Crowe dazzles in second outing of season
Wil Crowe watched as Jerry Meyers sauntered out of the dugout and made the call to the bullpen. After a brief discussion, the junior left the mound to raucous applause after another stellar day at the ballpark.
Crowe, making his second start this season after missing the entire 2016 season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery, carved up Wright State Saturday en route to his second win of the year.
“He’s awfully talented and he’s got a great mentality and makeup,” head coach Chad Holbrook said. “He competes and is a fearless competitor. You love giving the ball to kids like that. He has a special place in my heart knowing how hard he’s worked to come back.”
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Crowe finished the day going 6.1 innings and allowing just one run, which came after he left the game. He gave up just four hits and struck out nine batters.
It was the most he’s struck out since punching out 10 against Kentucky two seasons ago. It was different than his opening weekend start where he went five innings and struck out seven.
He pitched over an inning more Saturday and only allowed one more hit while striking out a couple more batters. He retired 19 of the 24 batters he faced.
“Every outing is different. You just have to go with the flow of the game. We’re always trying to get guys out. Whether I’m getting guys groundout, strikeout, whatever it is, I don’t care,” Crowe said. “I just try to get guys out.”
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The wind was whipping around Founders Park for all of his time on the mound, blowing directly out to right-center field at about 25 miles per hour.
Crowe wasn’t affected by it. Of the 19 outs he recorded, only four were on fly outs. The rest were on the ground or resulted in a strikeout and an angry batter turning to walk back to the dugout.
“I wasn’t affected by [the wind]” Crowe said. “I went after it like the scouting report. I went after them, tried to get ground balls and try to get them to roll over some pitches.”
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Saturday was his last start before the Clemson series, and it came when his team gave him more run support than it did last Saturday. The Gamecocks scored 10 runs in game two, twice as many as they did last Sunday.
Crowe said it was good to have some support, but in the end he’s just happy to walk away with the win.
For a pitch who spent the better part of the last two years rehabbing and accumulating “cobwebs” on his throwing arm, he hasn’t shown it through his first two games. But for him, his lockdown pitching is only a small piece of the puzzle in helping his team succeed.
“I want to come out and win games,” Crowe said. “I had a job to do and that’s all I’m trying to do. I’m not trying to pitch great or pitch bad or whatever it is. I just want come out and give guys some innings to help win the game.”
