Two I’s were ultimately the downfall of The University of Alabama baseball team’s pitching staff last year: injuries and inexperience.
Four freshman – Justin Kamplain, Jon Keller, Spencer Turnbull and Taylor Guilbeau – played significant time in the starting rotation, and the end result was the Crimson Tide’s first losing season under head coach Mitch Gaspard and a 5.07 ERA, compared to a 3.92 ERA the year before.
But with the extra experience and return of redshirt juniors Tucker Hawley and Taylor Wolfe, senior catcher and infielder Brett Booth expects the pitching staff to become a reliable strength compared to last year’s Achilles’ heel.
“I think they look a world better this year,” Booth said. “Last year we were just focused on throwing strikes, but now this year, with a year of experience under the belt, now we are kind of taking that next step to making pitches, and picking people off, and kind of controlling the game. They’ve been doing an excellent job of that at being a pitcher and not just getting up there and throwing strikes.”
Gaspard said last year’s experience and the development the pitching staff has had during the offseason should make a huge difference in the staff’s performance.
“I think for starters, last year, just the experience was invaluable,” Gaspard said. “As tough as it was for those guys, they’ve now had time to really evaluate what works and what doesn’t work out on the field. And with that, in the offseason as a coaching staff, you are able to prepare a lot better and help prepare those guys for the failures that they had.
“Now that the command has gotten better, I think our preparation and the way we have prepared each kid individually knowing what he is, knowing what his strengths and weakness are has made them better moving forward. In all of the innings we’ve pitched now, just in the past two weeks, we’ve pitched about 160 innings, and we’ve walked 23 batters. Just last year, for an example, in the Arkansas series we walked close to 30 in three games.”
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The return of Hawley and Wolfe will be a major addition to the rotation as it gives the team two players with substantial NCAA experience on an otherwise relatively young roster. Both players are coming back from Tommy John surgery, and while Wolfe is still recovering and will be more of a factor mid-season, Gaspard expects Hawley to make a strong impact early.
“He gives us the ability early in the season as a guy who can close, who can set up and do some things in the back of the game, and from there we will decide do we work him back into the starting rotation and what is best for this team,” Gaspard said. “He certainly gives us a lot of flexibility, and that one thing that hurt last year is you want that older guy who really understands how to pitch, a guy that really commands the strike zone, and that’s what he does best.”
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