Saige Jenco
(Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Loons)

The Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League for the first time in their 10-year history are in the championship round of the playoffs. The Loons run seemed unlikely even one month ago. However, they finished in a flurry winning 18 of their last 25 games and capturing the last wildcard berth in the Eastern Division of the league.

The hot finish to the season perhaps could be attributed to a number of factors such as the developing maturity of a relatively large crop of players 20 years of age and younger. The pitching staff excelled and during that time was arguably the best in the entire league. The addition of first baseman Ibandel Isabel in early August infused a power bat in the middle of the lineup at an opportune time. By this time in the season the young band of Loons had become a team and the manager and coaching staff had them believing in themselves.

There was another subtler factor that played into the Loons winning formula. Outfielder Saige Jenco had been in and out of the leadoff spot during his time with the Loons beginning on July 13. In mid-August he became the permanent top of the lineup hitter and thrived in that position. With Jenco in the number-one slot the Loons hitters followed suit and the rest is history.

Saige Jenco was born and raised in State College, Pennsylvania which is a borough in the State College Metropolitan Area. He lived not very far from Beaver Stadium, the football home of Penn State’s Nittany Lions and in the midst of football mania. His was a football town and although he was caught up in the football culture he played other sports including baseball.

As we might expect from watching him play for the Loons Jenco excelled on the gridiron using his speed and aggressiveness in his role as a slot back and a return specialist. He drew some attention from smaller Division I schools who were interested in recruiting him for their football programs.

Jenco had not really intended to go to college perhaps because of the financial demands it would place on him and his mother. When he started playing football as a youngster he was without his father but he did have strong family support from his grandmother, his two uncles and especially from his mother. He acknowledges his mother for all that she did to keep him happy, healthy and safe.

“That’s my queen,” Jenco proclaimed of his mother. “She’s done everything for me. My mom was a single mother. She worked three jobs, sometimes four. She would wake up early in the morning and I wouldn’t see her until nighttime. She would do everything she could to keep me healthy and get me food and take me from place to place and travel to my games. She’s done a lot for me and is the strongest woman I know.”

Although he had drawn interest because of his football skills but did not plan to attend college, he came across an opportunity to pursue a career in baseball almost by accident.

On one occasion he happened to play against the son of the coach of the Mid-Atlantic Canes summer travel team and impressed the coach enough to earn an invitation to try out for the squad.

“I wasn’t really planning on going to college at the time,” Jenco remembered. “But I had a good game against him and got a chance to play on a travel team. That’s really when I started to take baseball seriously – when I got asked to play on a team that traveled across the country.”

Jenco accepted the invitation and it was at a tournament that he met the Virginia Tech coaches who were impressed enough that he got an offer to play with the Hokies in Blacksburg, Virginia. He accepted the offer and gave up football which up until then had been the love of his life.

Following his sophomore year with the Hokies in 2015 Jenco was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 27th round of the First-Year Player Draft but decided to return to Virginia Tech for the 2016 season.

“I wanted to get closer to my degree — and I [felt] like there’s more things I can improve on, which I think I have,” he said. “Showing a little bit more of my talents, hopefully I can get picked a little higher. … I had two more years [of college eligibility], so I had some leverage.”

Jenco became an all-important piece in the Hokies lineup and in his junior year he hit .302 along with a .437 OBP and with 23 runs batted in while posting a .977 fielding percentage. He drew a career-high 41 walks. Known for his speed, Jenco stole 12 bases in 16 attempts and scored 34 runs.

As the 2016 June draft approached Jenco became somewhat more interested in the process and expressed his preference if he was to be selected by a MLB team.

On June 11, surrounded by his family he revealed that preference. At that time, he said: “I want to play for the Dodgers more than anything in the world.”

Within 15 minutes he got the call for which he had hoped.

“I didn’t have a feel for who was going to draft me,” the center fielder said, “But I knew who I wanted to play for.”

Jenco signed with the Dodgers and after a brief 11 game stint with the Ogden Raptors of the rookie level Pioneer League in which he hit .390 he was promoted to the Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League.

On the season with the Loons he posted a .288 batting average with an average of .312 in August and September, along with a .370 OBP. He had 17 stolen bases in 45 games without being gunned down by a rival catcher.

Jenco relishes the leadoff spot where he can use his skill set to the team’s advantage as he did with the Virginia Tech Hokies.

“I like being the guy that nobody really likes on the field,” he said this week. “I kind of get a sense of pride and joy from that, just messing with pitchers — being on first base or second base, jumping back and forth [to the bag], messing with them, doing whatever I can to get in their head.”

“I like it a lot, just setting the table for the team — getting everybody to see some pitches before they get up, find a way to get on base to start the game,” he said. “I can bunt, get singles, draw walks.”

Great Lakes Loons hitting coach Aaron Bates has observed Jenco every day since his arrival in Great Lakes, along with other young players, and he noticed something very early with the first-year outfielder.

“His speed is his best strength in terms of what he brings on a day-to-day basis,” Bates said. “Putting pressure on the defense, stealing bases, he’s a high-energy player. … Defenses have to be on their guard.”

Bates has witnessed many minor league players go through slumps, perhaps himself as a minor leaguer, and notes they have little to fall back on to help the team if their bats go dormant for a period of time.

He feels players like Jenco who are speed merchants are somewhat insulated from the devastation of slumps.

“If a power guy struggles, he’s going to question what he’s bringing to the table,” the hitting coach said. “With speed, you don’t even necessarily have to hit a ball through the infield. It should give him a bigger margin of error in terms of being productive.”

The 22-year-old Jenco has brought his speed and fire at the top of the batting order to the Midwest League playoffs having helped the Loons advance to league championship play for the first time in their 10-year history.

In eight playoff games – in the leadoff spot and batting from the left side – he has hit safely in all eight games with 14 hits in 35 at bats for a .400 batting average. He has walked four times making his OBP just over .450 and he has crossed home plate nine times in the eight games.

Certainly arguments could and should be made that second baseman Omar Estevez has been the most valuable Loon thus far in the playoffs with his clutch hits and nine runs driven in. However, game summaries do reveal that the 5’ 10” – 175-pound Jenco has been the table setter for much of the success that teenagers Estevez and teammate Brendon Davis have had in the present playoff run. If his two teenage teammates, catcher Jake Hensen and outfielder Logan Landon are the wheels that keep the Loons offensive machine rolling, Jenco is the lubricant that keeps them turning.