Former Hawkeye pitcher Jack Dreyer gets his shot at pro ball

CEDAR RAPIDS — It’s been a long haul, a winding path, but it’s been worth it for Jack Dreyer.

The southpaw pitcher and former Iowa Hawkeye was at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Tuesday night with his Great Lakes Loons to play Game 2 of the Midwest League Championship Series against the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

The Kernels won Sunday afternoon’s Game 1 in Michigan and were seeking to win the city’s first Midwest League title since 1994. The game ended up being suspended by rain as the bottom of the fifth inning was about to commence, with Great Lakes leading, 1-0.

The game will be picked back up at 5:30 Wednesday night and played to completion. If Great Lakes wins, a winner-take-all, seven-inning game would follow.

Dreyer got the save for Great Lakes in its clinching Game 3 win over Fort Wayne in the Eastern Division championship series this past weekend. He’s had a good first full season of professional baseball.

“This is the most innings I’ve thrown since high school,” Dreyer said. “Really good opportunity to show myself and others that I can stay healthy for the whole season. Obviously some good outings, some not-so-good outings. But overall I’m really pleased with it, and I’m looking to improve on it in the future.”

Dreyer, 24, is a Johnston High School graduate who pitched in 2018 and 2019 for Iowa. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 season, then Dreyer injured his elbow and had to have Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery in 2021.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers still liked him enough to offer him a free-agent contract in August that year, even though he was in the middle of rehab. He took it and turned pro.

“That’s all you need, a chance,” Dreyer said. “Obviously when the draft comes around, you have the first-rounders and you’ve got free agents. But the Dodgers do a really good job of treating everyone the exact same. So once you’re in the clubhouse, it doesn’t matter who you are. You’re just expected to go out and do the job to the best of your ability. I’m lucky enough to have a chance to do that.”

Dreyer said he came back from surgery and rehab throwing harder then he ever has, topping out at 96 miles per hour with his fastball. He threw in 12 games last season with the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League Dodgers and was bumped up two levels to high-A for the start of this season.

Dreyer went 5-0 with a 2.30 earned run average in 42 relief outings in the regular season for the Loons. He gave up just 32 hits in 54 2/3 innings and struck out 79.

The walks were a bit high (38), but that’s kind of picking some nits when you look at the full picture. Great Lakes had a good regular season, finishing 76-55 overall, losing the first game against Fort Wayne but winning the last two.

Cedar Rapids scored five runs in the ninth inning of Game 1 to win 10-6. Great Lakes needs to repeat what it just did, and Dreyer says it has the ability (and motivation) to do so.

“Obviously the goal for every minor leaguer is to get to the big leagues,” he said. “But after that, it’s a team game, and you want to do everything you can to help the team win. When we lost the first one to Fort Wayne, we came together and said ‘Hey, this is about what we can do (individually) to help this team win.’ Everyone is tired, everyone has played 132 (games). It just came down to playing for each other, and that worked out well.”

Dreyer said he’ll head home after this series concludes for a little bit, then will head to Arizona, where the Dodgers complex is open year around.

“I think it’s the best opportunity for me to grow,” he said.

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