This is Jonathan Fincher

You know Jonathan Fincher’s name.

The accolades are lengthy, just like his six-year career as a member of the Louisiana Tech baseball team — often joked about as the old man who just won’t leave town.

He’s top three in program history in career strikeouts (314) and appearances (84) and top four in career innings pitched (320 2/3) and wins (27). And in his final season as a Bulldog, the redshirt senior has led his team in innings pitched (85) and strikeouts (79), going off into the sunset still as dependable as the day he arrived.

He’s the guy who stayed through a global pandemic, a stadium destroyed by a tornado, no baseball diamond, and came out the other side pitching in back-to-back NCAA Regional seasons.

But what you might not know are the stories that shape him, the memories that make up what current and former teammates and coaches will carry as they try to encapsulate his career and legacy.

These are the stories that define Jonathan Fincher, from the people who know him best.

Ultimate competitor

Tech pitching coach Cooper Fouts still remembers handing the ball to Fincher ahead of the 2022 NCAA Regional against Dallas Baptist.

He also remembers that wasn’t the plan.

After expected starter Cade Gibson woke up that Friday in Austin with back issues, Fouts and the coaching staff had to make the call and go to Fincher with a request: ‘Can you start for us?’

Fouts said he should have known better than to ask. The strong lefty was fired up to get his shot.

Fouts — “We’re preparing that Cade’s going to be the Friday night guy against Dallas Baptist and he can’t go because he’s got back spasms and all that. And we go tell Finch at noon — noon, in the lobby. Myself, Cade Gibson, Coach (Lane) Burroughs, ‘Cade can’t go.’ And he didn’t even flinch at it. He didn’t flinch at it. He wasn’t concerned.”

What did he do? Fincher took the win after going 5 innings, allowing 4 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 2 in his first start since April 1.

Fouts — “That doesn’t happen. That’s not routine for people.”

Someone who saw Fincher was different than the rest was former Tech pitching coach and current head coach at Nicholls State Mike Silva.

Silva, who developed Fincher in his early years, can still remember how Fincher’s competitive drive clicked different than anyone he’s seen, even when you don’t expect it.

March 19, 2021, comes to mind for Silva. Tech is on the road at Tulane for a weekend series.

“I didn’t think he had a great bullpen,” Silva said. “But his confidence was there, and he took the ball and was like, ‘I’m ready.’ And I was thinking, ‘You’re ready?’ Because nothing showed me he was ready,” Silva said. “And I remember, because he’s always locked in the dugout during a start — not very vocal — and he turns to the guys and says, ‘Get me one run.’ And he took us home.”

Fincher went a complete 9 innings, allowed 1 hit and struck out 4.

“He’s not afraid. Failure motivates him. It doesn’t defeat him,” Silva added.

Adarius Myers goes back to 2019 for the prime example of Fincher not needing much to turn the dial up to 10 on the mound.

“I’ll always remember this one outing my freshman year, I guess his redshirt freshman year, he came out of the pen and he was throwing 82 (mph) or something like that and Burroughs just yells at him to, ‘Let it go!’ and then as soon as he started yelling at him it was like 88 to 91 for the rest of his outing,” Myers said.

That spirit of taking his performance to heart matches a message Fincher privately told Burroughs before the Bulldogs’ game against ULM on April 12.

“He actually told me this last night before the game: ‘There’s only two voices I ever hear in a game and it’s yours and a fan I won’t mention,” Burroughs said. “Like at Rice, he gave up a triple, and I’m screaming in the dugout and he’s like, ‘I can hear you like if you were standing there.’ But to me, Finch will never give up a hit – that’s the standard I hold him to, and that’s what he expects of himself.”

Mind of an Elephant

With a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry in his pocket already, Fincher is pursuing a second degree in kinesiology and health sciences with a cumulative GPA of 3.92.

It’s hard for that to not rub off on interacting with peers, including Logan McLeod, who takes kinesiology classes with Fincher.

“He has the mind of an elephant. He can’t forget anything,” McLeod said. “He won’t study at all and he’ll make A’s and I’ll make C’s. It’s just the most insane thing ever. That guy, he’s just different. Some guys have to study hard for what they want, and he works hard and he studies too, but he sees something once and he knows it.”

Outside of the classroom, Fincher’s mind aids him in finishing a Rubik’s cube in 20 seconds, a feat that puzzles Philip Matulia to this day.

“He can solve a Rubik’s Cube in like 20 or 30 seconds,” said long time teammate Philip Matulia. “He has a photographic memory, it’s unreal. His memory is way beyond mine.”

As for Fincher, it’s just another walk in the park.

“I learned that in a day. I don’t think most people know this but, in the package, it tells you how to do it. It’s just memorizing an algorithm. If you look, you gotta make a cross on the top and then solve the corners and then flip it and the same move works for everything pretty much,” Fincher explained.

The next Spielberg?

Burroughs is no Hollywood producer, but he believes if pitching at the next level doesn’t work out for Fincher, the movie screen could be calling.

Fincher, a Shreveport native, shot and edited the Bulldogs’ preseason banquet video skits, spoofing coaches’ mannerisms and inside jokes.

“I told him, ‘you don’t need to go to medical school, you need to be a movie producer. Go to Hollywood and produce movies and documentaries,” Burroughs said. “Literally, the day he finished it, we had an intersquad the Friday before and he’s up there in the press box doing the editing, comes down here and pitches three shutout innings and goes back up there and finishes the video.”

Former Bulldog Steele Netterville, who describes Fincher as his best friend, isn’t as optimistic his former pitcher can take his editing skills to the Hollywood hills.

“He’s got top tier youth church video editing skills I’d say,” Netterville quipped. “I don’t think Finch is made out to be a movie star or go to Hollywood.”

The Yard Goats

Fincher and Matulia spent last summer as roommates in the Cape Cod League, spending time doing more than working on their game. The two became amateur yardworkers, and found a nice e s c a p e , and easy way to make cash, for their host family.

“We called it the Yard Goats,” Fincher said. “It was me, (Philip Matulia), Austin Strickland from the University of Kentucky on that lawn team together and we got six bucks an hour to do field work — tarping the field, fixing the lines before the games and things like that and we told our host dad and he’s like, ‘Well, I’ll just pay y’all 100 dollars if y’all come do yard work at the house,’ and we were like, OK, well we already live here.

“He wanted us to cut a trail around this pond, so me, Phil and Cole McConnell, he gave us a pair of hedge clippers and two hedgehogs, and a chainsaw and we were just going at it,” he continued. “We made it about 500 yards through the woods just cutting things and then the batteries in the chainsaws died and we had to go to the game, and we packed up and went back to the house.”

It wasn’t the only time they needed the chainsaws that summer.

“Our host family’s dog climbed under the porch and got stuck so we had to cut her out from their like-1700s house porch and they weren’t too happy about that,” Fincher said. “They told us to cut her out, but they were mad at their dog. And as soon as we started cutting, the dog just walked out from the other side.”

“I just remember being up there doing yard work together for a little bit of cash, working for our host family so we could eat out and stuff,” Matulia added.

Unique sense of humor

It’s not often you need a wet-floor sign during a pitcher’s starting days, but Myers would say it’s a requirement with Fincher.

Myers, who’s spent five seasons alongside Fincher, said the southpaw ace enjoys playing Mafia, a detective style game with roleplaying, on bus rides with teammates, but will never forget what he subjected his teammates to on his starting days.

“One thing I’ll miss is he’ll sit on that bench and in between innings, while we’re hitting, he’ll be spitting. Like if you walk by and you see there’s a big spit pile, that means the hitters are doing their job because he’s not having to go right out onto the field. You can pretty much tell how the game’s going by how big that spit pile is,” Myers said.

No, it’s not gum or seeds. It’s spit. “It’s just spit. It’s nasty,” Myers added. “You need a wet floor sign for it. He does it right next to a drain but it’s never actually in the drain for whatever reason.” Outside of unsanitary procedures in the dugout, Fincher’s laid-back style is always present – even when his teammates might not want to hear it. Netterville appreciated his teammate’s ability to cut tension, even if he couldn’t see it in the moment.

“If I was ever struggling, he’d sometimes come up to me and have some little remark like, ‘Life is good,’ at a time when life was definitely not good,” Netterville said.

An unmatched legacy

While everybody has their own unique relationship with Fincher, none of them feel different about the impact he’s made in Ruston. With one more guaranteed start awaiting him in the Conference USA tournament, Fincher needs to throw one complete inning to put himself top three in career innings pitched – becoming the third Bulldog ever to throw over 321 innings.

So, how do those who worked around him everyday see his legacy?

Let them tell you.

McLeod - “It’s just like what Taylor Young, Parker Bates, Steele Netterville left behind. They exemplify what Louisiana Tech’s about. Jonathan Fincher is one of them.”

Jorge Corona - “He’s always there for everybody — kind of like the father figure of the program. Every time he goes out, it’s the same thing."

Silva- “You can’t replace Jonathan Fincher, but his legacy will inspire the next generation to be their best. College baseball is better when a player like Jonathan Fincher is playing."

Fouts - “I think as coaches, we know how much we’re going to miss him because of what he brings to our table every day, but we’ll probably still never know until he’s not here. We’ll never truly appreciate it until he’s not here. First and foremost, he’s a winner. The guy’s won more Friday night games than anyone in the history of Tech."

Burroughs - “Not putting ‘8-Young’, ‘30-Netterville’ in that lineup or ‘2-Bates’, ‘9-Wells.’ It comes a day you can’t write it in there and it’s going to be tough on Friday night not to put ‘47-Fincher.’ It kind of just writes itself. I don’t even have to write it. The sharpie just writes it for me. He’s one of the best pitchers, especially left-handers, that’s ever pitched here. He’s so old, it’s more like friends than a coach/player. One of the best relationships I’ve ever had with a player.”

And the man himself ? How does he view his legacy?

“The sun is starting to set for me, so it’s pretty sad sometimes. I get kind of emotional about that. But whenever that time comes, it’s the Lord telling me that it’s time to pack up and go on a new adventure,” Fincher concluded.