By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Ethan Mitnick was a talented baseball player in his youth, up through the 13-year-old Atlantic Shore Babe Ruth all-stars, and he fully expected his trajectory to continue upward when his high school career started.
Things were going according to plan — at first. He got a little taste of varsity as a sophomore, reached base 12 times, scored seven runs, then took over as the starting shortstop to begin his junior year. What could go wrong?
Everything.
He had just five hits the entire month of April in his first action as a varsity starter, and subsequently lost his starting position. He was relegated to relief pitching duties, but still was a key contributor on a Mainland Regional team that caught fire in the state playoffs and made an improbable run to the Group 3 state championship game before falling to Morris Knolls.
Mitnick hit just .167 with one stolen base and six runs scored that season.
There was no reason to believe things would get any better the following spring. If a kid can’t hit as a junior, why would anybody think he suddenly will as a senior?
Well, a lot of people don’t know Ethan Mitnick, and what he’s made of.
Instead of getting down on himself, instead of throwing in the towel, he took a good, hard look at himself in the mirror, knew what he had to do to show that he could be a college level baseball player, and set about getting to work in the offseason. He hit the gym, got bigger, stronger and faster. He tweaked his swing mechanics and spent countless hours in the batting cage.
He could have simply accepted his fate as a relief pitcher, but Mitnick isn’t the type of guy who does well sitting the bench. He’s got too much energy and passion for the game. He wants to be part of the action, every day, every game, every inning.
This spring saw one of the most remarkable turnarounds of any player in South Jersey. Mitnick won the starting job at third base in the preseason and became one of Mainland’s best hitters. He had seven multi-hit games, batted .348 (second on the team to Chase Camac), scored 22 runs, was third on the team with 18 RBIs and added two home runs, 21 walks, six stolen bases and a .530 slugging percentage. He helped lead Mainland to 20 wins and the Mustangs’ first Cape-Atlantic League Tournament championship.
“It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting, but obviously I respect the coach’s decision. We made it all the way to state championship, so he clearly made the right decision. As I started getting more innings on the mound I just tried to embody that role and do the best I could when I was given the opportunity,” Mitnick said of his reduced role as a junior. “(Bryan) Perez was a senior last year so I knew he was going to be gone (in 2024), my senior year. So toward the end of my junior year I started taking reps at third base because I knew that would be an open position. I put in the work at third base and showed my coaches what I could do there during practice and kind of gave them a little sneak peek of what they might be able to expect my senior year. I feel like (junior year) I was too caught up with worrying about messing up or worrying about the stats when really I just had to slow everything down for myself and trust my skills and know what I can do. I realized the situation that was in front of me and was trying to take advantage of it during practice.”
“I think the most impressive thing about Ethan dealing with adversity is that he never pouted, he never blamed anyone. It was just, ‘how can I help this team win?’ And if you look at our late-season playoff surge, he’s the one with the ball in his hands on the mound at the end of a lot of those games,” said Mustangs coach Billy Kern. “The big thing with him is that he saw where we had a need. Perez was graduating, so he committed himself to the weight room and improved himself offensively. His junior year he just slides over to third base and the last month he’s taking ground balls at third, kind of signaling to everyone else on the team — and signaling to me — this is where he was going to be (as a senior). I think it was a mature move of him. And obviously the work he put in between his junior and senior year — physically he put on good weight, and when you get stronger like that, your confidence naturally comes with it. He started hitting well from early March in the preseason and never really cooled off.”
Mitnick — who has committed to play at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania — admitted he got too caught up in the recruiting process as a junior, instead of just playing his game and letting college coaches decide if he was worth a spot on their roster.
“I was uncommitted my junior year and was in the recruiting process. I was caught up in my own head with the numbers, worrying about my batting average, worrying about my fielding percentage, worrying about all the different metrics, when in reality I should have just been able to play my own game and not worry about that,” he said. “Because once you get caught up in in the statistics, it all goes downhill. Coming into my senior year, I was committed to Gettysburg and had that weight off my shoulders, not feeling like I had to prove anything to anyone else. It just freed my game up a little bit, took pressure off and I was able to play loose and have fun with the game again.”
Kern said it wasn’t easy to take a kid like Mitnick, one who could be a sparkplug and drive the energy of the team, out of the lineup. But when a player is barely hitting his weight, a change has to be made, and Mitnick understood that.
“We’ve always tried to worry about relationships over results. When you build really good relationships with the kids, those conversations are a little bit less difficult because you’re having them every day rather than just when things are going bad,” Kern explained. “A lot of times what ends up happening — and in the case with Ethan — he knew what was going on. He’s a team guy so it wasn’t super difficult to have that conversation.”
“I was never expecting not to see my name on the lineup sheet, but I owned up to it. I was a good teammate on the bench, cheering my guys on and ready to get my name called in the bullpen whenever my opportunity was given. But yeah, that was definitely a shock when I first saw the lineup sheet with my name not somewhere in the order because my whole life I’ve been a position player and a pretty strong batter. That was definitely a change for me,” Mitnick said. “It was pretty clear what I had to do because the coaches know my potential and know my ability, and clearly I didn’t live up to it last season. I knew what I had to do to secure a spot in the lineup this season. I definitely put the work in at the gym to get bigger, stronger, faster, honed in on my swing mechanics and my glove skills so I would be able to have a starting spot again.”
Struggling so much at the plate as a junior also affected Mitnick on the defensive side of the ball, and too many errors also was a determining factor in putting Brady Blum at shortstop to finish out the year.
“Baseball is a team sport, but there are individual aspects to it. When the ball is hit to you in the field, there’s no one else making the play besides yourself. So when you boot a lot of balls, like I did my junior year, there’s no one else to point fingers at besides yourself. I had to look in the mirror and understand the situation and the reality that I was not the best option to be a shortstop. So during the offseason I really focused on my fielding skills that would help me regain a starting position in the infield, no matter where the position was. Being able to get playing time somewhere on the field is better than being on the bench,” Mitnick said. “My junior year I didn’t play up to my potential, didn’t play up to how I knew I could play, how my coaches knew I could play, how my teammates knew I could play. So in the offseason I really tried to free myself of pressure and not get caught up in the stats. I just wanted to play the game the way I knew how. I was definitely pleased with myself and proud of how I was able to bounce back from such a shaky junior year to a have a successful senior year. Baseball is a game of ups and downs. It’s a game of failure. So I think it was definitely a good experience for me to learn how to bounce back from adversity.”
Kern said he was proud of how Mitnick responded to his demotion. Not many guys would have handled it the same way.
“You see guys come back and do something different, like maybe you see it on the mound where a kid struggles in the field and then all of a sudden you see him really firing it from the outfield or firing it across the infield. All of a sudden you say, ‘we can get an inning or two out of him on the mound.’ You don’t see that kind of transformation offensively that much because it takes a lot of commitment, and you have to make adjustments later in your career. He committed to revamping what he was doing,” Kern said. “To see Ethan not just commit to the weight room and commit to making mechanical changes, but to then see the success come through — it’s really a cool moment. They’re the kids that you remember through the years, the guys who completely transformed and you can use them as the example moving forward of what work ethic can do for you.”
Were there moments when Mitnick doubted himself?
Absolutely.
“There’s always points where you second guess yourself, but in the long run you understand what you’re able to do as a player and you’re able to trust yourself as a player — and with good teammates behind you; it definitely helps having guys pick you up and guys who will cheer you on or pick you up after making a bad play,” Mitnick said. “Ever since freshman year, I always wanted to be that guy people could rely on and people could lean on to make that big play, the guy they wanted up to bat in the tight game, bottom of the seventh. So it really felt great to be able to contribute that much (as a senior).”
Kern said the best way to tell how important a player is to your program is to ask yourself, as a coach, would you be proud seeing that kid out in public wearing a T-shirt that features your logo?
“I think he’s going to be a steal for Gettysburg the next couple of years. He was our top GPA guy three years running, and I’ve never had that. He did everything, on the field, off the field. He’s a perfect example of what you want in a high school baseball player,” Kern said. “He’s somebody when you’re handing out your hats and T-shirts and you have guys walking around wearing something that you’re so proud of — he’s one of the guys we want wearing our gear out in the community. You feel good about that.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
