Slack excelling in baseball and football at Southwestern University

Ever since he was a kid growing up in Liberty, J.J. Slack has always stayed busy in sports. That carried over into high school as a Panther as Slack excelled in football, baseball, and basketball, so it’s to nobody’s surprise that Slack has been a two-sport star at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX.

The senior-to-be has played football and baseball during his first three years as a Pirate.

In his final year at Southwestern, Slack will only play baseball so he can focus on just one sport.

“I will still have two years of eligibility after I graduate in the spring, so I want to be in a Grad Program at a Division I college and continue my baseball career,” said Slack.

Slack was the ASC Special Teams Player of the Week on the football field in the 2021 season during week 2. Slack missed half of this past season with an injury. J.J. was a special teams standout and played safety on defense.

He also played some offense for the Pirates football team.

Now it’s all about pitching for Slack, and that’s it.

This summer, he is playing in the Texas Collegiate Baseball League for the Victoria Generals.

The league started the last week in May and will end in August. Slack has pitched about 15 innings this summer.

This past season at Southwestern, Slack pitched 15 innings over 12 games in relief.

He finished with 25 strikeouts, and against Dallas University, the southpaw pitched two innings and struck out every hitter he faced.

One of J.J.’s best college games was during his sophomore year when he came in relief during the second inning against Texas Lutheran University after his team fell behind 6-0 and he went on to finish the game on the mound.

“I did a back flip during the game as I was coming off the mound in the fifth inning,” added Slack. “There was a lot of trash talking during the game, so it was just an adrenaline thing.”

Slack has been both a starter and reliever in college. He said the preparation process is entirely different for both.

“When you’re a reliever, you never know when your number is going to be called. Just when you don’t think you’re going in, you do,” said Slack.

Slack hopes to grab one of the three starter positions this year.

“When I know I am going to start; I will throw three days before and about 30 pitches and then throw about 10 pitches the day before my start to make sure everything is feeling right.”

His best pitch is his fastball which he says rises as it gets to the plate.

“I throw it anywhere from 88-92 mph, which I topped out at 94 this past season. My second-best pitch is my cutter,” said the Kinesiology major.

I have watched J.J. growing up, and I can tell you I thoroughly enjoyed this interview as I have been close to his parents, Joe and Karen Slack, for all my years at The Vindicator.