Stade

New Ulm’s Ethan Stade trek from DII college baseball at Minnesota State University, Mankato, to DI baseball at Bowling Green State University has been a good one for the redshirt senior thus far.

Stade has a 2-3 mound record for the Falcons (15-23 overall and 8-13 in the Mid-American Conference) this season,

The left-hander has pitched 43 innings and has struck out a team-high 69 batters. He has an ERA of 4.40.

Stade has also been twice been named the MAC Pitcher of the Week — first for the week of March 3 and most recently for the week of April 13.

He was also honored with the MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week for April 9.

“Things have been going pretty good for me so far and I hope to keep it going,” he said.

Stade said that the biggest transition from DII to DI baseball has been to realize that every hitter that he faces is very patient.

“They will take pitches until they get one that they like,” he said. “So I have had to change my mindset up and to be consistent with everything instead of just throwing pitches.”

When he first arrived at Bowling Green, the 2021 New Ulm High School grad said he had to completely change his mindset about everything.

“Coming into a new school and being new and a fifth-year transfer player with high expectations for myself, I had to learn to adjust to my surroundings and systems,” Stade said.

His first trek into a DI game came in relief against Georgia Tech.

“I think that right now they are ranked second in the country,” he said. “And for my first DI game it was pretty intense. Mentally I was all over the place. But facing that kind of a lineup is something that not everyone gets to do.

“I am thankful that I was able to be part of that game — that atmosphere and face as good of a lineup as I did.”

Stade said that so far this season, his body has felt very good.

“But the big theme for me this entire season is to be mentally there every time I am on the mound,” he said.

While Stade leads the pitching staff in strikeouts with 69, he said it is a stat that he personally does not try to think about.

“I do not think about my stats a whole lot,” he said. “Being able to get the strikeouts that I have been able to get this year is definitely special, but my mindset is I want to do whatever it takes to help the team win.”

On Saturday, April 18 against UMass, Stade stuck out a career-high 14 batters. It was a game where Stade retired the first 12 batters he faced, including 10 on strikeouts earning him his second MAC Pitcher of the Week honors.

But when asked what honor meant more to him — MAC Pitcher of the Week of MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week, Stade said both honors mean a lot to him.

“When I won the MAC Pitcher of the Week for the first time I was shocked,” he said. “And then when i won the MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week, it meant a lot,” he said. “I am working my butt off here — I have a 4.0 GPA in Exercise Science.”

Stade said that he still looks for improvement.

“I need to limit my one bad inning — it is one bad pitch that does the damage,” he said. “I need to face every batter as if he is the best batter in the conference. And I want to lower my ERA — I have given up too many runs.”

Despite his 14-strikeout performance against UMass, Stade feels that his best mound day came against Kent State when he came out of the bullpen.

“I went four innings and had 11 strikeouts and just one batter got on base,” he said.

Stade said that his first-ever DI start came against Ohio University.

“I had eight strikeouts in seven innings and no runs,” he said.

As far as playoffs go, Bowling Green is in seventh place right now.

“The top six teams make it into the playoffs,” Stade said.

Stade said that when summer baseball comes, he is hoping to come back and play again with the New Ulm Brewers but wants to take another step also.

“Hopefully I can get drafted or sign somewhere professionally,” he said.

Stade’s next scheduled start is this weekend against the University of Toledo.