Justin Faykosh has had a lot on his mind over the past year.

Not only has the Eastwood senior had to concentrate on school work, but he's played football, basketball and baseball for the Eagles. His father, Jeff, has also been treated for cancer, called squamous-cell carcinoma.

“He's in remission now,” Faykosh said. “He's been to all of my games except a couple, when they went to Florida over spring break. I stayed here and played baseball. I just kind of wanted to play and have fun. I was playing for him. I was glad he was at the games. He's been my coach since I was 7, 8 years old.”

Faykosh, 18, a senior right-hander, is a big reason Eastwood (8-17) advanced to Thursday's Division II regional semifinals against Oak Harbor at Tiffin University. Last Saturday, Faykosh pitched a complete-game nine-hitter in the Eagles' 2-0 victory over Lima Bath in the district finals.

Justin Faykosh

Jeff Faykosh, 50, a 1979 Eastwood graduate, was there to see his son pitch. He has been cancer-free for nearly eight months.

“It was in my lymph nodes in my neck,” he said. “I woke up last May and went to shave and I saw a big lump on my neck. At first I thought it was a cyst. A couple weeks later they had me in and told me what it was. They were going to have it removed. A day before surgery, I knew something was up. I got a feeding tube put in last July and started treatment in July, a combination of chemo and radiation.”

Jeff, who went from 205 pounds down to 155 during his treatment, said watching his sons play sports helped him through it. Justin, an All-Suburban Lakes League defensive back last fall, also played basketball for the Eagles along with his brother Jacob, a junior.

“Justin had a good senior year,” Jeff said. “That gave me something to look forward to on Fridays. The other parts of the week, I was out of it. I had a great winter watching those two boys. It just gives you something positive to look forward to.”

Justin has had a frustrating season in baseball. The Eagles, who play one of the tougher D-II schedules in northwest Ohio, field a young team that has had more than its share of close losses. Among those losses are shutouts against Northview, Maumee and Perrysburg, which is ranked No. 5 in the state in D-I.

Faykosh went all seven innings but took a 2-0 loss against Perrysburg.

“I threw pretty well,” he said. “It was a cold day. I wasn't really intimidated. I played for Perrysburg on a fall team

a couple years ago, so I knew a couple kids.”

Faykosh was the pitcher of record in the loss to Maumee, which got a no-hitter from star Matt Goatley.

“I started off well,” Faykosh said. “A couple guys hit me pretty well.”

Faykosh (4-4, 2.19 ERA), who also took the loss in a 2-0 setback against Northview, refused to criticize his teammates for a lack of run support. The Eagles are hitting just .201 as a team this season.

“I wasn't really hitting, either,” Faykosh said.

Eastwood coach David Barkholz said he felt he needed a sit-down with Faykosh when he noticed Faykosh was beating himself up for not contributing at the plate. Faykosh batted .306 last season but is hitting just .180 this year.

“Justin's been the epitome of what we are, which is don't give up and just keep playing,” Barkholz said. “Justin and I at one point had a chat because he was so upset. He was just frustrated and wanted to know what the problem was. He's a very highly emotional young man. He plays hard, and you take the good with the bad in baseball. We started to put some perspective on playing in high school, how your window is not a very big one.

“I think because he's hit so poorly he wants to give something back to the team, so when he's out on the mound he pitches his heart out. As Justin's calmed down, I think all our other kids have calmed down and gotten more comfortable as a group. We are literally trying to play one pitch at a time.”

Faykosh said, “At the beginning of the season I wasn't seeing the ball real well. I started seeing the ball better, but I was hitting it right at people. It's been pretty frustrating. I was pressing. I try to keep us in the game on the mound. I just go out there and throw my heart out.”

Faykosh added that Eastwood's run through the sectional and district tournaments has “been kind of cool.”

“It's been pretty exciting,” he said. “I didn't expect to get this far, but I knew we had a run in us with our pitching and the way we play defense. It's kind of a letdown a little bit with all the losses, but if we made the regionals, that's fine.”

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed