What Carmen Mlodzinski did to help his chance to start

Over the course of a college baseball season, hitters get used to seeing the same four or five pitches from opposing pitchers; it’s usually a fastball and changeup mixed with some sort of standard breaking ball.

That’s where Carmen Mlodzinski hopes to differ.

The sophomore pitcher has spent the better part of the offseason developing a cutter, a unique pitch at the college level, that he hopes will develop him into a frontline starter in the SEC.

“I don’t think anybody else throws it on this team,” Mlodzinski said. “You’re not going to see it much in college because traditional bullpen guys are more fastball-slider and starters are usually a three-pitch mix. It’s rare, but the guys who throw it you can see they have success with it.”

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The addition of his newest pitch was something he was tinkering with during the season but didn’t have time to refine it with four games a week.

It wasn’t until he got some time over the summer to work on the pitch that it started to develop. Then, after some work with pitching coach Skylar Meade this fall, he felt comfortable adding it to his repertoire.

Now he throws his typical three-pitch mix and will debut the cutter this season after it topped out in the high-80s in the fall.

Cutters are designed to break toward the pitcher’s glove hand, similar to a slider but faster with later break. The goal, Mlodzinski said, of adding is to get swings and misses from both lefties and righties.

“Last year there’s no question I struggled with lefties so this is a pitch that’s going to help me with lefties,” he said. “It’s going to help me with righties too, so it’s juts another pitch I can get people off balance on my fastball with.”

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Mlodzinski finished his first season with a 5.52 ERA and a 3-6 record in 19 appearances—seven of those starts—and was thrust into a starting role during the Gamecocks’ postseason stretch.

Now, with the Friday night starter job up for grabs, he’s is hoping the addition of his new pitch and his offseason work vaults him into that role.

“He’s done a really nice job. He’s gotten better; he’s bigger, stronger, more physical and because of that all of his stuff has taken an uptick,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “There’s a lot of good pitches now he can use as weapons. I think his command has ben better this fall as well. He’s a guy that’s definitely taken that next step and will be a very key pitcher for us on the weekend.”

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With Logan Chapman out this year after tearing his UCL and undergoing Tommy John surgery, Mlodzinski seems like the likely option to start Opening Day for the Gamecocks.

After coming out of the bullpen to start the season, he morphed into one of the Gamecocks’ go-to starters, getting the nod in three postseason games and is hoping the ever-changing nature of his role last year and adversity he went through helps him as the Gamecocks get ready to start the season.

“Definitely up and down. Changing roles constantly, but I feel like last year was really good for me because I got a taste of everything,” Mlodzinski said. “I think it was a big learning experience for me.”