When head coach Joe “The Emcee” Drulis nominated Ryan Mignogna as the Notre Dame High baseball team’s participant in the Mr. Notre Dame talent competition, he had no idea of the chaos he unleashed.
Mignogna, soccer player James Watson and lacrosse player Joe Meidling had to perform a song and dance competition that was, well…
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the video, but if not, stay away from it,” Mignogna said. “We had to do a synchronized dance. They let us know a week in advance, we didn’t have much time because we had practice and games. I think we had one day to get ready.”
And?
“It was,” Mignogna said, “hilarious.”
Fortunately, the Ewing resident did need stage presence to reach college. His true talent is baseball, which has landed him with Pennsylvania’s Arcadia University next fall.
Playing college baseball “has always been a dream” for Mignogna; but the path has not been easy. The senior has finally gotten to show all he can do on the diamond this season, and has made the most of his opportunity.
As Notre Dame entered its May 23 game with Ewing at 15-3, Mignogna was hitting .370 with four doubles, two home runs, 22 RBI and 13 runs scored. After two seasons of not pitching due to various circumstances, he has come back this spring to go 5-1 with a 1.62 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 26 innings.
“He’s been solid on the mound, and he’s solid at third base and as our number four hitter,” Drulis said. “
Just the fact he is throwing again is a blessing for Mignogna, who played for the Ewing Little League All-Stars before moving on to travel ball and playing for Chris Wargo in the Hamilton A’s program. Wargo is the father of ND second baseman Jackson Wargo.
As the son of a Ewing High soccer legend, the former Judy Kalafut – who graduated in 1987 as the school’s all-time goal scorer with 118 and was an All-American her senior year – Mignogna obviously played soccer as a youth along with baseball.
He began on the pitch at age four and played for West End for five years. With those Kalafut genes going to work, he showed strong ability and played for the 10-year-old team at age 8.
“I was pretty decent, and then baseball was conflicting with soccer so I had to make a choice,” Mignogna said. “I made the decision to play baseball. She wasn’t too happy but she got over it.”
Judy Mignogna, who also starred at Rutgers, chuckles recalling those days.
“I have to tell you, I thought they were gonna love it,” said the Mercer County Soccer Hall of Fame member of her sons. “Obviously you can’t make your kids love anything, and they’d have to love it. I said ‘Ryan, in this day and age it’s not like when I played, where you could do softball and play three sports in high school. You can’t do that now. There’s too much going on.’
“Chris was such an awesome coach, Ryan stayed with him throughout his travel career. ‘I said ‘Ryan, this is the right move for you. Just stay with baseball.’ His eyes lit up when I said that.
“A slight tear came to my eye,” she added with a chuckle “But you only want your kids to be happy.”
Armed with his parents’ support, Mignogna was confident and happy focusing on baseball.
He played on the ND freshman team in ninth grade and felt it was a good experience. He was called up to varsity for a few scrimmages and was exposed to some strong players who went 24-2 that year.
And then came Covid.
“We were looking forward to him as a sophomore helping on varsity right away, but of course we lost the whole season,” Drulis said. “But he did pretty well in that Last Dance Tournament for us both hitting and pitching pretty well. So he got a little experience there.”
Nonetheless, it was quite a blow to Mignogna, who was excited about playing on the big team.
“I remember tryouts were good,” Ryan said. “But right near the end of tryouts we got shut down. We thought we’d be out for two weeks and then ‘Boom!’ The school year is over just like that. It was extremely frustrating because at that moment I didn’t realize how much it was gonna impact me going forward. It affected recruiting, things like that. You just couldn’t do anything. You just had to let it happen.”
What happened next was even more frustrating, as Mignogna suffered a partial tear in his labrum and could not pitch his junior season. The injury provided concern about getting into college and Ryan went to work to get better. He attended physical therapy three to four times each week to get the arm back in shape.
He could still swing the bat, however, and hit 308 with four doubles, a homer and 13 RBI.
“In the off-season I practiced a lot,” Mignogna said. “I wasn’t able to throw, so I tried to master hitting the best I can and I focused a lot at the plate. One of my flaws is I tend to pull the ball a lot, so I’ve been working on letting the ball travel and shooting up the middle and trying to go away.”
As a pitcher, he also knows the best way to attack a hurler.
“You have to hit their mistakes,” he said. “If the pitchers get behind, I know they’re gonna throw me a fastball. Lately they’ve been living on the outside part of the plate because they know I try to pull, and that’s what happens. So I’ve worked on hitting the ball to left, hitting the ball up the middle and hitting my pitch.”
As for pitching, Mignogna tried throwing this past year, but it wasn’t working out. He started last summer and felt good on the mound, but that evening the shoulder began to ache so he shut himself down and just played first base and designated hitter in summer ball.
“In February I started to ramp up throwing again,” he said. “I took off from throwing all the way from July to February. I never took a break like that before, where I didn’t throw for months on end. So I started throwing in February again and to be honest, I feel amazing.”
The tear is still there but the physical therapy and weight training has made it a non-issue for now. Although the injury came at a bad time — “The worst possible time,” according to Mignogna, who was still seeking a college when it occurred – the fact he was able to hit made a difference.
Ryan attended several college baseball camps, including Arcadia’s in October. It wasn’t even on his list of schools he wanted to attend, but Mignogna wanted to try the camp.
“I was pretty much open to any school,” he said. “At Arcadia, we did a little BP (batting practice) and a little fielding. I had one of the best BP rounds I ever hit. The next day they texted me and that was it. I thought that was cool.”
Although being recruited as an infielder, Mignogna might mention his pitching abilities when he gets to Arcadia.
He seems to have recovered by the way he has thrown this year.
“There was concern about his arm when he came back,” Drulis said. “We kind of approached it as he could start and then have a whole week off to recover. In the past he’s been a reliever. So his recovery would be a lot more difficult. So he’s really grabbed the role of being a starter.
“He’s gotten better and better as time has gone on. He’s got a good fastball, curve and change-up. He mixes them up well and keeps the batters off line trying to guess what’s coming.”
Mignogna praised Drulis and pitching coaches Bob Reilly and Charlie Battis for instilling confidence in him upon his return.
“I hadn’t pitched in a year and they threw me out there to start the first game of the year,” Mignogna said. “That was nothing but a confidence booster. Confidence is one of the biggest things when you’re pitching. If you’re not confident in your stuff and you don’t trust your stuff you’re not gonna be successful.
“It’s good to know that people believe in you. They believe in me and they give me the confidence and it makes me feel good on the mound that I know they’re behind me.”
The hurler feels his mechanics “have been spot on” as he works to draw his arm back, then come through and finish.
“I think it’s a tribute to not throwing so long,” Mignogna said of his success. “I think I have a couple more miles an hour on my fastball. I’m throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes and first-pitch strikes are key. My curveball has been working. I really studied and practiced my curveball and the movement. I can throw it from a couple different angles. It really helps to throw the hitters off balance.”
And while he looks at his injury as a silver lining when it comes to pitching this year, it is still something he’d rather not have experienced.
“The doubts I had and the days I went through, I don’t ever want to go back to that time,” he said. “But no matter how sad or frustrated or angry I was, I still pushed to make sure I would be able to throw again and play the game again. It was just a rough time.”
But he has emerged a better player because of it. All he has left to do is delete the Mr. ND video that’s floating around and his success will be complete.
Ryan Mignogna of Ewing pitches for Notre Dame during a win against Lawrence on May 3, 2022.,
