You might expect a more dignified nickname for a 6’5, opening day starter with a fastball that can hit 90, yet “Mikey Mo” will have to suffice. At least it’s better than “Cindy,” the tag that his Notre Dame teammates gave him in honor of the supermodel with the similar last name of Margolis.

But Fighting Irish transfer Michael Morgalis wanted to leave more than just his nickname in South Bend. After just two appearances as a freshman and none as a sophomore, Morgalis jumped ship in search of more playing time—and found it at Harvard.

“I would be lying if I said [the transfer] wasn’t for baseball,” Morgalis says. “It was really frustrating to be at Notre Dame, knowing I was good enough to play there, and my coach kind of just told me that as long as I stayed there, I wouldn’t play. And as an athlete who has spent a lot of his years playing that sport, to be told that is pretty devastating.”

After solid showings during off-season practices, Morgalis faltered during his fall outing in the Blue-Gold series last year, Notre Dame’s annual intrasquad scrimmages. It didn’t help that the class below him, which Baseball America named the top recruiting class in the nation, featured five pitchers who were drafted.

“During the Blue-Gold series I essentially got destroyed,” Morgalis says. “We had meetings afterwards, and that meeting was basically what made me transfer because I had a good fall, but all the coach talked about during the meeting was how bad I did in that one outing. So basically that was the excuse he needed to tell me that I wasn’t going to play.”

Since Morgalis didn’t record a single inning for the Irish last season, he maintained that year of eligibility for baseball for his current sophomore standing. Academically, he is a first semester junior, as only some of his business school credits transferred to Harvard.

“Mike kind of got caught up in the numbers game, and the younger players had more talent,” Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri noted. “We would have loved to see him get a degree from Notre Dame because he’s such a good student, but we thought if he could he should look into going somewhere without sacrificing academics and getting an opportunity to play.”

“He’s a good arm, a competitor, a great person and a great teammate,” Mainieri added. “I wish him all the best.”

Harvard coach Joe Walsh, on the other hand, has just found a new excuse to visit Ohio.

“I haven’t been to Cincinnati yet—that’s where he’s from—but I’m going to start looking for players there now,” Walsh says.

Maddux, Only Bigger

Though he hesitates to draw a direct comparison between Morgalis and the relatively diminutive Atlanta Braves’ righty Greg Maddux, Walsh paid his pitcher the ultimate compliment by very nearly doing so.

“Maddux is one of those guys that throws 84, 86,” Walsh says. “Then all of a sudden—whoom! He comes in with an 88, 89. Mike can do the same, in that he pitches up. He’ll be sitting 85, 87, and then you get that tough guy, and he lets it go and brings a 90 a few times during a ballgame. That’s very unusual to see a kid who can pitch up.”

Along with his ability to muster the extra gas on his fastball when needed, Morgalis has a change-up and a slider—which Walsh calls “nasty”—in his arsenal. He also works quickly and throws mostly strikes, keeping his fielders on their toes.

“I go after people, and a lot of time they’re going to swing at pitches that they don’t really want to swing at and get themselves out,” Morgalis says. “It helps your teammates stay awake, and then all of a sudden it’s the fifth inning and you’ve only thrown 60 pitches, and you get to play a few more innings.”