Jared Kollar isn’t playing an extra year of college baseball because he has to. The former Latrobe and Seton Hill pitcher is taking advantage of another year of eligibility because he wants to.
He would probably take a sixth, seventh, eighth year if he could. Not that he wants that to happen as a result of another global pandemic.
“I want to play baseball for as long as I can,” Kollar said. “The covid year gave me the opportunity to be a graduate transfer, something I wouldn’t have been able to do if covid didn’t happen.”
Kollar, who just finished his four-year career at Seton Hill with a trip to the NCAA Division II College World Series, has decided to give the Division I level a try. He will play his last season at Rutgers.
He cannot finish his education in engineering at Seton Hill, so that prompted him to choose a new program. He is taking a post-pandemic path that was never available to college players before, and he hopes the bonus time can benefit him in both baseball and academics.
“The coaches were very interested since I first had contact with them, calling almost every day,” Kollar said of Rutgers, which plays in the Big Ten Conference. “The university has a very good engineering program. My pitching coach at Seton Hill knows them very well, and he talked very highly of them.”
Kollar, a WPIAL and PIAA champion in 2017 at Latrobe, said he had interest from several schools, from the mid-to-high Division I range. But Rutgers was the right fit.
The highlights and brush with high-end competition should go a long way in preparing Kollar for his final go-round.
He is playing this summer for the Morehead City Marlins in the Coastal Plains League.
“I can’t say enough about my last four years at Seton Hill,” Kollar said. “I’ve made so many memories and so many friends that I will never forget. Seton Hill baseball has not only made me a better baseball player, but also a better person overall. The work ethic and time management that has been drilled into my head since day one will be continued for the rest of my life.”
Despite an injury to his throwing hand that sidelined him for about five weeks, Kollar finished 5-0 with a 1.19 ERA in 372⁄3 innings for the Griffins (39-8). He struck out 59 and walked nine while allowing just five earned runs.
For his career, Kollar was 12-7 with a 3.59 ERA, 163 Ks and 47 walks over 1301⁄3 innings.
He said the death of Griffins pitcher Maclean Maund in January 2020 brought the team together and gave it a greater sense of pride and purpose.
“Since Maclean’s death, being in a brotherhood like this was worth a lot more than just a baseball team,” he said. “I cannot thank this program enough for the good times and the hard times up on The Hill.”
