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College  | Story | 3/17/2018

Wolfpack claims series victory

Patrick Ebert
Photo: Elaine Day, Clemson Athletics Communications



Weekend Preview | Perfect Game College Player Database
Quick Takes: Louisiana | Mississippi State | Kentucky | Texas Tech
Friday Recap: Mize dominant to open SEC

During the season Perfect Game scouts will be traveling to some of the top series to watch the very best players in college baseball. Those observations, captured with both written notes and video, will be shared in the College Player Database as linked above, notes that can also be accessed on the players' individual PG profile pages. Throughout the season select reports will be shared in feature format to promote the players, the teams and college baseball as a whole.


Brian Brown, LHP, NC State



Brown returning for his senior year was somewhat expected, as he’s not a particularly hard thrower and his pro upside is limited, but he carves up college hitters and has enjoyed a great deal of success at NC State. That continued with a win over Clemson, NC State’s second win in as many games to claim a crucial early season ACC series on the road.

Although he topped out at 87 in the game he struck out the first two batters he faced, leadoff hitter Logan Davidson and Patrick Cromwell, on 86 and 87 mph fastballs. Davidson swung through the 86 mph heat while Cromwell went down looking, and he finished the trick by striking out the side by getting fellow senior Chris Williams swinging on a big, slow 72 mph curveball.

Brown comes at opposing hitters with a lower, slinging delivery, and is able to drop in his slow, loopy curveball for strikes almost at will. The pitch dipped below 70 mph at one point with a 69 showing up on the radar, and his fastball was in the 84-85 mph range by his last two frames. He did a good job maintaining the 86 mph reading, and he spotted it to both sides of the plate well. He did walk four batters in the game, but that had more to do with him not giving in and offering up something the opposing hitters could drive over the heart of the plate.

He also threw quite a few changeups, which were right around 77 mph for the first several innings, and it proved to be yet another pitch he was comfortable throwing in any count to any batter, and he still went back to his fastball just to make sure hitters knew he still had it. On the day he struck out eight and allowed a run on five hits and the four walks in six innings, moving to 4-0 on the year with the win.


Reid Johnston, RHP, NC State

Johnston picked up his fourth save of the year, a three-inning save as he came in the seventh inning to secure NC State’s victory over Clemson, a win that also claimed the series with a chance for a sweep. Johnston is a freshman righthander with a sturdy and low-waisted 6-foot-2, 195-pound frame that is fairly physical mature.

He did a very good job throwing strikes, and maintained his upper-80s velocity well during his three-inning stint. He did allow four base hits but didn’t issue a walk, and struck out three batters. While his stuff isn’t overpowering, and for the most part he is usually in or around the zone, he did a nice job working between his 85-89 mph fastball and his breaking ball that sat at 75-77 mph.

Johnston was especially good at spotting his fastball to his spots, and caught the corners well, showing an easy, repeating delivery, and upset hitters’ timing enough to get them to swing over the top of his curveball. It’s easy to envision him starting, possibly even later this year, as he continues to get more experience pitching extended innings in high-leverage situations out of NC State’s bullpen.


Brooks Crawford, RHP, Clemson



Starting opposite NC State’s Brian Brown, the physicality of Clemson’s Brooks Crawford stood out immediately. He looks every part of his listed 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame, with strength well proportioned throughout his tall and angular, high-waisted and broad-shouldered build. His lower half in particular has good strength and he uses that strength well to generate inertia towards home plate from the bottom up.

He came up firing 92-93 mph fastballs, eventually settling in more of the 89-91 range, and got some weak swings early in the game mixing between his fastball and his power breaking ball that sat in the 80-82 mph range and touched as high as 84. He racked up a couple of punchouts with his curveball in the second inning, two of the three strikeouts he recorded in his brief outing.

On the day he lasted 4 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs to score on four base hits and a walk. NC State scored those three runs as single tallies in the third, fourth and fifth innings, with the one in the fifth coming after he had been removed from the game.


Spencer Strider, RHP, Clemson



Coming in relief of starter Brooks Crawford in the bottom of the fourth inning of Clemson’s second game against NC State, Spencer Strider did a good job minimizing the damage, allowing just one to score as he inherited runners on second and third with only one out and the top of the order coming up (and the one run that did score occurred when the third baseman took too long to make a throw across the diamond on a routine ground ball). A smaller built righthander, listed at 5-foot-11, 205-pounds, he makes up for his lack of height with a big fastball thanks to his raw arm strength.

The first pitch out of his hand was actually a 82 mph slider, and he followed that up with another slider at 83 before firing his first fastball, which was recorded at 95 mph. He stayed in the 94-95 mph range to get out of the fifth inning, going right after hitters and for the most part pounding the strike zone.

Upon returning to the mound in the sixth inning Strider was greeted rudely as the first batter he faced, Evan Edwards, deposited a fastball over the wall in left-center field for a booming home run on a full count. For as hard as Strider was throwing his fastball is fairly straight, and he was catching quite a bit of the plate. After the home run Strider appeared to get out of sync as he tried to stay away from hitters with pitches well out of the strike zone, and appeared to be overthrowing as well. His fastball velocity dipped to 91 mph, possibly as a result of wanting to be too fine with his pitches.

There’s no doubting the arm strength, and he already has been thrown into quite a few high pressure situations out of the Clemson bullpen this year as a freshman, a role he likely will continue to serve during his time with the Tigers.


 
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