Ambidextrous College Pitcher Blows Baseball Fans’ Minds With Dominant Performance

Think Shohei Ohtani pitching and hitting is impressive? (It is.) Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje can throw 90 from the mound… with both hands!

You’ve heard of a switch-hitter, right? Well, Cijntje is a switch-pitcher. And he’s really good at it.

Wednesday night, in his first college start against Louisiana–Monroe, the ambidextrous Mississippi State Bulldogs freshman threw four shutout innings, allowing just one hit, one walk, one hit batter, and struck out seven.

He is now 2-0 on the season.

The 19 year-old isn’t the first person to pitch at a high level throwing from both sides. There have actually been eight pitchers who have done so in the big leagues. Jurrangelo Cijntje might end up being the best though.

The most famous switch-pitcher, Pat Venditte, made it all the way to the Major Leagues pitching from both sides and lasted six years in the bigs. He didn’t have Cijntje’s stuff though.

Wednesday night, the ambidextrous Bulldogs’ freshman struck out one batter with a 96 mph fastball throwing righty, then, in the same inning, flipped it around and K’d another hitter with a 92 mph heater throwing lefty.

The Curaçao native previously impressed scouts at the 2022 MLB Draft Combine.

According to The Sporting News, Cjinte is a natural left-hander, but he grew up using his dad’s catcher mitt and since his dad was a righty he learned how to throw equally as well with his right hand.

Cjinte’s unusual skill set requires specialized equipment. When he was younger, Cjinte used two gloves — one for the right hand and another for the left. During games, his coaches would toss him the glove that corresponding with the batter’s stance. If he was facing a right-handed batter, he would use a left-hander’s glove, and vice versa.

Eventually, Cijntje graduated to a six-finger glove, which allows him to seamlessly switch hands between at-bats.

Cijntje was taken by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 18th round of last year’s MLB Draft, but instead chose to go to Mississippi State, who won the College World Series in 2021.