Mitchel's journey from Buhach Colony to San Jose State has been long, but rewarding.

Andrew Mitchel's baseball career has been made up of peaks and valleys. There have been great times like playing for a junior college state championship team and then there have been times when he felt he couldn't get anybody out.

The San Jose State junior has learned to enjoy the good times and 2018 has definitely been good.

Mitchel recently was named the Mountain West Conference co-Pitcher of the Year. The Spartans left-hander shared the award with San Diego State's Garrett Hill.

"I didn't expect that. It was the last thing on my mind," Mitchel said.

Mitchel's journey from Buhach Colony, where he graduated in 2015, to San Jose State has been a windy one with stops in Fresno and San Diego.

He spent one year at Fresno City College but didn't enjoy his time there. He then followed a girlfriend to San Diego and went to Grossmont College where he helped the Griffins win a state championship in 2017.

"Baseball wasn't going well. So I decided to go down (to San Diego) and have fun," Mitchel said. "That fall at Grossmont, everything clicked. I got a scholarship to San Jose State, we win a state championship, everything was going good."

When Mitchel arrived at San Jose State, he struggled during the fall. He started walking people. His velocity dipped.

"I thought it was the end of my career," Mitchel said. "They turned me into a reliever, a set-up guy."

Mitchel got off to a rough start this spring with two bad appearances out of the bullpen. He gave up four earned runs in one inning against Northern Colorado and five earned runs against San Francisco.

However, Spartans interim coach Brad Sanfilippo showed confidence in Mitchel by making him a starter.

"I think I always thought for us to be successful, he has to be a weekend starter for us," Sanfilippo said. "Based on his stuff and his competitiveness, I knew he could be a good starter. Then you add his intangibles, his competitiveness, his will to win and his work ethic, which is second to none."

Mitchel finished with a 6-2 record to go along with a 3.72 ERA. He struck out 101 batters in 87 innings. Mitchel was 5-1 for the Spartans with a 3.16 ERA during Mountain West Conference play. He was second in the MWC with 62 strikeouts.

"I absolutely was not surprised," Sanfilippo said. "I've been around enough good pitchers to know he's got what it takes to be a good pitcher."

Mitchel believes his struggles this fall and early in the season were all mental. After everything he's gone through, it makes Mitchel, who was also named to the all-MWC first team, appreciate the accolades even more.

"I was tearing myself apart," Mitchel said. "It makes me really believe that hard work pays off. Working hard is something I've never not done. When I wasn't performing well, it made me think am I not destined to play baseball. I was second guessing myself. I was playing the why-me game. I got down on myself.

"I started thinking maybe you have to be born to play baseball. I'm glad I stuck with it. It took a long time to understand that hard work does pay off. It was a long, bumpy road."

Mitchel will be an interested observer during Major League Baseball's draft next week. He'll be headed to Minnesota this weekend for summer ball. Whether he stays in Minnesota this summer will be determined by the draft.

"I try not to think about it," Mitchel said. "It's out of my control. I've done everything I can do. I've showed everyone what I can do. Obviously, I want to have my name called, but worst case scenario is I come back to San Jose and do this again next year."

This story was originally published May 29, 2018 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Mitchel's journey from Buhach Colony to San Jose State has been long, but rewarding.."