Athletic excellence is synonymous with the last name Smink, and pitcher Eddie Smink is no exception.
Growing up in West Chester, Pa., Smink was immersed in sports at a young age. After all, his grandmother, Joyce, played softball and field hockey for West Chester University in the late 1950s. Smink’s uncle John Smink and father James Smink each logged time on the gridiron for the Golden Rams in the ‘90s.
Two of Smink’s cousins — Tyler and T.J. — have made it to the collegiate level, with Tyler playing baseball at Penn State Harrisburg from 2013 to 2016 while T.J. played football for Shippensburg University around the same time. Another cousin, Annabelle, is currently on Drexel University’s softball team. Long story short, college athletics are routine for the Sminks.
Smink continued that trend in 2022 when he walked onto the campus of Stony Brook University as a member of the baseball team.
“I always grew up around sports,” Smink said in an interview with The Statesman. “My dad was a college football coach, my mom was a cheerleading coach. They really tried to teach me lessons through sports … It was a way to motivate me and inspire me.”
Often, the most memorable part of playing is the relationships created. Even as a junior in college, Smink still looks back on his days playing for West Side Little League in his hometown.
“We went to state championships two years in a row,” Smink said. “That was probably some of the most fun I’ve had on a baseball field. I’m still very close with a lot of those kids now and they are some of my best friends.”
While Smink describes West Chester as “not a huge town,” the sports culture is strong within the community.
“Everyone there is super passionate about the Phillies and Eagles,” Smink said. “We’ve had a lot of great athletes come out of there. I give a lot of credit for where I am, to my hometown and the people that surrounded me.”
Smink was a three-sport standout throughout his childhood and into high school, playing football, basketball and baseball for West Chester Henderson. Ultimately, baseball was the one that stuck.
“I was solid when I was younger but I never really took those steps to get better,” Smink said. “I didn’t really set myself apart and I wasn’t an overly-recruited guy out of high school.”
On top of Smink’s slow start to getting recruited, he was a sophomore in high school when COVID-19 hit. As the pandemic swept the world, it made recruitment even tougher for Smink as showcases, campus visits and travel sports were mostly shut down. This forced coaches to rely on video to make their decisions, a practice which is not the most trustworthy when it comes to college recruiting.
“All you could do was send in a tape and hope a coach liked you,” Smink said. “Coaches really have a tough time trusting kids through video. I eventually got to a couple showcases right as they started letting us do our thing and Coach [Matt] Senk believed in me. They were my very first Division I offer and I thank them every day for that.”
After receiving the offer from Senk, the decision was clear for Smink.
“There were a couple other schools but really Stony Brook was the place I wanted to be,” Smink said. “It was cool because they made me feel like family when I showed up so it really meant a lot to me.”
When Smink was recruited, the Seawolves were in the midst of one of the most successful runs in program history. After an NCAA Regional appearance in 2019 and the cancellation of the 2020 season, Stony Brook topped the America East conference again in 2021 and 2022 before moving to the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) in 2023.
“My first impressions of this place was a lot of success,” Smink said. “It was a winning program, a lot of conference championships, great coaching staff, great intent, great people.”
The switch from high school to college is known to hit athletes when they arrive on campus for their respective freshman years, especially at the Division I level. For Smink, this came in the fall of 2022.
“I first realized it in the fall when I first showed up, it’s kind of a different pace of game,” Smink said. “It speeds up on you a lot as a freshman and it’s tough to handle those things. I definitely give a lot of credit to the seniors and fifth years. They gave me some things I could take from and taught me some tough lessons. I worked hard, paid attention and learned from them.”
Smink was thrown into the fire right away, coming out of relief in the Seawolves’ third game of the season against California State University, Northridge. Smink’s first taste of collegiate action did not go as planned as he allowed six runs (five earned) in 2 ⅓ innings of work. It took a while to get better as he gave up another five against Troy in his next outing before finally getting his first career start. On the road against the University of North Carolina, Smink yielded five more earned runs in just 1 ⅓ innings to cap off a miserable start to his collegiate career.
“It was a tough way to start my career,” Smink said. “It’s difficult because you’re a freshman that gets thrown into the fire against some really good teams and the game gets fast on you so you have to do your best to make adjustments. That was definitely a wake up call.”
After the beating that he took to open the season, Smink began to show the promise that got him recruited in the first place. On March 12, 2023, he notched his first career win after firing five innings of one-run baseball against Lafayette. He continued that success through the end of the season, posting a 3.44 in his final 55 innings of work — the most of any Stony Brook pitcher that year.
Maybe the biggest piece of Smink’s turnaround was Ben Fero, who pitched for the Seawolves from 2019 through 2023. As an upperclassman when Smink appeared at Stony Brook, Fero was instrumental in getting Smink’s head in the right place after a tough start to his freshman campaign.
“Ben Fero was a big part of teaching me a lot as a young guy,” Smink said. “He just taught me a different mentality on the mound. You’ve got to have a different mindset on and off the field and you’ve got to be able to flip that switch. [Fero] really taught me how to be a dog out on the mound.”
His success continued into his sophomore year, where he was given the keys to the ace role for the Seawolves. Smink instantly created a signature moment in his second start of the year, shutting down the reigning national champions on their home turf. On Feb. 23, 2024, Smink tossed five innings while only allowing one earned run against Louisiana State University (LSU), helping Stony Brook hand the Tigers their first loss of the season.
“When you’re going against the No. 2 team in the country, everyone expects you to fail,” Smink said. “I feel like you have to use that to your advantage. I was saying to the guys, ‘Everyone is already counting us out so what do we have to lose? Why don’t we just shock the world.’”
For Smink, the LSU start was just an opening act for what would become his true breakout season. In 11 starts, he pitched to a 3.11 ERA in 55 innings while striking out 56 batters. Unfortunately, his season would be cut short on April 26, 2024.
In the second inning of the Seawolves’ series opener against Monmouth, Smink exited the game after recording the first out. The issue turned out to be a partial tear of his right subscapularis — a part of the shoulder — along with a strain in his right pectoral muscle. The injury, according to Smink, was a long-time issue that eventually reached a tipping point.
“We were making a playoff push at the time and I didn’t want to let the team down,” Smink said. “I really wanted to push through that and make it happen but unfortunately I got injured that day and it ended my season.”
During Smink’s absence, the team began to struggle, falling out of the top-six in the conference and ultimately ending the season on the outside looking in at a CAA playoff spot.
“I did take a bunch of the responsibility for us not performing the way we wanted,” Smink said. “I should have taken more care of my body and prioritized recovery more. It took a big toll mentally because you see your team fall out of the playoffs and you can’t do anything about it.”
After Stony Brook’s season ended in early May, Smink would have to wait even longer to begin throwing again, despite avoiding surgery. After six to eight weeks of rest, he resumed his throwing ramp-up program.
“The recovery was long,” Smink said. “I tried to look at the positives. Not every day you’re going to feel good after your rehab so I just tried to stay mentally tough throughout.”
While the injury derailed Smink’s plans to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League last season and potentially cement himself as a pick for the Major League Baseball draft this summer, he is persistent on reaching that end goal.
“I think I’m better than I was last year,” Smink said. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t and then we continue. At the end of the day, it comes down to me keeping my head down and working hard.”
His breakout year and strong rehab garnered more accolades for his mantle before the season even began. Smink was named to both the CAA All-Conference Preseason first team and was tabbed as the CAA Preseason Pitcher of the Year by Perfect Game.
“Now I need to try to live up to the hype,” Smink said. “That’s not something that I think about during the season.”
As Smink tries to further his success, he eyes team success.
“We’ve missed the playoffs each of the last two years,” Smink said. “There’s no excuses this year. We’ve got to get better and we’ve got to make the tournament and we’ve got to compete.”
The Seawolves were picked to finish seventh in the CAA Preseason coaches poll, a figure which Smink plans to use to strive to improve.
“It gives us motivation,” Smink said. “Nobody thinks we’re going to be anything. This is something that we’re going to work hard for and it’s obviously never something you want to hear as a team but it does give us that little bit of motivation before the year starts.”
Despite coming from athletic excellence, Smink has worked for everything that he has ever achieved and hopes to continue doing so as he writes his story.
“I’m from a small town in Pennsylvania, my dad was a High School football coach and he taught me that I have to work hard for everything,” Smink said. “I try to stay humble through everything and I am happy that I’ve been able to represent my town with what I do.”
Smink will be in action this weekend when Stony Brook opens its season with a three-game, weekend series against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats. Game one on Friday is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Daytona Beach, Fla.
