Indians’ Charles LeBlanc, Alex Kowalcyzk in it together

Indians shortstop Charles LeBlanc and catcher Alex Kowalcyzk have a history that has more depth than just playing college baseball together.

Kowalczyk and LeBlanc lived in the same off-campus house at Pittsburgh last year, and after each player were taken by the Rangers in the 2016 MLB draft, it struck them that there was a good chance they would be reunited in the minor leagues.

“I asked him if he knew if he was heading to Spokane,” said LeBlanc, who admitted he mispronounced it as “Spocane.”

Once both players learned they were assigned to the Indians to start their professional careers, arrangements were made for the two players to live together once again. LeBlanc and Kowalczyk stay with the same host family (Laurie and Lyle Burnett) in the Spokane Valley, sharing the basement.

“Coming in here, it was really nice to know somebody,” Kowalczyk said.

From the beginning, the former Pittsburgh Panthers were unlikely housemates. LeBlanc, a sophomore last year at Pitt, was looking to move out of the dorms for his second year and was invited to move in with Kowalczyk after there was an opening.

While LeBlanc and Kowalcyzk weren’t best friends at Pitt, coming in with a familiar face and avoiding the awkward process of living with a stranger took the edge off of their new lives as minor league baseball players.

“There’s so much going on it can be tough to have your focus be on baseball,” Indians’ assistant coach Jared Goedert said. “It seems to me they don’t have a problem with that.”

Goerdert, who played in the minor leagues for nine years with three different organizations, has never seen two college teammates be assigned to the same minor league team straight out of college, nonetheless two former housemates. But after experiencing how uncomfortable it can be in the first season, he said LeBlanc and Kowalczyk should be fortunate they have each other.

“There’s so much new,” Goedert said. “There’s so many new teammates, there’s so many new things with pro ball, there are so many new people within the Rangers organization that they are meeting that I think there would be a sense of comfort having a teammate and roommate they are familiar with to go through that experience with.”

Kowalczyk, the Rangers’ 12th-round pick, has settled in nicely to professional baseball, hitting .333 in six games for the Indians and hitting Spokane’s first home run of the season on Saturday against Eugene. LeBlanc, who was taken by Texas in the third round, hasn’t transitioned as well, posting a .200 batting average with six strikeouts in eight games.

But no matter what happens on the field, coming back to their host family’s house and a comfortable situation is reassuring for both LeBlanc and Kowalczyk.

Even their host’s dog, who is named Jake, reminds them of their house back at Pitt, as he shares a name with one of their former housemates.

“It’s like we never left,” Kowalczyk said with a smile.