Sophomore Seawolf, Blake Janowicz, gives us a peek into his life and daily routine as he balances the responsibilities of being a college student-athlete.

Janowicz starts his day around 8:30 a.m. with a routine of resistance band exercises to stretch his shoulder, important upkeep for a pitcher. He will then have a regular breakfast of six fried eggs and read a section of the book, “The Traveler’s Gift”, on game days. On Sunday game days, he often treats himself to a breakfast burrito from El Rancho at the Wolf Den Plaza.

After his morning routine, Blake finds time to work on his engineering homework before making his lunch or grabbing a #17 turkey club at his favorite local sandwich shop, Sonoma Sourdough. After lunch, Janowicz and his roommate and teammate, Sean Pauly, will play MLB the Show on Xbox before packing their backpacks and heading to practice.

Before baseball practice, Janowicz and the rest of the team have strength training with Anthony Ponzo, SSU’s strength and conditioning coach from noon to 1:00 p.m. Normal practice with the team starts 15 minutes later and begins with “Run, Catch, Stretch”, before the pitchers split off to do more arm warm-ups. The pitchers will play some catch to warm up and hone their technique by throwing a light bullpen to simulate pitches from the mound in a game. The pitchers will also help field “PFPs”, or pitching fielding practice, and shag balls for the team’s batting practice.

After practice ends, Janowicz has to run to his senior electrical engineering classes which begins at 2:30 p.m. and ends at 6:45 p.m. Janowicz said, “I’ve always had to find a balance between school, baseball, and social life the past 4 years, so with a lot of experience it has become easier to handle workloads and time management.”

He continued, “Usually at the start of every week, I’ll create a schedule of assignments I need to complete on certain days so I have time to practice and pace myself with rest after.”

After class, Janowicz will make himself dinner, usually consisting of his Costco favorites, lasagna, or a rotisserie chicken. After dinner, Janowicz works on more homework and attends to the needs of the Electrical Engineering club as their treasurer during his free time.

Janowicz’s faith is very important to him, as he is a member of the InterVarsity club on campus, which helps connect students and athletes to their faith. Blake leads the baseball team’s bible study through this club, as well as Amari Houston with the softball team. He also regularly attends Hessel Church in Sebastopol, a non-denominational Christian church that has been in Sonoma County for over 113 years.

Before games, Janowicz leads a prayer group on the team which will huddle up during the pregame to say a short prayer. Then the pitchers will circle up to stretch and the last pitcher to throw in the previous game will come up with a word of the day and use it in a sentence. The pitchers will also play hackysack to keep their reflexes sharp.

Janowicz and the Seawolves traveled to Cal State San Bernardino this past weekend for a four-game series against the Coyotes. The Seawolves lost their first two games on Friday and Saturday but stole the third, winning 5-2. The Seawolves were unable to keep their momentum on Sunday and fell to the Coyotes, 13-3. SSU will have a six-game homestand this week before traveling to face Cal State Los Angeles on April 14.