Tuesday night Shaeffer Hall took the mound for Kansas, serving as a reminder of the Jayhawks’ original 2008 weekend rotation.

That weekend rotation included Hall, a sophomore left-hander, and junior left-hander Sam Freeman. The same weekend rotation later featured sophomore left-hander Wally Marciel and was eventually supposed to be anchored by junior left-hander Andy Marks, who was recovering from an injury.

It’s the same weekend rotation that traded those lefties for two right-handers: senior Andres Esquibel – who had previously been a staple of the Kansas bullpen – and freshman and invited walk-on, T.J. Walz.

Junior closer Paul Smyth was even slated to start a Sunday game a couple weeks ago, but a relief appearance earlier in the weekend nixed that plan.

With so much commotion surrounding a simple three-man rotation, it’s easy to forget the arm that’s been there all along – that of junior left-hander Nick Czyz. Even as tumultuous as Kansas’ pitching situation has been – a 5.26 team ERA, for instance – it’s hard to imagine just how bleak it would be without Czyz as the cornerstone of the staff.

Every Friday night, Czyz strolls to the mound, knowing he’s matched up with the opponent’s ace. Some pitchers aren’t mentally tough enough to handle that responsibility. There was a time when Czyz himself wasn’t. But this year he welcomed it and is on the brink of flourishing as a Friday night starter.

“It’s been awesome. You get to go toe-to-toe with, honestly, some of the best pitchers in the nation,” Czyz said. “You kind of get to see where you’re at on a weekly basis.”

After appearing in 17 games his freshman season – including a victorious 5-1/3-inning effort in the 2006 Big 12 Championship game against Nebraska – Czyz was a frontrunner to head Kansas’ pitching rotation as a sophomore. He is also the younger brother of Don Czyz, who was an all-American his senior year, which increased the hype surrounding Nick. However, the lofty expectations never came to fruition.

Despite a 4.60 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 72-1/3 innings, which were all second best on the team, he also had a 4-8 record, a 1.77:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, a 1.58 WHIP and he averaged just over five innings per start.

Part of the problem was his throwing shoulder—which wasn’t at full strength most of the season—but his maturity was also a factor. He took losses hard, sometimes declining to talk to media.

A year later, Czyz is hardly the same pitcher. His velocity has increased from the 84-86 mph range to 88-91 mph and he’s gained the confidence in his play to pitch inside to hitters. Not only is his arm sound, but his mind is too.

“It takes incredible maturity to pitch on Friday night,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “You know it’s going to be a 2-1 or 3-2 ballgame, you know you’re pitching against a potential high draft pick and it takes great maturity and great competitiveness to want to be that guy.”

In the past, Price said he’s had pitchers who weren’t willing to accept the challenge of being a Friday night starter, but Czyz has.

“I think it’s about time I take that pressure on,” Czyz said. “I’m a little disappointed that it took this long to do it. I’m finally feeling comfortable. If I can just continue to step up my performance, then hopefully I can be the guy who can start doing something special.”

The first step in Czyz’ development this season was to trust his fastball enough to use it inside against hitters. Since making that adjustment to his approach on the mound, the results have been apparent.

On March 9, he struck out 11 batters against North Dakota State in six innings. For the season, he has 50 strikeouts in 50-1/3 innings and six starts with at least five strikeouts.

“It’s a huge confidence thing, knowing that you can throw your fastball inside and guys aren’t getting good swings on it,” Czyz said. “It sets up your whole outlook of the game and the way you pitch different hitters because it sets up all of your offspeed pitches.”

However, his strikeout numbers hid a second step that he had yet to take in his development until recently. In his first seven starts of the season, Czyz only had one start of at least six innings because he often worked counts to get strikeouts, rather than pitch to contact and get quick outs.

His April 4 start against Baylor lasted just 4-1/3 innings. While he’d struck out six and allowed just one run, he’d also thrown 98 pitches. Since then, though, Czyz has been noticeably more economical with his pitches, reaching the seventh inning in his last three starts.

Now, the last step for Czyz is to make his stat line more pleasing to the eye.

In 10 starts this year, Czyz has a 2-5 record, a 5.72 ERA, a 1.72:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 1.65 WHIP. However, these numbers are exaggerated by three poor starts for Czyz. In his first two starts of the season, against Hawaii-Hilo and a ranked Vanderbilt club, and one against Northwestern, Czyz allowed 17 earned runs on 21 hits and seven walks in 10-2/3 innings.

But with at least three starts left in the season, Czyz is poised to take his final step to have his statistics reflect the strides he’s taken.

“It just sucks for me because I had a rough start, had a couple really bad outings where it blew up my statistics,” Czyz said, “but I’m looking to get that down.”