By Mike DeSanto
Sports Editor
A pair of injuries has left the St. Bonaventure University baseball team in a difficult situation recently to fill the void.
The Bonnies have looked to a group of freshmen to pick up the slack and help the team win games.
Prior to the beginning of the season, junior pitcher Nate Grant broke a finger on his throwing hand, putting him on the shelf for an unknown time and leaving the three spot in the starting rotation open.
Then, going into last weekend’s series against the Saint Louis Billiken, the Bonnies discovered junior pitcher Brandon Schlimm was being shut down due to inflammation in his right elbow, specifically the ulnar collateral ligament (the ligament that requires Tommy John surgery when torn).
But the group of freshmen consisting of Casey Vincent, Danny Madden, Murphy O’Brien and Donovan Moffat has stepped in to fill the roles and try to keep consistent pitching going for the Bonnies.
“When you start a season, even highly recruited freshmen pitchers that are getting quite a bit of scholarship money, you want them to be your four, five, six guy,” Larry Sudbrook, coach of the Bonnies, said. “You want to get them ready for the next year to pitch on the weekend. For Casey Vincent to have had pretty good success, Donny to have pretty good success, Murph to have average success already at the conference level, is certainly more than you expect.”
Sudbrook said normally a young group like this isn’t able to help as much as they are for conference games, as they are still working on adjusting to the Division I level.
Though Vincent picked up a big role early as the Bonnies number three, now number two, starter Sudbrook said he has adjusted to the job nicely.
“I think early on down in Florida, he did struggle with it a little bit because regardless of how much success he had early in his life, and he’s had a ton, he still had some questions and concerns,” Sudbrook said. “After a couple outings, he has gotten a little more confident, gotten a little better about it and now he feels like he belongs when he goes out there.”
Madden said while he was happy to get the opportunity, he has needed help to work out the kinks in his games, as Sudbrook said he is still having issues with throwing strikes.
“Starting out I was excited to be put into a heavy role early on. As a freshman, there’s a lot to learn and times that we struggle in certain situations,” Madden said. “[Senior catcher] Brad Gresock, along with Coach [B.J.] Salerno, have been a big help to me in teaching me what I’m doing wrong and all the things that I need to focus on getting better at.”
Madden has often been paired with O’Brien, which Sudbrook said is because Madden will throw a lot of pitches no matter how many innings he goes, while O’Brien can give the Bonnies length in an appearance.
“It means that after four innings, your pitch count should be 60. [Madden] is one of those guys where it could be at 85-90,” Sudbrook said. “So we have always had Murphy ready to come in and ease the load on him. Right now the plans for the weekend [are] Murphy will probably start the third game.”
Moffat joined the team as a walk-on and has become the lefty specialist. Sudbrook said he and the coaching staff liked the mechanics of Moffat’s delivery when they saw him.
“He had good arm action. You watch the arm action and it’s easy arm action. He’s just flipping the ball in there. He’s not a max effort guy,” Sudbrook said. “He’s as skinny as a foul pole, so you think you’re going to be able to put some weight on there. You think his velocity’s going to increase as he gets older.”
Madden said it is an adjustment going from pitching in high school, mainly because it is a reset to everything a pitcher knows.
“College baseball is played [at] a much faster pace and so many different strategies go into winning a game. You go from knowing most kids on the other team in high school and having a feel for how to throw to them and then as a freshman against kids you’ve never played against you really have to pay attention,” Madden said.
However, Madden said he believes the help of his team has softened the blow for he and his fellow freshmen.
“It helps us a lot to know we have a great defense behind us and a catcher we can trust behind the plate with every pitch he calls,” Madden said. “Being thrown into games as a freshman is a big step from high school, but we have a great group of older guys that have been helping us out every step of the way and teaching us more about the game.”
Sudbrook reported Grant should be ready to throw a ball again next week, while Schlimm might be ready to pitch again next week.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
