Tomas Valincius was destined to play baseball.
“It’s kind of a long story,” admitted Valincius. “When I was younger, like three or four, we played wiffle ball with our neighbors. There’s a story where my brother hits a home run, and my parents didn’t speak any English at the time, and the neighbor’s dad told my brother to go home: as in ‘go touch home plate.’ Instead, he ran inside crying because my brother thought the neighbor was yelling at him.
“Then my mom came out and she was super pissed, and started yelling at the neighbor’s dad, and it was like a whole argument. Since then, she got us baseball gloves, and we kept playing, so it really started with wiffle ball with our neighbors.”
Valincius recalls when he first started playing baseball, he played virtually everywhere.
“When you’re younger, you’re playing every position. It’s not like, I’m just going to be a pitcher, it’s kind of doing everything.”
Valincius’s coaches envisioned something different for his baseball future, because he’s always been on the bump.
He began playing with the Lithuanian National Team as a 12-year-old hurler and first baseman. Four years later, in 2022, Valincius was named the national team’s MVP during the 2022 European Baseball Championship qualifiers.
Last July, he was back in Poland leading the Lithuania team to a 10-9 victory over Poland in the a qualifier in Kutno.
“The skill compared to here is a lot different, but their love of the game and how much they really want to win and get better at baseball is inspiring to see,” Valincius said, admirably. “They don’t take anything for granted. They don’t have the equipment we have; they don’t have cool uniforms or the cool cleats. Everything is worn out. They don’t care about it. They have what’s required to play the game, and that’s what they love about it.”
The heart for the game that the Lithuanians possess had an immense impact on Valincius. His family began a foundation called Good Buddies that donates baseball equipment to Lithuanian youth.
“We did a fundraiser in my hometown, all over Illinois, people we knew, coaches, and we got a lot of stuff that we were able to donate,” Valincius said.
Valincius entered the Baylor School in Chattanooga for the 2021-2022 season. Over his three-year career, he went 14-1 with a 0.97 ERA. He posted 86.1 innings pitched with 139 strikeouts and 29 career base-on-balls.
At Baylor, he met a senior from New York named Henry Godbout, spending one year with him before Godbout moved on to collegiate baseball, selecting to play with Brian O’Connor and the University of Virginia.
“Me and Henry Ford came in at the same time, so we were both new to Baylor and we spent two years together.”
With Valincius’s decision to play his college baseball at UVA, the Henries and Tomas were reunited, and Ford and Godbout kept a watchful eye on the rookie.
“They taught me a lot coming in already because I’d stayed in touch with them.”
Valincius came into UVA with a lot of hardware – he was the 2023 and 2024 Division II-AA Mr. Baseball and 2024 Gatorade Tennessee Baseball Player of the Year.
But the first-year, from my conversation, seemed to have a solid footing on not letting the moment get too big.
“A lot of college players come out of high school, and they’ve won a bunch of stuff. But when you get to college, you have to completely take that out of your mind, completely leave it in the past, because it’s absolutely no good for you to think like you’ve done anything because it’s high school,” Valincius cautioned.
“College is a whole different ballgame. I came in here with a fresh mind, ready to work.”
The southpaw hurler observed the importance of not putting too much pressure on yourself and overdoing it.
“I kind of did that in the beginning of the fall and I learned from it,” he added. “It didn’t do anything except make me worse, so I started thinking, have fun more, on the field, off the field and do whatever I could to stay relaxed, and it led to the best success I could have.”
His initial campaign may not have been everything Valincius had hoped for, but he has made an early mark. Currently, he has a record of 3-1, and the Cavaliers have won six of his nine starts. Asked why he believes his club has won 67 percent of the games he’s started, he calls it a matter of trust.
“It comes down to the level of trust between your teammates,” Valincius says. “I really don’t have an answer for why we won six out of the nine when I’ve pitched. In the fall, it’s all about building your team’s comradery and getting close with each other. I feel like if your team trusts you as a pitcher, I have the trust in them that they’re going to do well. It takes a lot of pressure off each other if you trust each other and are able to go play the game of baseball and just play freely.”
Kind of like those Lithuanian youth.
“Their hearts are just fully involved with baseball. It’s truly inspiring to see because a lot of people take it for granted here.”
What’s been the impact for Valincius on his baseball career watching those that have so little have so much great love for the game?
“Don’t take things for granted. Be in the moment of what I’m doing every day,” Tomas concluded.
Share
