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College  | Story | 4/2/2016

Friday Recap: Busfield in command

Patrick Ebert
Mike Rooney
Steve Fiorindo
Photo: John Shaffer




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Loyola Marymount 7, San Diego 2

Righthanded pitcher J.D. Busfield carried a shutout into the ninth inning in Loyola Marymount’s 7-2 win over San Diego. Busfied did indeed appear to run out of gas in the ninth, as he allowed the first three batters to reach in the bottom of the ninth via a base hit before he was lifted for a reliever. In fact, San Diego had the bases loaded and one of their most dangerous hitters at the plate, catcher Riley Adams (who made LMU sweat with a very good at-bat), before LMU was able to secure the victory.




Busfield stayed in and around the zone the entire game. He opened strong, throwing his fastball in the 91-93 mph range while touching 94 twice. His best pitch is a two-seam fastball that he throws to his arm-side with good late run and sink. He uses this offering to bust in on righthanded pitchers and toss away from lefthanded batters to induce weak groundball contact.

After the first innings Busfield settled into the 88-90 mph range, occasionally touching a 92, moving the fastball around the zone. He flashed a few promising 79-83 mph sliders, of which he was able to back-door to lefthanded batters. It wasn’t a big swing-and-miss offering but he did a nice job staying off barrels with it, and he commanded it well. His 77-82 mph changeup may be his best pitch, with good tumble and fade, although the pitch wasn’t as effective as the game progressed.

At 6-foot-7, 230-pounds Busfield has very good size and a nice looking delivery, however, his stuff and pitching style defies his skyscraper build. He doesn’t blow batters away nor does he offer a lot of deception. He’s at his best changing speeds and using his fastball to induce early contact.

Busfield moved to 2-2 on the year and lowered his ERA to 3.04. He did allow 10 hits over his eight innings of work, striking out four without allowing a walk. On the year he has struck out 36 in 47 1/3 innings this year, and has allowed only three walks on the year. However, Busfield has also allowed 55 hits against him to the tune of a .288 opponent’s batting average.




Busfield’s battery-mate, Cassidy Brown, showed quite a bit to like. At 6-foot-3, 215-pounds he offers a strong, physical presence, both at the plate and behind it. He’s your standard lunch pail, tough, durable, no-nonsense receiver. In the game he had two plays that showed his talents on both side of the ball; drilling a deep home run, a solo shot and his fifth of the year, while also gunning down an opposing baserunner with a sub-2.10 second pop time.




Right fielder Sean Watkins also added a solo home run, and opposite-field shot in the top of the second, his second of the year.



Michigan State 3, Oregon 2

In what was billed, correctly, as a series that would be heavily dependent on starting pitching, and the Friday matchup between Michigan State's Cam Vieaux and Oregon's Cole Irvin definitely lived up to the hype, as it took extra innings to ultimately decide the winner.




Cam Vieaux was simply outstanding on this cold, semi-windy Friday afternoon in East Lansing, Michigan. He was drafted in the middle rounds by the Detroit Tigers last year as a draft-eligible sophomore, but spurned professional baseball to return to Michigan State, and it looks to absolutely have been the right decision so far in 2016. The lefthander kept the Oregon hitters off balance all game long, pitching mostly with just his fastball and slider, mixing in a few changeups once in awhile, and absolutely attacked the strike zone. He's got some deception in his delivery, hiding the ball well until release, though there is some effort there and he's likely to be a reliever at the next level. The arm is quick and mostly clean, shorter through the back but clean through acceleration to release from a pretty traditional three-quarters slot.

His fastball peaked at 91 mph a few times before settling in at 87-90 for the majority of his start, slipping to more 86-88 in his final inning. He spotted the fastball to both sides of the plate, really doing a good job of getting inside on the Duck hitters and eliciting both weak contact and whiffs with the fastball, especially when he climbed the ladder with two strikes. The slider is the weapon pitch here, working in the upper-70s and touching 80-81 with sharp, late break. It was consistently an above average pitch, giving Vieux a chance to have a pair of above average pitches if he were to work out of the bullpen in pro ball. He mixed in a few changeups, including two very good ones in a key sequence late in the game. With a righthanded hitter up and a runner on base, Vieaux started the at-bat with back-to-back changeups that faded away, then climbed the ladder with the fastball to get the strikeout. Notable, not only because the pitch flashed average, but because he had so rarely thrown it all game long. He lasted eight-plus innings, allowing a pair of runs on three hits and two walks, striking out 11 Oregon hitters. He didn't get the win but it was an effort that is going to see him rise up the Perfect Game draft rankings.




Oregon starter Cole Irvin has been widely acclaimed as a potential Day 1 draft choice, and while he's not an overpowering pitcher, there's a lot to like here. He has great size (listed at 6-foot-3, 203-pounds) with a body that still projects a bit, and the delivery is easy and clean throughout. He repeats the delivery well already, and is a pretty complete product as this evaluator sees it. Despite his velocity being down (it was pretty cold), Irvin delivered eight innings of two-run baseball on seven hits and only one walk, striking out two. He worked 85-88 mph with his fastball consistently throughout the game, touching 89 a few times early on. The fastball wasn't overpowering by sheer velocity (though he's been 90-94 in the past), but he commanded it well to both sides and generates a lot of downhill plane from his size and high three-quarters arm slot. He was very crafty, for lack of a better term, on Friday afternoon, mixing and matching five different pitches of varying effectiveness, sequencing extremely well and pitching backwards often, all of which worked to keep Michigan State off balance for the most part, though they did have several baserunners throughout the day. 

Irvin mostly relied on his slider and curveball, definitely two distinct pitches, along with his fastball on Friday, though he did throw a few changeups and cutters. The slider was the primary off-speed pitch, working in the upper-70s with solid tilt, showing consistently as a average pitch. The curveball played well off of the slider, with a similar look out of the hand but 5-6 mph slower and with bigger depth. He showed the ability to throw all five of his pitches for strikes, and on the whole was pretty much the definition of a "crafty lefty" throughout the start, though with the additional velocity that we know he has he moves from crafty to powerful pretty quickly. 

Michigan State won the game in the 10th inning on a Jordan Zimmerman walk-off home run, a bomb to the opposite field gap that carried over the fence pretty well. Zimmerman, a transfer from Mesa Community College in Arizona, has led MSU in hitting for the entire season. He's hitting well over .400 with plenty of power and good on-base skills, all while playing mostly first base. He's not of "traditional" first base size, standing 6-foot-1 and weighing roughly 190 pounds, and he has more athleticism than a typical first baseman does, leading to questions about if he could profile elsewhere on the diamond. Regardless of where he plays, he can surely hit, with above-average bat speed and good loft in his swing, creating the type of power that he's posted throughout the year. 

MSU's Brandon Hughes generated a lot of buzz as a true freshman a year ago due to his combination of size and athleticism along with interesting hitting/power tools. He cleans up in the Michigan State lineup, and added three hits on Friday afternoon, including a launched double down the left field line. He's got pro size at 6-foot-2, 206-pounds and is an above average runner who could profile very well in right field at the next level. 

True freshman Marty Becchina of Michigan State has taken over in center field despite coming to MSU as an infielder, and he's also taken over the leadoff spot for the Spartans, hitting over .300 with good extra-base power in his first year of collegiate baseball. Though the routes in the outfield can be a bit raw at times, he can absolutely go get it in center and should only get better as the year progresses. He also has very quick hands at the plate with a swing built for hard, line drive contact, which he uses to his advantage to take good swings on pitches all over the zone. 

MSU's winning pitcher, righthanded reliever Dakota Mekkes, has all the makings of an absolutely dominant closer at peak, and it flashed on Friday. He's a giant of a man at 6-foot-7, 252-pounds with a well-proportioned and exceedingly strong build throughout. He throws from a tough, low three-quarters slot with good arm speed, and reached back for 92 mph in his relief appearance, with heavy life to the arm side. The ball jumps out of his hand and it's incredibly easy to project continued increases in velocity for him moving forward. 

Oregon's offense didn't do much against the Michigan State pitching staff, but junior center fielder Austin Grebeck stood out in a few ways. He hits leadoff for the Ducks and adds good elements of speed, contact ability and defensive capability to the lineup. He was the only Oregon player to reach base twice, singling hard to the pull field and walking as well. The swing is short and quick with a line drive plane, giving him the ability to shoot liners to all field, and he covers the plate well with the stroke. He's also a quality defender in center field with good reads off the bat and enough range to handle it. 

Oregon will send highly-touted lefthander Matt Krook to the mound in Saturday's tilt against Michigan State's Ethan Landon, a righthander who redshirted last season after transferring from Kansas State. 



National Notes

• Dakota Hudson continues to be on a roll as he extended his streak of not allowing an earned run to 30 2/3 innings on Friday in Mississippi State’s 3-1 win over Ole Miss. Hudson moved to 4-1 on the year while going the distance, allowing just four base hits and one unearned run while striking out 11 batters. Reid Humphreys continues to swing a hot bat for the Bulldogs, going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Hudson’s start spoiled a solid outing for Ole Miss’ Brady Bramlett who allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings while moving to 4-2 on the season.

• After it was learned that Beavers ace Drew Rasmussen would be lost for the rest of the year, Travis Eckert did a nice job stepping into the Friday night role with five shutout innings in Oregon State’s 10-1 over Washington. Eckert struck out nine batters while Bryce Fehmel went the rest of the way, allowing just one unearned run over the final four frames. K.J. Harrison and Logan Ice continued to do their part in the middle of the Beavers’ lineup, as both hit doubles, scored three runs and brought home a pair.

• Evan Kruczynski out-dueled Andrew Lantrip in East Carolina’s 3-1 win over Houston as American Athletic Conference play opened. Kruczynski struck out eight batters, allowing just one run while scattering nine base hits and a walk over seven innings to move to 4-0 on the year. Joe Ingle provided two scoreless frames to close the game to record his sixth save of the year.

• The SEC is the best conference in College Baseball right now and the teams that are “struggling” are the ones proving it. Tennessee, Missouri and Georgia all displayed exactly why this league is the toughest 30-game grind in the sport right now.

Tennessee is rebuilding under Dave Serrano and the adversity has come early and often. The season-ending injuries to Kyle Serrano – the Vols’ best arm – and senior second baseman Jeff Moberg could have been crippling.  This program has struggled offensively and Moberg was hitting .415 through 16 games with an incredible 28 runs scored.

Fast forward to Tennessee’s 14-5 series opening victory over Kentucky and the Vols are now 3-4 in the SEC.  And this is a Kentucky club that just won a series from Florida. Nick Senzel had three hits, three RBI and three runs scored as he continues to solidify himself as a top of the first round prospect. Jordan Rodgers hit for the cycle and added eight RBI for good measure.

• Missouri lost to Arkansas and the Tigers are now 0-7 in league play. Here is why that’s impressive: Arkansas led 7-3 entering the ninth and their nasty closer Zach Jackson was in the bullpen ready to go. This game was over and Missouri had every reason to shut it down and get ready for game two.

In lieu of that strategy, the Tigers’ Shane Benes and Brett Bond both hit monster home runs to make the score 7-6. Jackson was forced into the game and threw 15 pitches before finally retiring Ryan Howard to end the game. If Missouri can find a way to come back and win this series, it will have started in this ninth inning that they didn’t give away. And by the way, they have Tanner Houck starting in game two.

• Georgia beat Alabama behind a stellar performance from Robert Tyler. Tyler threw a one-hit complete game with nine strikeouts. He seems like a lock for the first round right now, especially if he can back a performance like this one.  His fastball sat 94-97 mph and there were reports that he touched 99 mph. Most importantly, he avoided three-ball counts most of the night and his 83-84 mph changeup was a huge factor in this game.

Oh yeah, the one hit he allowed was a home run to Georgie Salem, a pinch hitter with two outs in the ninth.

• Starting pitching won the day in the Pac-12 and USC’s Joe Navilhon threw six shutout innings of three-hit baseball to lead the first place Trojans to a 1-0 road victory over Stanford.  Freshman phenom Tristan Beck was sharp in the loss, and he surrendered a mere three hits in 7 1/3 innings.

• Cal’s rotation depth continues to be a factor and once again, it was unusual in nature. Ace Daulton Jefferies was a very late scratch so usual Saturday starter Ryan Mason jumped into the Friday night role on short notice.  This was no problem and Mason led surging Cal to a 9-1 win over UCLA.
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