By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com

Imagine that the Big Ten baseball title is on the line in the bottom of the ninth and the Illini lead by one run. The opponent has loaded the bases and nobody's out. Pitching coach Drew Dickinson calls for his left-handed reliever.  Twenty-five-year-old Josh Harris emerges from the bullpen, crosses the foul line, steps to the top of the mound, and takes the ball.

That was a fictional scenario, but it could very well become a reality later this season. And, if it does, Dickinson says he doesn't expect that his Marine Corps veteran will wilt under the pressure.

"Nothing's gonna scare Josh," Dickinson said. "He's been through the military and the life-and-death expectancy that brings. Being in a college game? That's not pressure. He's always under control. Nothing fazes this kid."

More than four years of military service and a pair of overseas deployments would convince anyone what real pressure is.

Growing up in Beecher, Illinois, young Josh was encouraged by his father, Cal, to play all sports.

"He was my biggest fan," Harris said. "He coached all of my teams … football, basketball, all of my Little League games." 

Cal was a deputy with the Will County Sheriff's Department. After his 10-hour shift, he'd grab his glove and play catch with Josh and daughter Jordyn.

"Sports was our way of bonding," Josh said.

Five months after Josh's 13th birthday, his world changed when his dad passed at the age of 47 from colon cancer.

"I had to resort to the other coaches to be successful in baseball and the other sports I played," he said.

At age 16, three of Josh's older friends began to check out a possible military career.

"They went to a Marine Corps PT (physical training) session every Wednesday and were studying to pass the qualifying test," he said. "They mentioned it to me and I was like 'Yeah, I'll give it a shot and see if I like it or not.' I went to my first PT event and I enjoyed it. I liked the team-building exercises and everything about it."

Since Josh was too young to enlist without parental permission, he had to persuade his mother.

"The Marines were getting Josh prepped for boot camp on the weekends," said Karyn Harris. "After a year of that, I thought he would probably have enough and quit, but he kept pursuing it."

The recruiter eventually visited the Harris home and sat down for two hours with Karyn and her son, explaining things in full detail so that she could comprehend what was actually going on.

"She looked at me and asked if I still wanted to do it," Josh said. "She said, 'Alright, let's do this.' And she's been on board with it ever since."

Harris says his service from 2011-15 in the Marine Corps "was everything for me."

"I wouldn't take back that experience for anything," he said. "I would sign the papers all over again if I had to."

Harris loved the people he met in service.

"It's just a bunch of individuals who want to succeed and push the people next to them and watch them succeed as well," he said. "They're just the most unselfish people, all trying to get better every single day. I matured more because of them. That experience made me understand life in general."

Harris prefers not to share the details of his deployments with his Illini teammates.

"I don't really go into stuff like that," he said.

When he was discharged from the Marines in October of 2015, Harris decided to take advantage of the G.I. Bill and seek a college education. He enrolled at Kankakee Community College and tried out for the Cavaliers baseball team, the same school that sent Casey Fletcher to the Illini. It was Fletcher who encouraged Dickinson to take a look at the fire-balling southpaw.

"Just watching Josh play catch you could see how his arm worked," Dickinson said. "In the game, he was 90-92 (mph) with a really good slider. I was like 'I'm in on this.'"

Harris says he's learned a lot from Dickinson when it comes to pitching mechanics and conditioning his arm.

"The difference between now and then is absolutely insane," he said. "I totally eliminated my previous training regiment and now I focus strictly on band work and reshaping my body to become a pitcher."

In Illinois's season opener on February 15, Harris got pitching victory No. 1 in his very first appearance.

"Personally, it's not the way I wanted it to happen," he said. "After I got out of a jam, Zac Taylor hit a home run and that earned me the win. Quinn did a great job against Georgetown, but it's unfortunate that I received the W. But that's the way baseball works. One day you're the hero and the next day people are wondering why you're on the team."

And while his left arm is his "money" arm, his heavily tattooed right arm tells Josh's real story. On the inside of his bicep are the words "For those I love, I will sacrifice." A smaller acronym—"; IGY6"—adorns his left wrist.

"It's called the project semicolon," Harris explained. "It's like the author writes something and his story is yet to be written, so he continues with another sentence. Mine is the military aspect of it. IGY6 ('I've got your back') is for suicide awareness among veterans."

Statistics indicate that an average of 20 U.S. veterans commit suicide every day.

"I've been around people with PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder)," he says. "I think it's one of the saddest things in the world how these people aren't recognized or seek the proper treatment. If I don't know a military veteran that I run into, I shake their hand. Veterans are taught to look down at the hand they shake. If they see IGY6, it's a signal that 'you can talk to me.'"

Harris is particularly gratified by the collegiality of his Illini teammates.

"The brotherhood of this team is great," he said. "When I committed here, they embraced me with open arms. They cared about me as an individual and not just as a baseball player. Every individual cares about each other. We all want to see each other succeed and we push each other to 110% every day. It's awesome to be around. We don't let each other slack off and we push each other to the limit. Being around 30-something guys like that, I think we'll have a successful season."

Harris studies communications at the University of Illinois and intends to follow in his father's footsteps by seeking a career in law enforcement.

"Communication is huge in law enforcement, so I think that a degree would be beneficial in being hired into a department," he said. "Having a law enforcement degree would have been really beneficial, but they really want to see the maturity of an individual. You can have a degree in anything, as long as it shows that you matured for four years and reached the goal of getting a degree. It shows that you're capable of doing the job."