EDITOR’S NOTE: The Scrappers game against the State College Spikes on Thursday night at Eastwood Field was suspended in the top of the fourth inning due to inclement weather.

Mahoning Valley Scrappers pitcher Tommy Szczepanski was forced to make some tough decisions straight out of high school — decisions which would shape the rest of his life.

Fortunately for Szczepanski, those decisions involved sports, and they had to be made in the clutch. It’s a position where Szczepanski flourished his entire young life. It also didn’t hurt that Szczepanski is a man of deep faith, and he trusted that whatever route he took, it would lead him in the right direction.

Szczepanski, a Bay City (Mich.) native, was a standout football and baseball player at Essexville Garber High School. As a quarterback, he shined on the gridiron, enough so that he was offered scholarships by a number of Division I schools. The spotlight was even brighter on the baseball diamond, where Szczepanski was rated as the No. 2 pitcher and the No. 4 overall player in the state of Michigan by Prep Baseball Report in 2022.

Szczepanski eventually opted to play college baseball, but then the sport threw him a curveball when the Kansas City Royals selected him in the 19th round of the July 2022 MLB Draft.

Szczepanski made the tough decision to decline the Royals’ offer and enroll in college. He attended Virginia Tech during his freshman year and has spent the past two years at Michigan State, where he is majoring in psychology.

When Szczepanski transferred to join the Spartans in 2024, he was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Preseason Watch List.

“It was a very difficult decision to pass on professional ball and opt for college but for me it just came down to trusting in God’s plan, betting on myself and my future and doing what’s best for my baseball career,” Szczepanski said.

Three years into college, Szczepanski is confident he made the right choice.

“The maturity and the lessons and the adversity that I’ve gone through in college is going to help me when and if I get that opportunity to play at the next level,” Szczepanski said. “Competing against some very great players over the past three years, and all that comes with that has made me a better player and a better person.”

Szczepanski’s place in the spotlight shined bright even before his stellar high school career. Szczepanski was a standout for the Essexville-Hampton Little League All-Stars, which came within one game of the Little League World Series, losing to Kentucky in the 2016 Great Lakes Regional final.

“It was just really awesome in the fact that we were a team from a really small town,” Szczepanski said. “The same thing when I got drafted by the Royals, my biggest takeaway was that here I was in a small town, putting myself and my school on the map and paving the way for the younger guys.”

Szczepanski was a starter in high school, but was moved to the bullpen in college where he generally serves as a closer.

“I enjoy entering the game in clutch situations, it sort of takes me back to my days as a quarterback,” Szczepanski said. “The bottom line is I want to be able to contribute any way possible.

“I’ve been blessed to this point. I’m looking forward to a solid summer here, then we’ll see where things go from there.”