Sophomore right-handed baseball pitcher Josh Katz calls the game one of “constant failure” — but his continued resilience has led to an impressive record of striking his opponents out.
Katz, who went to high school in Chicago, grew up playing baseball in his early childhood. His early memories of the sport include winning the city championship at Wrigley Field — home of the Major League Baseball team the Chicago Cubs — and playing travel baseball, which allowed him to compete in more nationally recognized tournaments.
“When I realized that I could play is when I think I started to want to play,” Katz said when asked if he always wanted to continue the sport into college. “But obviously there was always the desire there throughout my career to just get to the best point I can be.”’
Penn was the first official offer Katz got, and while others rolled in, a combination of Penn’s baseball record and great academics made the choice a no-brainer for him.
Over a dozen years on the diamond have imbued Katz with a range of experiences in the sport, but he came down to one main message with regard to the challenges baseball presents.
“Baseball is just a game of constant failure, both as a pitcher and a hitter,” he said. “I don't know how much people totally understand that, but in the course of a college career, a high school career, a long baseball career, you're gonna have moments where you fail.”
He emphasized the importance of mindset in responding to that failure.
“You just continue to put in the hard work, do what you do, put yourself in the best position to succeed and things will work out for you hopefully,” he said. “Continuing to have a positive attitude about the game is very helpful when you're going through those tough times because they just happen to everyone.”
Someone Katz attributes with assisting him in maintaining a positive mindset is his father, an early coach of his.
Head baseball coach John Yurkow emphasized Katz’s outlook as well, calling him an “unbelievable teammate.”
“I think that's one of the best compliments someone can give you,” Yurkow said. “I think Josh is gonna be a captain for us in the future, I really do. He’s got those types of qualities where guys kind of gravitate towards him.”
One of those qualities: resilience.
“Things are gonna go wrong for you at some point,” Yurkow added. “And when you've hit adversity, it's really how you're gonna handle it.”
Katz had a standout freshman year, pitching in 12 games and starting in seven. Overall, he struck out 40 batters. He earned the win in his first career start against Abilene Christian with four shutout innings and five strikeouts. In the 2024 Ivy League tournament, Katz threw 2.1 scoreless innings against Princeton.
Yurkow also emphasized Katz’s freshman year performance, especially because he was “asked to do a lot.”
“He learned on the field,” Yurkow added. “He didn't really have a lot of time to sit and wait and watch that some freshmen may have.”
Looking forward, though, Katz has winning on the mind.
“Where our head's at right now is just playing the best baseball every game,” he said. “Every game's really important right now, so continuing to do that, and then finding ourselves in the Ivy League tournament.”
The Red and Blue punched its ticket to the Ivy League tournament for the third consecutive year on Sunday.
Looking past college, Yurkow believes there’s “definitely a potential” that Katz could pitch professionally.
“He has that kind of ability — if he keeps continuing to kind of hone in on some of his weaknesses,” he said. “I do really feel strongly about him having an opportunity to play professionally. He's just a really good person and I think he really embodies the type of student-athlete that we want in our program.”
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