As far as feel-good stories go in professional athletics, it doesn’t get much better than Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland, who’s had quite the showing in his first month.

A native of Denver, Freeland’s dream of playing in the Majors came true when none other than his hometown team chose him to join their squad as the eighth overall pick of the 2014 draft.

“It was awesome,” Freeland recalled. “It was an unbelievable feeling, unbelievable opportunity for me. Not a lot of guys get the option to do that for me, so I’m very blessed to be able to do that.”

He, of course, joins the likes of Antonio Senzatela and German Marquez in strengthening the Rockies rotation with youth.

After spending a couple years in the minors working his way up, Freeland got the chance to finally take the mound at Coors Field on Opening Day this season, in front of friends and family. Since then, he’s been making noise in the Rockies rotation–or rather, not making much noise at all–with his 2.65 ERA and *mostly* stunning performances.

“You really never know what’s going to happen when you get up to the big leagues, but hard work,” he said. “I put in work throughout the minor leagues and trusted my progress in everything I wanted.”

The work ethic and success are some things that he and rookie Senzatela share, which lends toward their combined prosperity on the field.

“It’s big,” Freeland said. “We both worked our way through the Rockies system from bottom to top, so it’s good for us, it’s good for this whole organization that what they’re doing in the minors is working.”

Over the years, elite pitchers have often paused at the thought of pitching a mile above sea level, where the air is thin, the air resistance is virtually nonexistent and the balls fly farther. But for the Colorado boy, that’s nothing out of the ordinary from his high school days.

“There’s a little comfort in there. Pitching at this level is a lot different than pitching in high school. There’s that factor,” Freeland said. “Pitching in high school, knowing how to get outs and knowing how the ball flies, my mentality was the same when I got here, so that gave me a slight edge.”

After his first six games, 34 innings in all, Freeland boasts a 3-1 record and 20 strikeouts. And while he’s seen many good days so far in his purple jersey, he believes that once he starts to retain command of one last pitch, he’ll be even better.

“Strongest part of my game is getting strikes and weak ground ball outs,” he said. “Other than that, my weakest part would be developing that changeup. That’s going to be a big pitch for me.”