As his name suggests, Garden City’s Armstrong a true flame-thrower
Garden City baseball player Ethan Armstrong’s fastball has been clocked at 95 miles per hour. He’s also an outstanding hitter, which is why he will be a two-way player for the University of Michigan beginning in the fall of 2026.
Other than the handheld JUGS radar gun that recently registered 95 miles per hour while tracking an Ethan Armstrong fastball, the item that is most telling of the Garden City junior’s pitching velocity is the glove of his longtime catcher and best friend Ethan Vanbelle.
Make that Vanbelle’s former glove.
“He threw a pitch so hard it went right through the webbing of my glove,” Vanbelle revealed, smiling toward Armstrong following a recent bullpen session. “It was a nice glove, too, so it’s not like he broke an old, cheap thing.”
Vanbelle wears extra padding near the thumb of his catcher’s glove — and typically goes through at least one glove per season, due largely to the pounding the leather takes from Armstrong’s four-seamers.
(To check out a video of Armstrong’s stellar mechanics, click here.)
Armstrong, a personable 17-year-old life-long Garden City resident, is arguably the most-dominant pitcher Garden City has seen since 6-foot-10, 260-pound Justin Ockerman last toed the rubber for the Cougars in 2001.
Unlike Ockerman, who pitched for Michigan State University after graduating from GC 24 years ago, Armstrong is headed to the University of Michigan once he graduates in June of 2026.
Next stop: Ann Arbor
His next-level destination is appropriate, too, because he often leaves opposing hitters dazed and blue.
In three starts this spring, Armstrong has struck out 43 batters in 20 innings while allowing zero earned runs.
In addition to his blazing four-seam fastball, he also delivers knee-buckling curveballs and a recently-refined change-up that leaves hitters shaking their head as they jog back to their dugout.
“Players who haven’t seen Ethan pitch before watch him warming up, and you can kind of tell they don’t really want to hit against him,” Vanbelle said. “I’m glad he’s on my team.”
Glad he’s a Cougar
Garden City Head Baseball Coach Avery Emerson is glad Armstrong’s a Cougar, too.
“Let’s just say Ethan makes my job a whole lot easier,” Emerson said, grinning. “When he’s pitching, I just sit back and enjoy the show.
“The only thing I for when he pitches is us scoring two runs. If we do that, he’ll do the rest.”
The Cougars are far from a one-man show as their 12-3 record entering Wednesday’s game at Melvindale proves.
The son of two former Garden City athletes — his dad, Brad, was a Cougar quarterback; his mom played softball for the legendary Barry Patterson — Armstrong is also a highly-respected team leader, Emerson said.
‘Like having another coach’
“Having Ethan on the team is like having another coach during in-game situations when he’s not pitching,” Emerson said. “And I can trust him to lead our team through stretching drills.
“He works as hard as anybody, too, and I know his teammates respect that.”
When Armstrong’s baseball career was just getting started, his dad asked him if he wanted to be good at the sport.
“I told him, ‘No, I want to be great’,” Armstrong said.
“When I was really young, I probably liked hitting more than pitching. But when I was 11 or 12, I started throwing around 70 (mph). When I was 13, I had a pretty big growth spurt and that’s when I first hit 80 and started focusing more on pitching than hitting.”
He can hit, too
Although his focus shifted more to the mound than the batter’s box, Armstrong can still rake. Through Tuesday, he had a .516 batting average with nine extra base hits (including two home runs) and 12 RBI.
“Among the many things that appealed to me about going to Michigan was they’re going to let me be a two-way player,” said Armstrong, who said he was also considering attending Alabama.
“I also wanted to be closer to home. I still live about a block away from my best friends from when I was in fourth grade.”
When asked to recall a game that revealed Armstrong’s mound dominance, Emerson didn’t hesitate.
Fanning a lot of Falcons
“Last year’s district semifinal against Divine Child,” he said. “It was one of those games when neither team had many base-runners. It was 0-0 after eight innings when we finally had to take Ethan out.”
Armstrong finished with 15 strikeouts in the game the Cougars ultimately lost in nine innings, 1-0.
Not too shabby for a 16-year-old sophomore who has developed a nasty arsenal of pitches.
And a nice habit of wearing out catchers’ gloves.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
