In a zone of his own

POST FALLS — Into his junior year of high school, Jared Porter wasn’t sure what he was going to do after high school.

In fact, he was convinced that his days of playing baseball were going to be over as soon as he graduated from Post Falls High in 2016.

A funny thing happened as that door stayed open and Porter has run right through it.

“I just thought I could do it really,” Porter said. “After my senior year, I felt my talent level and skill level was there to continue playing baseball at the next level.”

The formula for Porter, primarily a pitcher, is simple really.

Throw strikes, trust his pitches and do his job.

And as one of the lone college products in the Cardinals program, it’s a job that Porter hasn’t let first-year coach Pat Call down on yet.

Porter, a right-hander who carries a 3-3 record into a doubleheader today at Walla Walla, recently completed his freshman year at Yakima Valley Community College. While he redshirted this year, his knowledge on the mound has paid off immediately for the Cardinals.

“Jared has thrown all the tough games for us this year,” Call said. “We haven’t given him much run support. He could, and should, be 4-1 this year.”

The biggest change Porter has made from 2016 to 2017 has been trusting in his abilities.

“I really had to learn to trust my off-speed pitches at Yakima Valley,” Porter said. “I developed two more off-speed pitches and to trust them in certain situations.”

Perhaps the biggest one of the season came on July 5 as the Cardinals entertained the Lewis-Clark Twins in a class AA North Idaho League doubleheader at Post Falls High.

Prairie entered the game 1-5 in league play, but thanks wto a sweep, fought back to finish 3-5 in league play.

“It was kind of like a David vs. Goliath story a little bit,” Porter said. “I went out and did my job, threw strikes and gave up a couple of runs.”

Preston Benson hit a pair of home runs in the game to give Porter Prairie an 8-4 win in the opener. The Cardinals scored six runs in the second inning of the nightcap, then scored twice in the seventh to beat the Twins again 8-7.

“Preston kind of saved us with some key home runs,” Porter said. “My fastball was my go-to pitch. I was just hitting my spots and throwing a lot of strikes.”

Coeur d’Alene finished 3-1 against Prairie this year. Lewis-Clark and Prairie split four games.

“I don’t know how the rest of the year is going to go,” Porter said. “I think honestly we came off two big wins, but it’s going to be interesting to see how we play out the rest of the season.”

Prairie last advanced to state in 2012.

“I’m going to have to throw strikes and we’re going to have to play good defense,” Porter said. “I think our coaching staff is pretty smart when it comes to baseball, and they’ve done a good job this year getting us into the right situations.”

“Jared has been a good role model over the last few years that I’ve coached him,” said Call, who was an assistant with Prairie in 2016. “Coming back from college, Jared put on some weight and had developed a better mental approach to his game. I believe Jared could have a great chance of playing for money someday if his development continues at this pace. He has always had a live arm, but now he’s developing some command of multiple pitches and stays focused. He has another two years to develop at Yakima Valley before moving on, and he’s going to do great things.”

Off the field, Porter relaxes by playing video games and swimming at the beach.

“I play Super Smash Brothers a lot,” Porter said. “It’s a great game with a lot of really fast moves, and just a really fast-paced game.”

Porter played on the Trojans’ varsity team as a junior and senior.

“I didn’t have the same success on the mound that I’m having now,” Porter said. “I just had to trust my other pitches instead of just trying to throw the ball past everyone.”

Porter opted to come back to Prairie instead of playing in the West Coast League, a summer collegiate baseball league.

“Just having the chance to be at home and play baseball with my friends,” Porter said. “It’s been a great season.”

Prairie will host the Class AA Area A (district) tournament starting next Friday at Post Falls High. The top two teams between Lewis-Clark, Coeur d’Alene and Prairie will advance to the state tournament at Walker Field on the campus of the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls on July 26-30.

Yakima Valley was the only school on Porter’s radar, which is fine with him.

“At first, I really didn’t want to play college baseball,” Porter said. “I really didn’t want to play until maybe my senior year. They gave me an offer and I went with it.”

At Yakima Valley, Porter is primarily a pitcher, whereas for Prairie, he’s the team’s top pitcher and also plays in the infield.

“My freshman year at Yakima went pretty great,” Porter said. “There was a lot of practice and pitch development that I had to go through. But it was an interesting experience.”

While he was prepared for certain things, he admitted that the college game wasn’t what he expected.

“I was expecting to have a lot more conditioning,” Porter said. “But it wasn’t really as crazy as I thought it would be. Hopefully after Yakima I’m still playing baseball somewhere.”

In Prairie’s league matchups with Coeur d’Alene, the teams played single games, allowing Porter the chance to pitch all four games with Call saying he’d likely do it to give them their best shot at a win.

“It gave me a lot of confidence hearing him say that,” Porter said. “Knowing that he was that confident in me really was nice to hear.”

Even if it’s not on the mound, Call is not worried about having Porter somewhere else on the field.

“He has also became a pretty good hitter for us,” Call said. “I have had fun watching him play multiple positions for the last time in his life. He will play anywhere you ask him, whether he can or not. If you know Jared, he will let you know he should be in the bigs at that position.”