ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Changes of scenery are nothing new for Franklin senior pitcher Nic Abraham. His 8-0 pitching record, 6-foot-4-inch stature and 0.98 ERA on the season foreshadow a bright college future as he prepares to attend the University of Tennessee on scholarship. 

Through 164 innings pitched in his high school career, Abraham has thrown 154 strikeouts. His only varsity pitching loss came from his sophomore season. According to Perfect Game, an organization specializing in scouting at least 14,000 MLB Draft selections, Abraham’s fastball velocity averaged 92 mph as of July 2023.  

“Tennessee just really stuck out to me,” Abraham said. “The atmosphere, the coaches and just the success they’ve had in recent years makes it seem like a great place to be.”

Franklin Head Coach Bryan Kilby said Abraham has shown some of the same characteristics as New York Yankee pitcher Gerrit Cole, a six-time All Star and Cy Young Award winner.

“He’s got the height and the flowing hair,” Kilby said. “He’s going to throw a bunch of strikes, keep hitters off balance and he’ll be competitive on the mound.”

Abraham has already had a taste of the MLB experience after pitching at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was participating in a 2023 National Showcase orchestrated by Perfect Game in which he was considered a potential top 10 round pick in the MLB Draft.   

“You throw a pitch and the catcher catches it and you hear the echo,” Abraham said about his experience in the dome. “You feel like you’re throwing 110 miles per hour, and the mound is pristine.” 

Due to his parents’ divorce at 4 years old, Abraham split his time between both sides of the family throughout his life. While there was peace between families, the distance between the two brought its own challenges. 

“You’ve got to find ways to work through it and move on,” Abraham said. “I’ve moved multiple times, but you just have to find the good in everything.”

Abraham’s love for baseball is due in part to his older brother, who retired his glove in high school after breaking his arm on a grounder to shortstop.

 “He has been my role model growing up,” Abraham said. “He charts every pitch that I throw, the speed, and what the outcome of the pitch was so I can look back and see what I did.”

Like his brother, Abraham almost experienced an early end to his baseball career after a lower back injury. The injury kept him out for his whole freshman season at Pleasant Grove. However, he was fortunate in that he was a two-way player, playing different positions in the infield while being a pitcher. 

“Rotating while hitting from my left side was very tough for me,” Abraham said as he demonstrated his swinging motion. “I throw righty, so I just decided that I had a future in pitching, so I chose that.”

Abraham sees his transition to Franklin High in his sophomore year as a blessing as he has had previous chemistry with teammates like Franklin two-way player Connor Blackburn through travel ball.

“We’re just similar guys, you know?” Blackburn said. “We like to go fishing together, listen to the same kind of music, and then obviously, playing now as seniors has been a lot of fun.”

In the second round of the Division 1 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, Abraham earned his first playoff pitching win this season against Turlock on Thursday after throwing 10 strikeouts in seven innings with no earned runs. His team reciprocated his effort with six earned runs on eight hits.

“He’s our leader,” Franklin sophomore shortstop Jason Harris said. “When we are slacking off, he’ll let us know and hopefully, whoever he tells will fix it.”