When Tom Cruder surveyed the WW-P High School North baseball players about their preferred positions, the new Knights head coach appreciated Jahan Kulkarni’s response.
“His answer was, ‘Wherever you need me, Coach,’” said Cruder of the senior’s reply.
Kulkarni wasn’t just being a good soldier or trying needlessly to impress Cruder.
Over the previous three seasons as a varsity starter, he has played every position except catcher and center field for the Knights.
“I just play wherever they need me to play and I think I can just play well and help the team as best as I can anywhere,” said Kulkarni. “As long as I’m on the baseball field, I don’t really care where.”
Kulkarni has been starting since he was a freshman, and he continues to develop even as he plays his final high school season. His example has been valuable to a WW-P North team that has a mix of youth and experience.
“He’s learning to play multiple positions and he’s just a competitive kid by nature,” Cruder said. “So even if it’s not his best, best position, he’s just going to start grinding and getting better at it. And that’s what happened so far at shortstop. He’s had to play some shortstop for us. There’s been a couple bumps and bruises but he shows up the next day. He’s out there doing his daily work, always turning the page an always trying to find a way to get better wherever I end up throwing him.”
Where WW-P North has found him most valuable in the early going is on the mound. Kulkarni was entrusted to pitch against a good Notre Dame team. In six innings, he allowed only one earned run and struck out six before the Knights lost, 2-1.
“He’s brought his right arm which is like gold,” Cruder said. “That’s my initial impression – when he’s on the mound, we always have a chance to win. I’d like to say we have a good chance to win.”
Kulkarni proved that in his next outing. It came in relief and in a familiar spot, though he tried not to think much about it. Kulkarni was a sophomore when he came on in relief to take a one-run loss in extra innings against rival West Windsor-Plainsboro South at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. Kulkarni found himself again coming on in relief against the rival Pirates at Trenton Thunder Ballpark in mid-April, and this time he went 3-2/3 innings, allowed just three hits and one run as WW-P North pulled out an 8-7 comeback win.
“To come in this game as a reliever again and pull it out, the win was huge for me and for us as team,” he said. “I tried not to think about it too much and play as a clean slate, but I definitely had a chip on my shoulder going into it.”
The win was part of a promising start for the team. Although the Knights dropped three of their first five games, the one to Notre Dame came by only one run. And the early losses were offset by an 8-7 win over Allentown and beating their rivals, whom they will see again May 2.
“It’s the same kids we’ve grown up playing Little League with, and then they split us in half,” Kulkarni said. “So it’s our friends, but it’s also like we want to beat them more than anyone else and beating them definitely gives us a lot of momentum as a team. No matter whether they’re good this year or not, it’s always a 50-50 game so winning always gives us a lot of momentum.”
Kulkarni performed well under pressure in the comeback. Errors enabled WW-P South to jump out to a four-run lead before the Knights settled down.
“I think it was a lesson learned for our kids that they were absolutely amped up,” Cruder said. “They viewed it as a big game, as they should. But my approach is to view every game as a big game so we don’t have those really, really high highs or really low lows. I think what it taught us is that we have to find a way to bring consistent energy and intensity each game, regardless of opponent.”
The Knights were behind, 6-2, when Kulkarni entered the game in the fourth inning. While he kept the Pirates at bay, WW-P North mounted its comeback with a five-run fourth inning to make it a tight game again. The Knights earned the walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh inning when Will Carter hit a sacrifice fly that scored Casey Daigneault for their most emotional win of the early weeks of the season.
“We’ve had a pretty strong start,” Kulkarni said. “We got two pretty big wins but I think we definitely could have had some more wins. But I think we have a pretty solid team and we started off pretty strong. We’re going to keep going.”
Kulkarni is one of four seniors on the team along with Adithya Ravisankar, Jeter Sylvestre and Anthony Vilardi. They have set the tone for a team that is hoping to improve on last year’s six-win season. Kulkarni is looking to go out with a year to remember.
“He’s got a lot of experience, he’s a leader,” Cruder said. “He does things the right way. He’s accountable. Even if it’s not going his way, he’ll admit to a mental mistake that he may have made, or he holds himself accountable, which helps everybody else also hold themselves accountable when they see him doing it. He does it, along with our other seniors. We’ve got a group of seniors who take responsibility, not just for themselves, but for the team. Jahan’s no exception. He’s a leader in the classroom. He’s a leader on the field. And he’s got an arm that gives us a chance to beat anybody on any night.”
Kulkarni has become a more polished pitcher each season. He had a 6.55 ERA as a sophomore in 25-plus innings. Those numbers improved dramatically last year when he had a 3.71 ERA over 28.1 innings while striking out more than double the year prior. This year, he can boast of a 1.45 ERA though almost 10 full innings on the mound.
“This year, I’m doing a better job of knowing when to pitch strikes and when to throw it off the plate outside or miss competitively,” Kulkarni said. “I think it’s a lot more mental than just trying to throw it as hard as I can or have the best breaking ball. There’s a lot of mind games in it as well.”
Kulkarni also feels like he has better stuff to go to. He’s made a concerted effort to throw harder in general. His velocity is up the last two years. He’s also developed his off-speed arsenal. He’s gotten away from throwing a curveball in favor of a slider, and now uses a third pitch that has given batters more to worry about when he’s throwing well.
“I’ve been focusing a lot on my off-speed pitches,” he said. “Most pitchers I feel like have a 1/2, like a fastball/breaking ball. But I think my change-up is also, if maybe not the best, the second most effective pitch just throwing off hitters’ timing. And then I also have a slider which I throw. But I think the change-up, even if I don’t throw it as much, is definitely very effective because just having three pitches as opposed to two makes a big difference.
“I’ve been working on that – so multiple pitches’ accuracy as well as velocity, just the full package, over the years. I think it’s very important to work on all of it.”
Kulkarni has also worked hard to contribute at the plate. He’s mostly been leading off for the Knights in the early going, though his average was off to a slower start than he would like. After hitting .392 a year ago, he was batting .273 through his first five games.
“I think I swung well last year,” he said. “I think I can get back up there. I had a little bit of a slow start, but the goal is to hit better than last year. My personal goal is to hit .500. My average isn’t that high right now, but I’ve had a lot of walks so my on-base is pretty high, which helps with it as much as getting a single. My batting average is definitely something I’m trying to get up, but also I just do whatever I can to help the team win. Wins are a lot more important.”
Kulkarni is doing all that he can to make the most of this year, especially since his baseball future isn’t quite certain. He will be attending Cornell University next year.
“I’m thinking about trying out to walk on or playing club baseball,” Kulkarni said. “As of right now, I’m still not sure what I’m doing.”
Kulkarni is more sure of what he’ll be studying while in Ithaca, N.Y. He’ll be an operations research and information engineering major at Cornell.
“It’s like data science and optimization an engineering and coding,” he said. “I’m a big math guy, so it’s a lot of math and coding. All my friends say I’m a nerd, but I’ve loved math since I was a kid. I loved math as a kid, like puzzles and problem solving, so math and physics and coding, I have a passion for and I’d say I’m pretty good at it. So operations research is kind of a combination of all three of those things so I thought it was the best fit for me.”
Jahan Kulkarni has been a good fit for the Knights, regardless of where they put him. He has always had a lead role for WW-P North as an important hitter, pitcher and fielder. His experience is a big plus on a team that has shown potential.
“I think it’s my job to give the younger kids direction,” Kulkarni said. “We have a new coach, so for everyone it’s like we still have to prove ourselves because no one really has that advantage of knowing the coach longer than anyone else. So as a senior, even though I’ve been playing for four years, I’m still trying to prove myself every day and be better as an example for the younger kids.”
Senior Jahan Kulkarni on the mound during a recent High School North baseball game.,
