Frank Hits Tanks: Freshman Kelch Leading Sandburg in Homers

BY ZACH AUSTIN
Carl Sandburg College
GALESBURG — Frank Kelch has been a powerful force for the Carl Sandburg College baseball team this season.

The brawny, 6 foot-3 freshman first baseman joined the team through a hometown connection. Chargers coach Josh Foreman is a graduate of Brimfield High School, the same school Kelch attended. Kelch also spent time playing with the KVL KHawks travel baseball program, which Foreman had been affiliated with.

"It made it easier because I wasn't scared at first," Kelch said. "It was less scary because I knew (Foreman) from the summer, so I knew what it was going to be like."

Kelch had a bit of a setback during his high school baseball career. He got injured while pitching and had to get Tommy John surgery, a reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow.

"It was like the same velocity as every other pitch, but it felt weird," Kelch said of the moment he got hurt. "Then the next pitch, I threw 50 miles an hour and it went like 45 feet. My coach came out and told me I heard something. I was like, 'Yeah, I felt something.' After the game my arm got stuck at a 90-degree angle for a week."

The injury may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise of sorts for Kelch as he was forced to only work on his hitting while rehabbing.

"That was all I had to focus on. It's like when you are playing sports in the summer compared to the school year," Kelch said. "When you're playing in a school year, you focus on classes, your own workout routine and then timing your homework around practices. But in the summer, all you have to do is just focus on playing."

Unable to throw because of his injury, concentrating on only one aspect of the game helped him better recognize pitches, understand the strike zone and focus on making more contact.

Kelch has had a great start for the Chargers. Through April 20, he leads the team with 10 home runs, including two multi-homer games. He is also third on the team in RBIs (26) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.056). With his arm healthy again, he's also made seven relief appearances for Sandburg, collecting one save and throwing as hard as 92 miles per hour.

Kelch's father, Joe, was quite the athlete as well. In college, he was the flyer for a cheerleading group called the Divine Nine, and he even bowled competitively in Canada. Despite his dad having a collection of bowling trophies, Kelch said he's never bowled with him to see how he stacks up.

"I don't really go bowling," Kelch said.

He is, however, quite the chef. Kelch's favorite meal to make is chicken chipotle pasta, and he described himself as "a big chicken guy." He routinely meal preps as he has found in college it's the most affordable way to eat.

Kelch has been a power hitter since he first started swinging a bat. The key to hitting home runs, he said, is "in the forearms" because that's how his dad taught him. Fittingly, Kelch said that another slugging first baseman, Rowdy Tellez of the Milwaukee Brewers, is his favorite baseball player. 

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