Junior College Pitcher Throws Fastest MLB Pitch Ever

A kid who once had to crawl through a window because snow blocked his dorm door just threw the fastest pitch in baseball history.

Jacob Misiorowski, now pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers, reached 103.6 mph in his most recent start. No other starting pitcher has ever thrown that hard since baseball started tracking velocity with precision technology.

But just four years ago, Misiorowski wasn't pitching at a Division I powerhouse. He was grinding it out at Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri, a town of 12,590 people tucked in the Ozarks.

His road there started with bad timing. Misiorowski had committed to Oklahoma State, but when COVID hit in 2020, everything changed. His senior high school season got cut short, the MLB draft shrank from 40 rounds to just five, and scholarship money dried up.

So Misiorowski decommitted and chose Crowder, a junior college three hours from his hometown. The decision came with one big upside: if things went well, he could enter the MLB draft after just one year instead of waiting three.

Junior college baseball means 10-hour bus rides and early morning workouts. One winter morning, Misiorowski and his roommates found their apartment door blocked by a snow drift. They climbed out a window, ran across campus in the dark, and barely made their 6 a.m. workout.

When they returned and dug out the door, they realized they'd all left their keys inside. So they crawled back through the same window, slammed it shut, and laughed until they couldn't breathe.

Catcher Adamo Stornello remembers the first time he saw the lanky 6-foot-7 freshman throwing in the outfield. Another player pointed him out, and Stornello turned to ask: "Who the hell is that?"

Coach Travis Lallemand had spotted Misiorowski at a tournament in Oklahoma when he was still in high school. His fastball touched the 90s, and though his control was shaky, the raw power was impossible to ignore. Lallemand once told an assistant: "This kid is going to throw 100 some day."

He was right, but even that prediction fell short.

Why This Inspires

Misiorowski's story reminds us that the path to greatness rarely follows a straight line. While other top prospects were playing at fancy stadiums with national TV coverage, he was taking marathon bus rides and digging himself out of snowdrifts at a school most baseball fans had never heard of.

His recent outing included 10 pitches at 103 mph or greater. Fans are already buying T-shirts that read "Miz Limit: 104." He starts again Wednesday against the San Diego Padres, and the baseball world will be watching.

From a snow-blocked door in Missouri to the fastest pitch in baseball history, Misiorowski proved that sometimes the detour becomes the destination.