Kevin Marnon stats
Record - 4-3
Starts - 10 (1st MAC)
ERA - 3.59
Innings Pitched - 52.2
Strikeouts - 35
Walks - 18
While in Wilson, he received an email from the Akron athletic department.
The baseball program was shutting down.
“Honestly, it didn’t really hit me until I got [to Ball State],” Marnon said. “I was going to class, and I wasn’t seeing my teammates from Akron. It just seemed very surreal.”
He said he didn’t have to wait long for a call from Ball State head coach Rich Maloney.
“Coach Maloney called me within a couple of hours of the team being disbanded,” Marnon said. "Within a couple of days, I was on a flight out here for a visit.”
It wasn’t Marnon’s first time transferring – he spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at East Tennessee State University.
Marnon left Akron without ever appearing on the mound for the Zips. NCAA transfer rules forced him to sit out the 2015 season, but he was eligible to play immediately at Ball State because his previous program no longer existed.
Instead of playing, said former Akron head coach Rick Rembielak, Marnon would “start” in the Zips’ practices on Thursdays so the lineup would be ready for their weekend series.
Rembielak is no longer a member of the collegiate coaching ranks. Instead, he is an assistant athletic director and baseball coach at Perry High School in Ohio. Still, he said he keeps track of his former players whenever he gets the chance.
“There’s always that time. You jump on the computer and you just start looking up the guys and see how everyone’s doing,” Rembielak said. “I think I saw [Marnon] when he was down at LSU and he was pitching against our number one pitcher at the time, our Friday Night guy, Johnny Valek.”
Marnon won his start against Louisiana State, which is ranked seventh in the country in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. He struck out three in 5.2 innings and allowed just one run.
On the season, Marnon is 4-3 in 10 starts with a 3.59 ERA. Maloney said Marnon has stepped up since his first opportunity to shine.
“He’s been in everyone else’s shadow,” Maloney said. “And then he comes to another program, and right from the get-go he showed us what he could do. We were all so happy because we struggled on the mound last year.”
Ball State has also played against seven of Marnon’s former teammates – Valek at LSU, Dayton pitchers Zach Beaver and Masashi Sakamoto, Kent State infielder Dom Iero and outfielder Mason Mamarella, Utah pitcher Josh Lapiana and Valparaiso pitcher Alex Dirienzo.
Marnon said he keeps in touch with his former teammates and also fits in well with the Cardinals.
“I was really close with a lot of those guys,” he said. “But coming [to Ball State], it was a very easy transition. They all accepted me with open arms and it’s a great group of guys here.”
Maloney said the 6-foot, 7-inch lefty from Sterling Heights, Mich., has a personality that matches his towering frame.
“He’s a big dude with a powerful personality,” Maloney said. “He carries himself well, he knows how to compete and he’s an East Sider, from Michigan. That’s where I’m from … Us East Siders, we were raised as blue-collar, and that is an asset. Everybody accepts his toughness, his grit.”
Rembielak said he wasn’t surprised to hear that Marnon was fitting in well with his new teammates.
“The one thing the guys have in common is baseball, and it does not take long to make friends,” he said “It all comes down to the personality of the player and Kevin’s an easy guy to like … It wouldn’t matter where he would go, I could see him fitting in anywhere.”
Marnon’s former teammates are spread across different schools now – Rembielak said only three of the 33 players on Akron’s roster were unable to transfer out. He also said Akron’s administration was surprised to hear that many players transferred and that some had even “left [scholarship] money on the table.”
“They were pretty shocked when I told them just about every kid transferred out,” Rembielak said. “They couldn’t understand that they were there to play baseball, and they wanted to find a place to play baseball to finish their career.”
Still, he said Marnon found a great fit in the short timespan.
“He’s going to a championship-caliber program, too,” he said. “It’s not like he’s going to a program that’s in a rebuild – he’s going to get developed, and he’s in a winning culture. It’s a great situation for him.”
Marnon’s next start will be April 23 when the Cardinals host the Bowling Green State University Falcons at 1 p.m. He currently leads the MAC with 10 starts – just not with the school he thought he’d be playing for back in July.
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