Alex Giroux has lived in Michigan, Amsterdam, Texas, Michigan again, Oregon, Washington and now Manoa.

As a right-handed pitcher, Giroux has found a place as the Hawaii baseball team’s top long reliever.

For Giroux, his much-traveled upbringing and his success on the mound are all about adaption and location.

“For me, it’s really about movement and placement,” Giroux said of his five-pitch repertoire resulting in a 3-0 record with a team-best 1.02 ERA.

After debuting with a two-inning start against Wright State, Giroux has dominated out of the bullpen. In 152⁄3 innings as a reliever, Giroux has allowed one earned run. During that span, he has a 0.57 ERA and 0.64 WHIP.

“It was a quick mental adjustment,” Giroux said of transitioning from starter. “Just being OK with not having a set routine, and just going out and pitching, and doing my thing.”

Giroux usually will replace Harry Gustin or Randy Abshier. Both left-handed starters rely on high-spin fastballs that maintain a plane.

“When I go in after them, it’s kind of the opposite,” said Giroux, whose pitches can break laterally or sink. “I feel my stuff matches well with either one of them.”

When he was 12, Giroux learned a grip for a slider he still uses. He then developed a high-spin curveball and changeup. As a Washington freshman during a pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he threw two- and four-seam fastballs with moderate success.

With several veteran pitchers returning to the Huskies’ staff, Giroux transferred to Clark (junior) College. Mark Magdaleno is Clark’s head coach, as well as the manager of the Portland Pickles, a collegiate team that competes in the West Coast League each summer. Giroux, who played summer ball under Magdaleno, said Pickles pitching coach Brian Grant taught him to apply a sinker’s grip to his fastballs. The result is an arm-side pitch that can jam right-handed batters and a four-seamer with a crisper break.

“I’ll throw a lot of them off the plate away, and they’ll come back (inside) for a strike,” Giroux said of throwing two-seamers to a right-handed hitter. “Or I’ll start it middle, and it’ll end up inside to a righty. When I used to just throw four seams, they would kind of have flat rides. They wouldn’t have much sink to it. It would be like straight across the plate as opposed to across and down. And now with the two-seam-sinker grip, it gets on the hands (of a righty) a little better and it goes under barrels.”

This season, Giroux is holding right-handed hitters to 6-for-40 (.150) while lefties are 2-for-20 (.100).

Giroux’s fastball has touched 90 mph. “If I really want to throw four-seamers hard, I could,” he said, “but I think I’m a lot better pitcher kind of sitting in that 86, 88 (mph) range with a lot of movement and spotting it up.”

This is Giroux’s fourth year, but he is considered a sophomore. The abbreviated 2020 season with Washington did not count toward his eligibility clock, and Clark did not play a schedule in 2021 because of the pandemic. The 2022 season was regarded as Clark’s freshman season. Giroux said Magdaleno and UH head coach Rich Hill have known each other for several years.

“After Hawaii reached out to me, I took a visit,” Giroux said of the ’Bows’ offer. “Why would I say ‘no’ to that? I found myself here.”

In preseason meetings with the staff, Giroux said, “I told Coach Hill and (pitching) Coach (Mathew) Troupe: ‘I want to pitch in those big slots. Whether it’s to start or relieve, I want to help us win games.’”

Giroux has expanded his cuisine from Costco steaks on days he expects to pitch. “I’m getting into poke bowls,” Giroux said. “I wasn’t a huge raw fish guy before I came out here. Some of the local boys started getting me into some of the poke spots. I’ve been branching out with that lately.”