Baseball Notebook: William and Mary Pitching Edition
– Get used to seeing freshman lefthander Cole Shain coming out of the bullpen on weekends. Shain has recently become a weekday starter, switching places with sophomore righthander Tim Norton, which will allow him to come on in relief on weekends to face lefthanders, as he did Sunday versus Towson. It’s a good thing too as Shain is the only left-handed pitcher on the staff with 12 or more innings so far this year
– Sophomore righthander Logan Billbrough gave up two runs on three hits Sunday, walking three in one-and-one-third innings pitched. Pitching Coach Jad Prachniak said his struggles may have been due to a lack of work, with Billbrough only pitching four-and-a-third innings since April 7th. Prachniak said that Billbrough’s going to throw more in his side sessions this week in order to get more work in before his next appearance
– Junior righthander Kevin Landry gave up three runs in the third inning Saturday, allowing Towson to take an early 3-1 lead. “I was pushing real hard off my back foot,” Landry said. “I couldn’t throw hard as I wanted and my arm was lagging behind. But I settled down and got some strikes.” Landry went one to pitch seven innings, striking out eleven and holding the Tigers scoreless the rest of the game.
– Even though he got the victory Sunday, senior righthander Jeremy Neustifter didn’t feel like he had his best stuff. “I didn’t really feel great today,” Neustifter said after the game. “I didn’t really like I had much behind the ball, but I was able to spot up early and when I was getting some calls on the outside corner of the plate, I was a lot more effective.”
An Opposing CAA Hitter on the Tribe’s Pitching Staff:
On Tim Norton: “He threw all of us a lot of off-speed, a lot of curveballs and changeups. [The team said] beware of the off-speed stuff, he threw more off-speed than fastballs so you just kind of have to sit back.”
On Garrison Sarrett: “He has kind of a loopy, slow curve ball. He got me out twice…I just think I got myself out.”
On Matt Davenport: “He’s a lot more effective on righties; a lot of the righties said they had a lot of trouble picking up the ball, picking up the movement on his slider and fastball. He threw me the inside fastball and I hit it pretty well…A lot of the guys were saying they had a lot of trouble with the movement and picking up the ball.”
On Kevin Landry: “He just pitched well. He hits spots. I don’t think I got one good pitch to hit the whole game. We’ve been told his fastball is in the low-90s; I don’t know what he was throwing but it wasn’t overpowering. He just did a real good job hitting his spots. His slider on the righties was pretty effective…His stuff was alright, I wouldn’t say it was amazing, but he did a real good job of pitching. He hit spots real well and that’s just as good as having good stuff. I thought he was good.”
On Jeremy Neustifter: “He just was fastballs away…I saw the ball pretty well off him; I hit the ball hard off him each time. His fastball is pretty straight. Obviously he’s effective, I mean we only had two hits off of him. He did a pretty good job hitting his spots with his fastball, all his fastballs were low and away to me.”
On Cole Shain: “I kind of feel I got myself out. I was lunging on a curveball. He threw a pretty good curveball to start me out. I wouldn’t say he was deceptive but he threw a good curveball that I grounded out on.”
