Novak Is JMU's 'Professional Hitter'

“When you get a chance to get in his head and talk about hitting, he always knows what he wants to do,” Dukes coach Marlin Ikenberry said. “And to be honest with you, as coaches, we’ve just kind of stayed out of his way a little bit because he’s so talented and he knows what he wants to do.”

As a freshman, Novak batted .303 with 57 hits, the second-most on the roster then. Last spring during the abbreviated campaign, he hit .317 with a pair of homers to go along with a JMU-best 16 RBIs.

And he’ll be in the middle of the batting order each time Ikenberry fills out his lineup card this year. During the Dukes’ season-opening series at North Carolina this past weekend, Novak hit cleanup in the first two contests and third in the finale. He primarily served as the designated hitter in the past, but played first base in all three games against the Tar Heels and can play second base, too.

“Honestly my approach is different,” Novak, an All-CAA preseason team selection, said. “And I think it’s a little different than the approach everyone else has.”

He said depending on the circumstances, there are various objectives in how he’ll handle a particular at-bat. He said he’s thought that approach has given him the best chance to succeed ever since his time as a standout at James Madison High School in Northern Virginia.

“For example, I open up my stance against lefties,” he said. “If guys are throwing really hard, like 90 [mph] or more, I think about getting on top of the ball because normally it’s flat and it has to do with physics. … I have so many things I think of depending on the pitcher and the situation.”

When he’s in the box, Novak is recalling information from scouting reports also.

He said Ikenberry and JMU assistant coach Alex Guerra provide detailed information and analytics about opposing pitchers the Dukes will face. Ahead of the UNC series, according to Novak, JMU hitters had a Zoom meeting to learn about the Tar Heels’ staff. He said the Dukes have access to reports on pitchers from all over college baseball.

And Novak wants all the details he can get.

“I honestly love that stuff,” Novak, who had two hits, an RBI and scored a run during the opening series, said. “It tells you what pitch is coming because pitchers have lots of tendencies in what they’re throwing. Like with a 2-1 count to a lefty, maybe they [throw a certain pitch] 95 percent of the time. So, if you actually take it seriously and study it, it helps you so much.”

Said Ikenberry about Novak: “He’s a tough out. Mentally and with the way he swings it, he’s a professional hitter. That’s best way to put it.”

Though Novak has a great appreciation for new-age analytics, he has an old-school work ethic, he said, which has aided him to this point in his college career.

The 5-foot-10 left-handed hitter has a batting cage in the backyard of his parents’ house.

“I had it for all of high school and all of college, which is really nice,” Novak said. “So every time I go home, my dad throws to me and I hit every day. I think that’s what has made me such a good hitter because when we built the batting cage, I just would go outside and he’d start pitching to me every day.”

Novak said taking swings as part of his daily routine propelled him in high school and allowed him to play varsity baseball as a freshman. He said it was then he caught the eye of a JMU assistant who was there recruiting Madison High School teammate and future Dukes teammate Kyle Hayes.

In the state tournament, Novak slugged a double off the fence against Chantilly pitcher Jared DiCesare, who the Toronto Blue Jays drafted in 2019 out of George Mason University in Fairfax.

“That was the first time [Guerra] ever saw me,” Novak said. “and AG always tells me this story of how he saw this little freshman playing varsity baseball, hitting a double off the wall against a pitcher who was committed to college and got drafted. … But I wasn’t thinking a lot about being recruited then, because I was just a freshman and I was just focusing on high school baseball, playing on the varsity baseball team at the time.”

Novak said his sister was already attending JMU, so once Ikenberry and the JMU staff started recruiting him, he committed to the Dukes rather quickly in 2016.

All he’s done since getting to campus a few years later is hit, and he said he’s hoping to continue his success at the plate this spring and bat .300 for the third straight year while adding some pop.

“Hitting some more home runs,” Novak said of his goal. “I think I’ll be able to do that this year. Last year I had two in the 16 games we played and I’ve been working more on power since my freshman year.”