher of the Year. He finished 4-3 with two complete games and one save. His earned run average was an impressive 2.15. He threw 42.1 innings and had 40 strikeouts. He earned All-Hancock County honorable mention recognition.
As impressive as that final season was, Jaques didn’t have any college offers, so he had to be proactive.
New Palestine head coach Shawn Lyons knew colleges were missing out on a solid arm. Jaques didn’t have a blazing fastball, but “he has the intangibles, baseball instinct,” Lyons said.
“Scouts sometimes fall in love with velocity. (Jaden) pitches to contact and holds runners on. He’s a pitcher that can throw any kind of pitch on any kind of count and be successful. … He knows how to get hitters out and keep them off balance.”
Jacques sent out a highlight video to various colleges and got a bite from Bluffton University, an NCAA Division III school in Bluffton, Ohio, a three-hour drive from home. It’s a school that is part of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference that includes six schools from Indiana — Anderson, Earlham (in Richmond), Franklin, Hanover, Manchester and Rose-Hulman (in Terre Haute).
“It was the only school I visited,” Jaques said. “I liked coach (James) Grandey. It was a small, nice campus. I liked the size of the classrooms and I was going to have a chance to play baseball.”
That was the key. Both he and twin brother Josh were accepted at Bluffton and Indiana University, but Bluffton was going to be the only chance to continue playing baseball. Josh decided to go on to IU, where older brother Jarrett attends.
Jaden elected to resume his education, baseball included.
It is proving to be a good decision for both Jaden and Bluffton.
“He reached out to us,” Grandey said of initial contact with his freshman pitcher. “We did some research on our end. He came to visit and we felt like it was a good fit for us.
“We thought, as a freshman, he could come in and contribute, be competitive and throw strikes.”
His 2020 freshman season was cut short, just like everyone else during the coronavirus pandemic, but Jaques is showing the fruits of his determination.
Grandey has been impressed with Jacques’ demeanor and willing to learn. From fall ball to preseason, he noticed the New Pal youngster could help them out when the team opened the season in Florida. In early March the team went to Punta Gorda, Fla., for 10 games in six days.
“He asks good questions and wants to get better,” Grandey added. “He has the right attitude, cares about academics and is going to be a good fit for us.
“He took preseason workouts seriously and was ready to go, and showed a lot of maturity for a freshman.”
Jaden wasn’t sure how it all was going to fall in place at the Ohio school. He thought he had pitched well in the fall, but didn’t know he was going to be on the team’s travel roster to Florida until he saw his name on the list.
So far, so good.
In just three outings for the Beavers, he pitched 10.2 innings and had a 0.84 ERA. He got a start during the team’s Florida trip and earned a complete game victory. He threw a two-hitter, walking only one and striking out one in a 7-1 win. It completed a doubleheader sweep of Misericordia University of Pennsylvania and gave Bluffton its first two wins of the season.
“He was awesome in his start,” Grandey said. “Misericordia was off-balance from first pitch to last pitch. He was poised. He had a lot of clean innings, didn’t get in a lot of trouble. It was about as smooth a start as you could have for a first outing.”
Lyons had said the Jaques was a sponge for baseball knowledge whether it came from he, a teammate or someone from the coaching staff.
It’s that same “willing to learn” attitude that has driven him to the early successes at Bluffton.
“I talk to and try to learn a lot from the upperclassmen and with our pitching coach,” Jaques said of his growth from his first days at Bluffton to the start of the team’s season. “I do what I can and always want to do the best I can.
“The way my senior year ended (at New Palestine), I wanted to prove something. I wanted to play college baseball. I was either going to go to IU full-time as a student or go to Bluffton so I could play baseball. I didn’t want to give up baseball.”
Grandey sees that drive in his Hoosier —one of only two on the Beavers 47-man roster — that didn’t choose the IU Hoosiers.
He also believes the best is yet to come.
“He has got a chance to have a really good career here,” Grandey said. “He’s hungry and has a chip on his shoulder and uses it the right way, to get better.”
