A catch with Skenes: Thomas Zwirecki's memory of lifetime

By: Andrew Nowel, Sports Layout Editor

As the Canisius community welcomes 2026 and the baseball team gets ready to thaw the field for their spring season, redshirt junior Thomas Zwirecki hit the Buffalo spotlight over winter break by catching a star pitcher in Major League Baseball. Paul Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates ace, was in town meeting up with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Skenes needed to do a winter workout involving a bullpen session – which is how a pitcher stays in shape during the offseason. Through the connection of Canisius’ Head Coach Matt Mazurek, Zwirecki caught for Skenes in what would be a day he will tell people about for years to come.

The opportunity arose when a “high profile arm,” as Zwirecki put it Wednesday, was scheduled to come to Buffalo, but Mazurek and the team weren’t told who the player was or why it was happening. Fr. Fred Betti, the campus chaplain, helped to begin the connection as he was connected with a Bills employee and received the request, which he passed on to Mazurek. “We were not told who it was or why it was happening, but Coach asked me if I’d be able to help and I told him I’d be available. A few days after that is when we were told it was Paul Skenes and I didn’t truly believe it was real until the day it happened,” said Zwirecki. An opportunity that many baseball players dream of came true because of a simple connection.

When the day arrived, Zwirecki noticed the professional way that both Skenes and fellow Pirates’ pitcher Jared Jones went about their workout. This gave not only Zwirecki, but the entire Canisius team an idea of how some of the best players in the world go about their business on and off the field. “There is such an emphasis on the little things and attention to detail from the moment Paul and Jared got there to the moment they left. Every single part of the workout was intentional on their end and it showed that in order to maximize your potential you need to pay attention to the things that most people don’t. They showed true professionalism while playing the game they grew up playing,” said Zwirecki. Both Mazurek and Zwirecki recognized that while the story may not give Canisius national attention right away, the ability to have connections and experiences with any professional athlete helps Canisius to showcase its outreach.

For Zwirecki, the experience was a personal accomplishment and something that he would be able to take back to the Griffs pitching staff. The staff struggled last season as the earned run average (ERA) has been increasing since the 2020 season, topping at a 7.84 last season. Zwirecki and his fellow catchers want to help work to lower the staff’s ERA which will lead to more positive results going forward. “As a player, this helped me in the sense of being able to help our pitchers. As a catcher, I am responsible for our pitchers’ physical and mental adjustments. Now that I’ve seen how someone does it at the highest level, I can direct our players on the right path towards that,” said Zwirecki. The Griffs hired a new pitching coach this season, which will help Zwirecki maintain a strong connection to the pitching staff. 

For him personally, Zwirecki reflected on how the experience will be one he’ll remember forever. “Personally, this was probably the coolest day of my life up to this point. Paul is the best pitcher in the game of baseball and I was able to train with him. The whole thing was surreal, but one thing that was crazy to me is that every time the ball touched the ground, he got a new ball. This never happens at the college level, but it’s so normal in the big leagues,” said Zwirecki. The professionalism of both Skenes and Jones left an impression on Zwirecki that will help him as the Griffs prepare for the 2026 season.

With the season beginning in less than two weeks, the Griffs are ready to take the field again. Mazurek and his coaching staff is focused on going back to basics with the team with the hope that the simple things will lead to the overall success of the new season. “We’re making sure we’re teaching the guys instead of just doing things. Teaching minuscule things like cutoffs, bunts, bunt defense, and first and third defense so guys know where to be. We hammered that home a lot in the fall and got the guys to compete a lot,” said Mazurek. A final push in the offseason leads the Griffs to opening day in Boone, N.C. where the Appalachian State Mountaineers await as the team’s first test. Even though the weather in western New York will continue to be frigid, the Griffs are ready to start the season on a heater.