Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Canfield senior Landon Beidelschies fires off a pitch last season on the road against Boardman in a 5-3 victory. The Ohio State commit has eyes set on a solid senior season.

CANFIELD — In the monolithic world of sports, there are few jobs that are as difficult as pitching from a mound to someone who wants nothing more than to be able to drive the ball.

Having a certain mental prowess to not just combat the man in the batter’s box, but to be able to tune out everything around them is essential for a pitcher. It requires a specialized ability to become an elite prospect in baseball, more so as a left-handed pitcher.

In many regards, the game is on your shoulders as a starter.

For Canfield senior Landon Beidelschies, an Ohio State commit, the concept of pitching coming down to a war of mental and physical ability is something that the six-foot-three lefty thrives on.

“I think you just have to have confidence in yourself, and confidence in your teammates,” Beidelschies said of the mental game. “You got to know that your stuff is going to play and that your teammates are going to be there for you to back you up.”

With an arsenal of a fastball, changeup, slider, and splitter, Beidelschies helped guide the Cardinals to a 24-1 finish. Canfield won its first 24 contests before a 3-1 loss in the Division II Regional Semifinal to Salem ended their magical campaign.

Growing up, the senior was a wrestler and played football along with baseball, but as a freshman he saw some of the recruiting attention that the likes of Dominic Pilolli (NC State) were receiving, which gave him something to strive for, despite missing his freshman season due to injuries.

COVID-19 nixed his sophomore campaign, with summer and fall seasons giving Beidelschies an opportunity to work on his craft, he eventually committed to Army heading into his junior season at Canfield.

With an 8-1 record and a .41 ERA along with 90 punchouts and only 13 walks last Spring, more opportunities began to open. He eventually owned offers from Notre Dame, Pitt, and Cincinnati among others, following his de-committment, before choosing Ohio State, home of South Range alum Jacob Gehring, and where AJ Havrilla (Canfield), and Trey Pancake (South Range) will find themselves next season.

Beidelschies whit for a .343 average with 24 RBI as a first baseman, so for coach Gary Knittle Beidelschies’ array of pitches make the senior standout above some of the others.

“It’s not that he has four pitches, he has four what the scouts call, plus pitches,” Knittle said. “The fastball is obviously there, but his slider, curveball, and when he was sophomore, we were in winter workouts, and I was like Landon, come over here, let me see your hands, and his hands were twice my size, and I was like ‘Alright, have you ever worked with a splitter before, and he was like not really, and we worked on it, and I said this is going to be a pitch for you.’ He throws a split-change that is absolutely filthy, and the scary thing is that last year, he threw it and it’s his best pitch.”

Beidelschies has hit 95MPH on the gun during the offseason and checked off one of his goals heading into his senior season at Canfield. Now, he’s traveling to Chicago this weekend as a member of PBR Super 60 and is ranked as 10th best prospect in the state of Ohio and is second overall in his position.

The event will give him exposure in front of major league scouts and 29 out of the 60 members of the Super 60 last season ended up being selected in the MLB Draft.

It all goes back to that mental prowess on the mound.

“He is a perfectionist when it comes to pitch selection, and location, and everyone talks about Greg Maddux, and that’s kind of who he reminds me of,” Knittle said. “He’s a thinker out there, and he’s going to hit his spots, and he’s make you go out of the zone, and I wouldn’t want to face him.”

Assuming the winter weather ever breaks and the plentiful piles of snow ever melt, there will in fact be baseball in the Mahoning Valley in the next month and a half.

For Beidelschies, there’s unfinished business.

“Last year was kinda state championship or bust for us, and unfortunately we didn’t reach that goal, but we have to use that loss (to Salem), as motivation, and now we know that we really can’t get too high on ourselves, and it could all be taken away in one game,” Beidelschies said.

“So we just got to focus and really lock in now.”