Joe Sperry having a season to remember with Gophers

Apr. 14—MINNEAPOLIS — Joe Sperry could be found just outside of Charlotte, N.C., last summer, investing in himself.

Sperry, the former Rochester Lourdes baseball star and current senior pitcher with the University of Minnesota, has never been one to cut corners when it comes to baseball. He's "all in" and has been since he was a kid, back then dreaming about playing pro ball just like he does now.

Sperry's investment was with Tread Athletics, a pitching training service that is considered one of the best of its type in the world. Pitchers can be trained virtually or at the Tread Athletics headquarters. Sperry went with the in-house training over two months of the summer. They added a couple of miles per hour to his fastball and cleaned up a number of his vast arsenal of pitches.

The rest of the year he gets virtual training from them. It was an $8,000 investment. Sperry said it was worth every nickel.

"It did wonders for my career," Sperry said. "I just wanted to invest in myself to get better."

Sperry has forever been investing in himself and watching it pay off. That started with him losing a bunch of extra pounds early in high school, then getting pitching help from Rochester pitching guru Mitch Brown and now the latest, Tread Athletics.

The payoff is in full bloom this season, Sperry's senior year with a Gophers team he joined last year after two seasons spent playing junior college baseball at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, where he was a junior college All-American.

Sperry has never pitched better than he is right now. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior, who has been coming out of the bullpen, is 2-2 with a tidy 2.77 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 26 innings. He's allowed just six walks.

"The stats show it this year," Sperry said. "Every game, I go attack the hitters, attack the strike zone. Only good things happen when you do that. I'm glad our coaches trust me when I have the ball in my hands."

This has been a golden year for Sperry in a number of ways. After finishing 24-25 last year, the team is much improved, currently 21-14, though they have let some Big Ten games barely get away from them (5-10 in conference).

Not only is the winning happening at a higher rate, but Sperry is on the closest team he's ever experienced. Bus rides are things to look forward to with constant banter and laughs.

"This has been so much fun," Sperry said. "When you get to play quite a bit it is always fun to be out there, especially when you're playing well. No matter what, you have to go out there and have fun.

"The team is very talented. And we have great leaders on this team, with player-led meetings. Last year we didn't do that, but it's an important piece to turn the ship around. We all believe we can win these games. This group has been really special to me, especially being a senior and helping create a standard and a culture here. It's been great."

One more thing in his favor is the fan support Sperry gets. His parents are at nearly every home game, as are other relatives, as well as his girlfriend. Sperry says he has his own little cheering section.

One highlight this season was going head-to-head with a friend. On March 13, the Gophers played at Illinois and Ryan Ohm, a Century graduate who is now in his first year with the Illini. Those two dueled, Sperry going three innings and allowing two hits and one run. Ohm was even better, lasting 3 1/3 innings and giving up no hits or runs. His team ultimately won the game in 10 innings.

"Before the game I was thinking, 'What if Ryan and I went head-to-head,'" Sperry said. "I came up to him afterward and we talked, 'Who knew that the Rochester boys would go head-to-head?'"

Sperry is hoping to play professional baseball when this season is done. He hopes to get drafted, but if that doesn't happen he'd be willing to play for an independent league team and try to work his way up and eventually make it to the big leagues.

But mostly, his mind is on the here and now. He's having a special season and he's cherishing every bit of it.