Texas Tech recruit Greg Minnick, battalion of live arms have Indiana primed for playoffs

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, May 6, 2025 | 12:03 AM

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Indiana pitcher Greg Minnick was offered a chance to see the red rocks of West Texas while in geology class last spring.

It started with a telephone call. A Texas Tech assistant baseball coach was on the other end, offering the hard-throwing right-hander a scholarship to pitch in Lubbock.

He said yes.

“I talked to him for an hour and a half in the middle of the school day,” Minnick said of assistant coach J-Bob Thomas. “Right when I talked to him, I said, ‘Yeah, this is the one.’ Something about him just made me feel at home compared to other guys.”

Texas schools don’t routinely recruit WPIAL players, but Indiana coach Dan Petroff had called the Red Raiders to tell them about Minnick. Petroff said he’d always heard good things about Texas Tech athletics from his days playing minor league baseball.

It probably wasn’t a hard sell since Minnick has one of the top arms in the state. Now a 6-foot-2, 200-pound senior, Minnick is 7-0 with a 1.06 ERA this season.

“When Greg is on, he’s pretty unhittable,” Petroff said. “He locates his fastball … and he has a big league curveball and slider already.”

Minnick helped Indiana reach the WPIAL finals last season and was on the mound to start the state final. This year, the Indians are 17-1 and ranked No. 1 in WPIAL 4A.

MLB scouts have also taken an interest in Minnick. Petroff said he’s heard from scouts for around a dozen teams and estimated that eight or nine have watched Minnick pitch in person.

The MLB Draft is July 13-14.

“It’s early,” Minnick said. “We’ll see.”

He isn’t Indiana’s only good arm.

Minnick leads a deep pitching staff that has two more college-bound seniors in Mercyhurst recruits Ryan Okopal and Mark Collinger. That depth convinced Petroff to take a novel approach to load management this spring and limit the innings pitched by them all.

Minnick has thrown 19⅔.

He had a no-hitter through five innings last week when he exited after throwing 67 pitches. He hadn’t allowed a hit or a walk, but Petroff has tightly limited his pitchers’ workloads with hopes for a long playoff run ahead.

“I thought we were a little worn out last year, so I figured I’d do the opposite this year,” Petroff said. “We’ve started slowly. If I didn’t have all the pitching I have, I don’t know I’d be doing that. But I’ve got a lot.”

Twelve different players have pitched this season. That includes Okopal, who’s 5-0 with a 0.24 ERA in 29 innings. The senior has 39 strikeouts to five walks.

“I started looking at my roster and probably 10 of them are No. 1 or 2 arms on most other teams,” Petroff said. “I’m like, ‘How am I going to utilize all of these guys without one of them stabbing me in the back?’ I want to run them all out there a little bit.”

Six pitchers have started a game this year.

Minnick’s five-inning outing last week at Valley was his longest of the season. He said he understands the strategy of peaking in the playoffs, even if it’s not always fun.

“Obviously, I want to go as long as I can and go the whole game,” Minnick said. “But I try not to be greedy. Let the other guys on the team eat a little bit. I sensed I was getting a little tired, so you’ve got to let the next guy go.”

Sully VanHoose handled the final two innings in relief and combined with Minnick for a no-hitter against Valley. VanHoose ranks third with 15⅔ innings pitched.

Sophomore Brady Oakes is fourth with 15⅓ innings, and Collinger has 11⅓.

“Early on, we were going one or two innings max, so opponents were facing four to seven different pitchers,” Petroff said. “We’ve got three lefties. A couple of crafty righties. Four hard-throwing righties.”

Indiana reached two championship games last season and lost both. The Indians fell to North Catholic, 7-5, in the WPIAL finals. Even more painful was a walkoff loss to Holy Ghost Prep, 6-5, in the state finals.

The Indians want another chance.

“There’s a lot of unfinished business,” Minnick said. “We’ve accomplished our first goal of winning the section. We’ve got WPIALs and states left. We’re done getting second. Everyone is tired of it.”

As a Texas Tech recruit with a mid-90s fastball, lots of eyes are on Minnick nowadays. He throws both four- and two-seam fastballs, a slider, curveball and changeup. His favorite pitch is no secret.

“I love to juice up the four seam,” he said.

Minnick has struck out 34 batters, walked six and allowed seven hits this season. He’s quick to challenge batters inside, which occasionally leads to a hit batter or two.

He hit three in last year’s state final.

“I like to throw inside on guys, especially if I’m throwing with a little velo on it,” Minnick said. “A lot of guys aren’t going to want to stand there, be on the line and wear one.”

Minnick allowed one hit through four innings in the state finals, but his control wasn’t always the sharpest. Along with hitting three batters, he also walked three. He left in the fifth inning after throwing 69 pitches.

Looking back, Minnick said there were times his mechanics maybe slipped later in outings.

“There was a little fatigue,” he said. “I was beat down a little from the season. That’s why it was important this season to build up slower. … It’s about trying to peak at the right time.”

Texas wasn’t on Minnick’s mind when he first started thinking about colleges. Instead, it was his coach who told him about the quality of baseball played in the Lone Star State.

Petroff, a former pitcher, was drafted by the California Angels in 1993. He spent a few seasons in the minors and heard from players who’d liked Texas Tech, so he reached out to the college last spring.

The Red Raiders were interested, and Minnick decided he’d move 1,500 miles from home.

“To be honest, it kind of came out of the blue,” Minnick said. “I didn’t have any thoughts about playing there. I was thinking more local. But I’m not worried about the distance at all. The coaching staff is awesome there.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Indiana