The first thing Cameron Nohos wanted to talk about was the Iowa game.
Nohos, a 2021 Andrean graduate, was a freshman for Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, when the Division III Duhawks traveled southwest to Iowa City to play the Hawkeyes on March 1.
“It was the definition of a David versus Goliath story,” he said.
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The story of that day is just one of many Nohos hopes to collect over the course of a baseball career that remains in its early stages as he embarks on a summer with the Northwest Indiana Oilmen.
Nohos said the differences between Loras and Iowa, which finished in third place in the Big Ten, were obvious as soon as the Duhawks stepped off the bus.
“We showed up, and it’s like we were a bunch of little kids facing these grown men,” Nohos said.
But those “little kids” scored twice in the third inning and hung on for a 3-1 upset win, sending Loras’ entire team into a frenzy.
“We all sprinted onto the field, yelling and screaming,” Nohos said. “It was, by far, the coolest experience I’ve had in baseball.”
Nohos was a spectator for that game, as he was for the rest of Loras’ season. But the 6-foot-8 right-hander picked up valuable lessons while watching that win against Iowa in particular.
“Our starter was throwing 81 to 83 (mph) that game,” he said. “Watching him mix up his pitches — the five he can throw when he wants — really showed off his pitching ability.”
Seeing that helped Nohos formulate his summer goal.
“I really want to develop my secondary pitches,” he said. “All through high school, I’d throw my fastball and then, depending on the day, either my change-up or curveball. I want to have confidence, going forward, in all of my off-speed stuff.”
As summer approached, Nohos knew Whiting’s Oil City Stadium — the Oilmen’s home field — would be the place for him because he’d spent so much time there as a kid.
“I’d come to two or three games here every year,” he said. “I was young, so I remembered watching them and thinking that those were the best baseball players I’d ever seen.”
Nohos always traveled to those games with his father, Jim, who has coached for a long list of high schools and summer teams across Northwest Indiana.
Jim Nohos’ career includes time as the coach at Hanover Central, where he hired Adam Enright as an assistant in 2008. Enright is in the first year of his second stint as the Oilmen’s manager.
Enright recalled his first interactions with Cameron Nohos more than a decade ago.
“He’s a very different kid than the 8-year-old I used to give lessons to,” Enright said.
The biggest difference is the most obvious one: Nohos’ height. Loras lists him as 6-5, but he grew 3 inches during his freshman year.
That part of Nohos’ steady upward trajectory will require time for adjustment, Enright said.
“You can tell that he’s still growing into his body and figuring out how to move the levers he has because they’re so enormous,” Enright said. “He can compete with the tools he has. It’s just a matter of letting him develop some feel for hitters and throwing more pitches for strikes.”
Nohos agreed that he needs to cut down on walks, identifying that as another priority this summer. He walked four batters in each of his first two outings for the Oilmen. But during a two-inning appearance in a 6-5 win over the Lake County Corn Dogs on Saturday, Nohos walked just one.
Sharpening that part of his game would be one of the biggest steps Nohos could take to advance his career.
“Obviously, I’d love to get drafted,” he said. “It really depends on what I want to do and how hard I decide to work. I feel like if I keep working hard and giving it everything I have, it’s not a far-fetched dream.”
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Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.