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College  | Story  | 4/16/2016

Cate leads UConn to series win

Jheremy Brown      Mike Rooney      Patrick Ebert     
Photo: UConn Athletics




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UConn 4, No. 25 Houston 1

After receiving a masterful performance from junior lefthander Anthony Kay in game one, the Huskies rode the left arm of freshman Tim Cate who was excellent once he settled in and shut down the No. 25 Houston Cougars for seven strong innings. Overall it was a youth affair on the mound for Connecticut as freshman Randy Polonia delivered two shutout innings of relief, helping seal the 4-1 victory and take the series. 

 

The Connecticut coaching staff didn’t even give the Cougars a full 24-hour reprieve from Anthony Kay’s performance as they sent another talented lefthander to the mound in freshman Tim Cate. Picking up his first career win, Cate appears to be another Huskie arm destined for a potential top round selection with the type of performance and advanced command he put on display.

Not overly intimidating in the physicality department as he’s listed at just 6-foot, 167-pounds, Cate has the looseness and athleticism in his delivery that not only allowed him to repeat but consistently fill up the strike zone and do so while showing three pitches. Throughout his seven innings Cate worked with a deliberate tempo and excellent balance to his delivery all the while showing a smooth and easy release which helped carry his velocity from the opening pitch to the 103rd, and final, pitch of the game.

Comfortably sitting in the 88-91 mph range, Cate may not necessarily light up the radar guns yet but when you take into the ease in which he generates it and how well he projects physically, it’s easy to envision a steady climb in velocity. Cate’s arm action is one that’s short and rather quick through the back side and he also does a nice job of generating extension out front with his lower half and at release which led to solid downhill plane to his fastball. Similar to Kay’s fastball on Friday, Cate was able to show more cutting life to the pitch when he located the pitch to his glove side and featured more running life when working away to his arm side.

Of the seven innings Cate threw it was the first where he seemed most uncomfortable as he was scattered around the plate, issued one of his two walks, and allowed his only run of the game on a wild pitch. Take away that one frame and Cate was masterful, surrendering just two hits and a single walk over the next six in which he punched out five. The fastball command sharpened and though he flashed the potential for an above average curveball early, it became a true out pitch in the latter innings of the outing.

On top of being able to move his heater in and out with intent the young lefthander showed the type of comfort in throwing his sharp breaking that you don’t typically find in young arms. He did a nice job of maintaining his arm slot on the 79-81 mph and frequently showed late depth with which he was able to locate to the back foot of righthanded hitters and induced empty, over the top swings. And while the curveball is a true swing-and-miss offering Cate’s changeup isn’t too far behind in becoming one itself. Like the curveball he repeats his slot well on the 82-85 mph pitch and with it he’s able to create short running life on the pitch to his arm side.

At the end of Saturday's game you’re left looking at a young lefthander who shut down one of the top 25 teams in the nation and he did so with the command of three pitches. With added strength there’s no reason to think his fastball can’t get to what Kay showed on Friday, though he’s already proven he doesn’t need the big velocity to miss bats and give his team a chance to win.


 

Sticking with the youth on the mound after junior closer Patrick Ruotolo finished off the opening game, freshman Randy Polonia tossed two scoreless innings of his own to pick up his team high sixth save of the year. Another highly athletic arm that Connecticut has at the ready, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Polonia showed shades of Carson Cross with the types of swings and misses he was able to collect with his slider. An 81-83 mph offering, Polonia’s slider reads fastball out of the hand and it isn’t until it’s too late that the Houston hitters were able to detect slider as all four of his strikeouts came with the pitch. Showing runaway life from a righthanded hitter with the slider is just part of the battle as the freshman is able to create deception with a big back turn which allows him to hide the ball extremely well. Add in the fact that his fastball worked 87-90 mph with running life to his arm side while showing a changeup at 83 mph and it becomes clear how he already has 26 strike outs in just 15 innings.

The big hit in a game that quite honestly didn’t feature much offense came off of the bat of the righthanded hitting Joe DeRoche-Duffin who launched his team leading seventh home run of the year in the bottom of the sixth to give UConn a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Keeping his weight back on a slider that hung in the zone from Houston’s Seth Romero, DeRoche-Duffin belted a towering shot over the left field fence that was gone the moment it left the bat.

Mentioned in the recap from Friday based on his offensive exploits, senior centerfielder Jack Sundberg once again made you take notice of his game and this time it was for his defensive abilities. With Houston slugger Joe Davis at the plate who jumped all over a Cate fastball that missed its mark and sent it deep into the left-center field alley, Sundberg immediately broke back over his right shoulder with a fast first step and made a diving catch going towards the wall on what was surely extra-bases.


 

Houston sophomore Seth Romero is anything but a secret now as he entered the spring as one of the top lefthanders in the 2017 draft class and he’s continued to show big time stuff well into the 2016 campaign. Making his seventh start of the year after missing the first two weekends of the spring the strongly built 6-foot-3, 253-pound, broad shouldered Romero appears to be well into midseason form as far as his stuff is concerned.

Opening the game with a fastball that sat 93-95 mph in the first inning, Romero continued to bump 94s well into the outing while settling more into the 91-93 mph range for the rest of the way. Using his physical strength that he exudes throughout his frame, Romero is able to generate excellent arm speed coming through the back before releasing the ball from a difficult and lower three-quarters arm slot. His command wasn’t as sharp as he’s capable of showing as he did issue six free bases which ultimately factored into the loss, but there were several pitches throughout the outing where the talented lefty showed the ability to work away from a lefthander only to pound a fastball back in to his glove side with intent to finish the at-bat. On a side note, four of the six walks came with a lefthanded hitter in the box.

Over the six innings of work Romero was able to collect another nine strike outs which gives him the team lead in the category as he’s already struck out 63 in just 49 2/3 innings of work. Part of the reason for the high total in the strike out department is his slider, a pitch that though was inconsistent at times, also showed above average life with true swing-and-miss ability. Thrown from the same difficult arm slot, Romero appeared to throw two different versions of the pitch, one an upper-70s offering that showed more sweeping life and a harder, 81-83 mph pitch that showed late snap and two-plane life to the bottom of the zone.

Coming through the back his arm action is relatively short and it remains that way when throws his changeup, an 81-84 mph pitch that he seldom threw this outing but did locate in the zone. There’s not doubting the arm nor the electric stuff it’s capable of producing and as he continued to tighten up his command Romero could be near unhittable. And just to prove the type of feel and athleticism the sophomore showed on the mound, he regularly mixed up his looks and twice picked off runners at first base though both would advanced to second with on defensive miscues.

The Houston corner outfielders each made an impact defensively as well with left fielder Corey Julks and right fielder Connor Wong, who also punched a 91 mph fastball through the 4-hole for a single early, showed their chops in the field. While Wong’s was with his arm as he came up throwing and gunned a runner out at third in the bottom of the fourth while showing plenty of arm strength and carry, it was Julks who made arguably the best defensively play of the game. With the wind swirling high up UConn’s Bobby Melley skied a ball that got caught up in the air stream and continued to carry to the left field fence before Julks made a leaping catch, bringing the ball back over the fence and saving a run while making a highlight reel catch of his own.



Michigan 7, Nebraska 2

After taking game 1 of the series on Friday night, Michigan delivered another victory over Nebraska on Saturday afternoon to take the series from the Cornhuskers via timely hitting and quality pitching.

Michigan starter Oliver Jaskie, who I've seen already this season, was his typical solid self, relying on lots of deception and a quality changeup to disrupt the timing of the Nebraska hitters. He touched 90 mph a few times early on, mostly working in the 85-89 mph range with solid life to the arm side. His delivery is very funky and deceptive, hiding the ball well until release and really allowing the ball to jump at opposing hitters, who don't seem to pick it up out of his hand very well at all. The changeup is a solid pitch with good fade and velocity differential, looking like a fastball out of his hand. He didn't have his "A" command on this day, but gave the Wolverines five strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts. The slider may have been his best pitch on this day, something he didn't really show when I saw him in Stillwater, getting on top of it nicely and really diving it down underneath the bats of both righthanded and lefthanded hitters.




Nebraska's Ryan Boldt is probably the best prospect of the two teams in terms of MLB draft projection, and the 6-foot-3, 210-pound center fielder combines a quality combination of size, strength, athleticism and speed that isn't seen all that often. He took a very loud batting practice, enough to where I feel pretty comfortable grading his raw power as plus, but despite better results in 2016, scouts are still wanting to see that power play more in game situations.  He covers ground well in center field with solid average range and enough speed to handle the position for now, though eventually he may slow down enough to force a move to a corner. The contact skills are notable in the box, and he did drive a ball pretty deep to the pull field in this game, but it did seem that the bevy of left-handed pitchers that Michigan rolled out gave him a little bit of trouble. I'll get another look on Sunday and try to nail down his overall profile as we get closer and closer to the MLB draft in June. 

Perhaps the most exciting moment of the game was in the top of the ninth, when Michigan brought on righthander Jackson Lamb to close down a 7-2 lead. Lamb, an extremely long and lean righty with plus athleticism (he had Division I basketball offers out of high school), is just getting back into pitching after losing the majority of last year to Tommy John surgery. While the arm action isn't especially conducive to starting down the road, his arm speed is explosive and the ball truly jumps out of his hand. His fastball worked 90-93 mph and peaked at 95 mph once, with extremely heavy, late life down in the zone. He walked a batter but immediately got a double play off of a 93 mph bullet, located down and away from a lefthanded hitter with plus sink. He generates tremendous plane to the plate and looks the part of a fireballing reliever at the next level. He's most certainly one to watch down the stretch as he gets more and more back into game shape. As for now, he seems to be another weapon for Coach Erik Bakich at the back of the Wolverine bullpen that already includes Carmen Benedetti and Bryan Pall.




Speaking of Benedetti, scouts are still relatively split on whether they prefer him on the mound or with a bat in his hands. He's been playing right field a bit recently, and while he certainly has the athleticism and arm strength for the corner outfield, he's new to the position. Regardless, if he shows he can handle right field, it certainly increases his offensive profile, since despite having advanced hit-ability and an excellent approach, he hasn't shown the power necessary to support a first base/designated hitter profile. He showed that approach on Saturday, lining a single the opposite way and working two walks, giving him 32 free passes on the season (versus only 17 strikeouts). He maintains that approach even in batting practice, content to lace line drives to all fields and work both gaps rather than cut it loose and shoot for the fences. If the right field experiment works out in the eyes of evaluators, he could potentially be a top five round draft choice. 

Perhaps the key moment of the game came in the 6th inning. With the bases loaded and two outs with the score tied at 2-2, Nebraska's Ryan Boldt came to the plate against Michigan's Ryan Nutof. Nutof promptly threw ball one, and Bakich wasted no time signaling to the bullpen for freshman lefty William Tribicher. With a 1-0 count, Tribucher painted three strikes to the glove side to strike out Boldt looking, allowing Michigan to maintain the tie. They then scored five runs in the bottom of the inning and never relinquished the lead. 

Michigan's freshman second baseman, 5-foot-8 Ako Thomas, has been a quietly productive member of the Wolverine lineup, batting ninth and playing everyday. Despite a low batting average and no power to speak of, Thomas walks a ton, giving him a more than healthy on base percentage in the high .300's. He singled in the fourth inning, scoring two, to tie the game 2-2; and then singled again in the sixth with the bases loaded to give Michigan a 3-2 lead and open the floodgates, so to speak. 

The series will conclude Sunday afternoon in Ann Arbor. Michigan will send senior lefthander Evan Hill to the mound, while Nebraska's starter has yet to be announced.
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