When Queens University of Charlotte baseball alum Landry Jurecka was 11 years old, his father would come into his room to tell him that someone was outworking him while he sat around playing video games.

Jurecka said this comment catalyzed his work ethic. 10 years later, Jurecka would be the 550th pick in the 18th round of the 2025 Major League Baseball draft by the San Diego Padres. 

"That's the stuff that inspired me; it instilled the discipline and the work ethic to work as hard as I do," said Jurecka.

Jurecka's earliest memories of baseball date back to when he was four years old, hitting off a tee and trying to hit fly balls over the fence with his older brother and father. At nine years old, the right-handed pitcher developed a love for his niche. 

"At nine years old, I just fell in love with pitching and took off with it," Jurecka said. "It was a fun thing for me to do, being out there trying to figure out things by myself."

When Jurecka reached the age of 11, his focus on baseball became more serious. His father supported him, traveling alongside Jurecka to various tournaments throughout the country. 

Before entering college, Jurecka faced multiple untimely injuries that served as obstacles throughout his high school career. From stress fractures on his vertebrae, arm inflammation, and a torn ACL amid COVID, Jurecka missed three consecutive seasons of summer ball, a critical time in high school baseball to showcase his skills to college coaches on the recruiting trail. 

"I remember specifically when I tore my ACL, I'd never been through an injury that big," said Jurecka. "There were days after surgery where I'd get out of bed, and I didn't know if I was ever going to walk the same again, and I went through that at 16 years old."

Despite these hardships, Jurecka said he knew he had to stay disciplined and consistent. The values Jurecka's father instilled in him as a child helped him push through moments like these. 

"He always told me 'to weather the storm,'" said Jurecka. "Move on to the next because you can't go back and change anything."

To stay consistent during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jurecka would visit a field at the Boys and Girls Club, located five minutes outside his hometown in Greenwood, Arkansas. In the field, Jurecka spent countless hours training by himself.

"I just knew I had to stay consistent," Jurecka said. "I didn't have any college offers at that point. I was on the clock and my back was against the wall."

He knew that his career was on the line. 

"If I messed around, my playing career could have been over," said Jurecka.

After gaining their attention at a camp during his sophomore season in high school, Jurecka started his freshman season in the Big 12 at Kansas State University just two years later, where he appeared in six games during his debut season and was named Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team and Big-12 Commissioner's Honor Roll. 

Jurecka dove into his studies at KSU as a mechanical engineering major, a field of study that interfered with his offseason practice schedule. Due to the conflict, Jurecka had to make time after class in the early evenings to get his work in. While everyone had left the field after practice was over, Jurecka chose to improve his talents even when no one was there to watch. 

But he was not alone. 

At the time, current Queens pitching coach Luke Bay served as a graduate assistant for the Wildcats, where Jurecka and Bay crossed paths. Bay made a point to stay after practice to support Jurecka after his classes to help him get his work in and build up confidence. 

"Luke and one of our equipment managers at the time would catch up with me, so it would just be us three out there," Jurecka said. "I just remember vividly, I didn't think I was that good at the time. He would always tell me your stuff is good, and having that as a freshman was very encouraging, and I needed that."

In the fall of his sophomore year, Jurecka didn't feel that his development was where it should be and felt like he had two decisions: stay at Kansas State and the cycle continues, or take a leap of faith and gamble on his talent and work ethic to reach his goals. 

Jurecka made the difficult decision to leave Kansas State and take an entire year off to focus on development. After extensive research, Jurecka connected with Tread Athletics Sports Performance, a pitching development service located in Charlotte, whose motto aligned with Jurecka's mindset: "You have one career. Make it count." Jurecka said he knew he was ready to take a leap of faith and step out of his comfort zone.

Tread Athletics, cofounded by pro pitcher Ben Brewster, helps athletes focus on the foundational elements of baseball training. In Jureckas's case, his pitching was assessed using technology and data to further break down his success and the changes he needed to make in order to improve. 

Never having been shy of hard work, Jurecka began working seven-hour shifts at a local Chipotle, starting his day at 6:00 a.m. to fund the cost of his professional training at Tread. 

After getting done at his first job, he would go to the next: training for his career.

To stay consistent, he found a local softball field close to his aunt and uncle's neighborhood in Kansas City, where he was staying. In his time training in the field, he focused on his velocity readings and filming himself to get virtual feedback from his trainers at Tread. 

"It was a cold January day out in Kansas City, and I just got off work. It was 5:00 p.m., the sun was down, and I was literally out in the pitch black, and I couldn't even see the net," said Jurecka. "I pulled down this ball at 85 mph, and it was discouraging. I was like 'dang dude, you might not even be cut out for any of this."

After an hour and a half of training, Jurecka would move on to the gym across the street, where he would get another two and a half hours in for conditioning and mobility, finishing his second "shift" at 8:30 p.m. 

Through maintaining this routine with integrity for six consecutive months, Jurecka saw drastic improvement. 

"I knew I'd never figure it out if I didn't try," said Jurecka. "So I had to just keep trying."

Three months after starting, Jurecka was ripping pull-downs at a consistent 93 mph.

"It was tough, but you can't forge yourself into who you want to be unless you walk through the fire," Jurecka said. "A lot of people just aren't willing to do that."

The hard work and commitment paid off as Jurecka received an offer to Northeastern State University, a Division II program in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Current Queens associate head coach James Cullinane was at the helm of the RiverHawks program at the time, and former mentor to Jurecka at Kansas State, Luke Bay, was the pitching coach. The combination of belief and connections made Jurecka feel that the opportunity was right.

From Bay's perspective, he saw that Jurecka was a high performer in every domain in his life, and that consistency made Bay and Cullinane believe that Jurecka could go pro.

"I really don't know why James believed in me, but he was like 'you're going to go pro.' I thought it was kind of funny," Jurecka said. "It was a gritty developmental place, and that's what I felt like I needed. I knew they were both forward-focused and all about development." 

When current Queens head coach Jake Hendrick accepted the role with the Royals in the summer of 2023, his first call was an easy one. Hendrick picked up the phone and called James Cullinane, his former Associate Head Coach at NSU. Hendrick recruited Cullinane and the RiverHawks' pitching coach Luke Bay to the Queen City, ultimately leaving Jurecka in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

However, that was short-lived as Cullinane and Bay immediately brought Jurecka's name to Hendrick's attention and insisted on adding the right-hander to the pitching staff.

The first time Hendrick talked to Jurecka about coming to Queens, he was sitting on his back porch in Clarksville, Tennessee, watching a video of him throwing bullpens. 

"It just seemed to fit the type of player we wanted to coach," said Hendrick. "Whether it was at NSU or Queens, he was hard working, dedicated, wanting to be a pro; he just checked all the boxes that we wanted to see." 

Before making the leap to Queens, what stood out to Jurecka was the coaching staff. 

"I knew I had a coaching staff that believed in me and was going to invest in me," said Jurecka. "Having that opportunity to step in right away and get that level of exposure to the talent and all those reps, it's really what I needed." 

Despite throwing a team high of 74.1 innings and ending the season with a 7.26 ERA, the trials and tribulations from year one allowed Jurecka to learn more about himself and pitching at the Division 1 level in a premier mid-major conference.

The 2025 campaign started slow for the right-hander, but a tough 9-2 loss at Jacksonville in week eight seemed to flip the switch for the junior. After the loss, Jurecka began feeling the mental pressure around the draft, his performance, and life in general. To ease his stress, he took a moment that day to confide in someone who encouraged him from the start, Coach Bay. 

"I like to say that we're the guardrails for our guys," said Bay.

Bay offered advice to Jurecka that he had learned through his college career and encouraged him to live in the moment and enjoy competing.

"I got to a point where I loved the work of it, and I forgot to enjoy being on the hill, in game with the lights on," said Bay. "You have to love that part, too. They coincide."

Jurecka did not take this advice lightly. 

"I think he could sense where I was mentally, and he was trying to relieve some of the pressure I was putting on myself with how hard I work and just constantly striving for success," Jurecka said. "I just felt like I was having to be perfect every time I touched the mound, every time I threw a pitch. I think he really helped me just simplify life in general and just get back to my roots and go compete."

After talking with Bay, Jurecka said he could see everything just flip. 

"Everybody that stepped into the box, my mindset was they were just trying to take my dreams away from me," said Jurecka. "And that was not something that I was going to let happen."

Jurecka based his performance on what he calls the "warrior dial." A measure of intensity spanning from zero to ten.

"Ten is like you need to be crazy ticked off, heart pumping out of your chest, going psycho, and one is like you're in a library," Jurecka said.

By channeling his inner warrior, Jurecka said he saw a drastic difference in his performances from his early weeks in the season versus the final eight weeks.

Three weeks after the loss in Jacksonville, Jurecka threw a complete game at home against the Graphite Division regular season champions and co-tournament champions, Steson. The right-hander surrendered just three runs while striking out 10 Hatters.

On the season, Jurecka tossed 84.0 innings, a single-season school record, and had two complete games against Stetson and Jacksonville to become the fifth player in school history to do that in the same season.

While the switch mentally resulted in success, Jurecka and Bay also tweaked and fine-tuned his pitch mix. For starters, Jurecka switched from a four-seam fastball to a sinker, which resulted in an 18 percent increase in ground balls and a .100 point reduction in opponents' slugging.

With a solid changeup already in the repertoire, Jurecka dialed in the grip and focused on throwing the pitch more frequently with the same intensity as his fastball. The results showed a 29 percent increase in groundballs, and opponents' slugging dropped from .295 to .161 in part due to the improved vertical and horizontal break.

Lastly, , Jurecka and Bay decided to make the switch from a slider to a curveball in 2025. The new pitch seemed comfortable for Jurecka as he threw it for a strike 60 percent of the time. The -8.4 vertical break and -12.6 horizontal break kept hitters off balance, resulting in weak flyouts. After opponents slugged .385 off his slider in 2024, the switch held opponents to a .235 mark slugging.

"He's got great command," said Bay. "He can make the baseball move in any direction that he wants it to move; he can shape things."

During his time at Queens, Jurecka's hard work landed him ASUN Pitcher of the Week in 2025 and ASUN Second Team All-Conference honors. Jurecka also cemented himself in the record books by recording 88 strikeouts in 2025 and having 14 strikeouts against Jacksonville, which hasn't been done since 2018. 

"When a player is operating like that, you kind of get to sit back and enjoy the development," said Hendrick. 

 After throwing a complete game against Stetson in the final weeks of the season, Jurecka was invited to attend his first workout with the New York Yankees, a moment that he described as both eye-opening and encouraging. 

"[The workout] inspired me and just told me I was close," said Jurecka. "Just keep going and staying at it, just keep chopping the wood." 

After he ended his season at Queens on a high, Jurecka started his pre-draft process. Jurecka said that within one to two days of the season ending, he started to receive calls from scouts looking to schedule interviews and workouts. 

Staying dedicated to getting his reps in, Jurecka also played for the Pulaski River Turtles, a summer collegiate baseball team in the Appalachian League based in Pulaski, Virginia. Taking on this experience allowed Jurecka to develop more on the professional level while traveling in and out of the season to attend various teams' workouts. Jurecka would make stops in D.C. to throw in front of the Los Angeles Dodgers, return to the Queen City to participate in an additional workout with the Yankees, and also have the opportunity to train in front of the Padres. 

After waiting patiently through the first two days of the draft, on the third day, Jurecka finally got the call. When the draft day call came, Jurecka reached out to tell his family about his new opportunity with the San Diego Padres; a day of excitement for the Jurecka family. 

"Everybody was super excited. They'd known the work that I'd put in, and they're just really excited for me to finally see some of that start to pay off," said Jurecka. "I can vividly remember texting my mom eight months ago, telling her this is the year I was going to put up numbers and sign a contract. And that's what I did."  

On his first day with the San Diego Padres, he clocked in at 9:00 a.m. and clocked out at 9:00 p.m.. While 12 hours may seem like a long day to some, Landry's work ethic set him up for days like this.

"This is my job now, but I'm excited, and it's all about getting better," Jurecka said. 

In his next chapter, Jurecka looks to further strengthen his mentality. One of his biggest takeaways from his first day was the idea of the game of baseball being 90% mental and 10% physical. 

"It's whatever you feed your brain constantly," said Jurecka. "Your mind is just so powerful and attracting whatever you think about and look at."

Now stepping into a new chapter of his career, his mentality hasn't shifted. He's not chasing headlines or plotting five-year plans. 

"I wouldn't even say I'm huge in goals," said Jurecka. "I don't really focus on goals that much. I know where I want to go, and then it's like, all right, now break that down."

Bay described Landry as having a very unique personality in comparison to his generation, who Bay said often seek immediate results. Bay believed that his and Jurecka's compatibility stemmed from their stubborn and patient personalities when it came to growth and development. 

"If all you do is just sit there and focus on wanting to be a pro, then you could miss all these little steps you need to take along the way," Jurecka said. "It's like growing in height. You are growing a 100th of an inch, and you're not going to see things immediately." 

Every day, Jurecka continues to make little strides and grow to new heights, never losing faith or focus as he grows into a new chapter of his baseball career.