Living out a family legacy: A look into the career of Ike Irish
Nick Lundberg | Thursday | May 26, 2022 | 5:37pm
St. Mary’s catcher Ike Irish comes from a long line of baseball players, as both his grandpa and his dad played in the show. His dad, Jeff Irish, who played in the Blue Jays organization, has pushed Irish to become the man and baseball player he is today.
“He always preaches to play hard and play with a chip on my shoulder, and I have taken that to heart,” said Irish.
Irish, an Auburn commit, is currently on pace to continue his family legacy.
Irish first realized that a career in baseball could be a reality when he finished his first year of high school.
“As soon as I committed to Auburn I realized that this is something I could do for a long time.”
Admittedly in the beginning, Irish originally did not have Auburn on his A-list, but as soon as he was able to get on campus, he knew that he was meant to be a War Eagle.
“I was playing down south at a tournament in Georgia and Auburn reached out and started the recruiting process,” said Irish. “Then I went on campus and just fell in love with it. The coaches are great and when it felt like home I knew it was the place.”
After not being able to have a sophomore season due to the pandemic, Irish transferred to St. Mary’s Prep. and has only lost one game during his time in Orchard Lake so far.
Irish has only been an Eaglet for two years, he made it clear that he would not trade a second of his time at O.L.S.M. for anything else.
“I love it, I would not trade it for the world. They advertise brotherhood as a key cornerstone of the school, and it could not be more true.”
Although he has made a lot of good memories from this season so far, his favorite moment playing for the Eaglets came in last year’s Catholic League final against Brother Rice.
“We were down all game, and then McKay hit a clutch RBI triple to tie it up and then I got an opportunity to hit a walk off against them in extra innings.”
This season, Irish has not had that same opportunity to hit a walk off as his squad has been dominating opponents for most of the season, but regardless he has put up some gaudy numbers to help their wins become blowouts. The number one team in the country is a perfect 34-0 this season, in part thanks to the year Irish is having.
He is tied with Michigan commit and fellow senior Nolan Schubart for the team lead in home runs at nine, as well as recording 33 runs batted in and an above .400 batting average to boot.
He started this season off on a historic tear, recording a home run in five of his first six plate appearances.
During that stretch, the key for his success was simple:
“I tried to hit the ball as hard as I could,” said Irish. “I played loose, I did not care about the result. That made the ball look like a beach ball and it made baseball a lot of fun.”
An argument can be made that his defense is even better than his offense, as he has called many solid games and has a lot of power behind his arm that allows him to catch runners trying to nab a base, or even get back to one.
Although, O.L.S.M. has a perfect record through regular season play, something that they could say about last year after a middle-of-the-season loss to Saline, there is still work to be done and history to be made. With the playoffs looming, Irish is not short of confidence in his squad to come out of them unblemished.
“It would mean a lot to finish undefeated because a lot of us think we can do this,” said Irish. I do not think it will be a surprise to anybody when we accomplish it. I think it is just going to be another box checked off for this team.”
There is a lot of outside noise that this team and specifically Irish has to deal with, but he is only focused on one thing currently:
“I just play baseball right now and I want to win a state title. Outside of that, there is nothing that means a lot right now.”
The quest for perfection continues for Irish and the Eaglets tomorrow in Flint against Bay City Western with the state playoffs looming in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned for all of our coverage of a team that is on the verge of making history.
