North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Holliday's Masterful Approach
6/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BY TIM PEELER
It wasn’t a home run, though Dallas Poulk started the game off with an unlikely shot off the right-centerfield flagpole. It had nothing to do with defense, even though there were two big plays at the plate and two ninth inning diving plays that help the Wolfpack hold off the Gamecocks, 5-4, and advance to the Sunday night winner’s bracket game.
It came in the seventh inning when Wolfpack associate head coach Tom Holliday noticed that starting pitcher Clayton Shunick’s gas gauge was creeping into the red zone. He had already thrown 112 pitches, which is about the limit for any pitcher on the Wolfpack staff under Holliday’s control.
“I have some rules about how many times you let a pitcher get into trouble,” Holliday said after the game. “I had already violated my own rules, because Clayton had been in trouble three or four times already.”
But Shunick, one of the top pitchers in college baseball, was still getting outs. He had pitched six full innings against the Gamecocks, allowing just two earned runs. But the game was coming down to its final 18 outs and the score was tied 4-4. Holliday didn’t want the top of
Shunick walked Scott Wingo, the first batter of the inning. Then he threw out Reese Havens on a sacrifice bunt, moving Wingo into scoring position. Holliday wasn’t going to chance giving up the go-ahead run, not matter how well Shunick had pitched.
Holliday knew that South Carolina junior slugger Justin Smoak, a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection and one of the top hitters in college baseball, would likely get his turn at bat. The switch-hitting Smoak entered the game with 21 home runs and 69 RBIs.
Holliday called for righty Sam Brown to relieve Shunick, who left the game with score still tied. But Brown walked
The veteran coach, who handles all pitching decisions for Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent, had already decided he was going to have left-hander Andrew Taylor pitch to Smoak, the third hitter in the Gamecock lineup.
“The report I had on Smoak was to make him turn around and hit the other way,” Holliday said. “So that is what I was going to do. If he gets something and hits it out of the park, then so be it. He beats me.”
Smoak hit a deep, but playable, fly ball to right field that Domonique Rogers caught for the second out of the inning.
Holliday called for yet another pitching change, sending in the Wolfpack’s fourth pitcher in four batters.
But he knew that Gamecock slugger James Darnell, who has 19 home runs and 81 RBIs on the season, doesn’t like to hit pitches that are down and away. That just happens to be junior right-hander Kyle Rutter’s favorite pitch, so Holliday brought him in to pitch to Darnell.
On his fifth pitch from Rutter, Darnell popped out to shortstop Tommy Foshci, ending the Gamecock’s scoring threat.
“I was going to keep running people out there,” Holliday explained after the game. “I was not going to let
“I was going to keep running people out there, until somebody says give me the ball and let me pitch. I thought Rutter really responded and looked to be that guy.”
Rutter returned in the eighth and did not allow a hit. He did walk dangerous hitter DeAngelo Mack, who hit a line shot out of the park earlier in the game, but Mack was erased on an inning-ending double play.
Holliday was tempted to leave Rutter in for the ninth inning to face the bottom of the Gamecock lineup, as he did with Joey Cutler Friday night in the 6-4 win over James Madison. Cutler pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings against the Dukes and picked up the win in the 6-2 victory.
But this time, Holliday needed to send a message. The coach wanted to show senior Eryk McConnell, an All-America closer last year who was converted to a starter this year, that he has confidence in McConnell to finish off a game.
McConnell, who had 11 saves last season, has had only one chance to close a game since returning to that role, and that game ended badly for the Wolfpack. McConnell was sent in to close the ACC opener against Georgia Tech, but State’s defense committed three consecutive errors and the Pack lost 10-9.
“There is no such thing as changing closers this late in the season and getting overly comfortable,” Holliday said. “Friday night, I let the guy go who was throwing good, and Joey got the job done. But I needed to get Eryk in there in this game, or he would start to think that I didn’t trust him.”
McConnell got a quick grounder to second for the first out, but gave up back-to-back line drives to the next two batters. Fortunately for the Wolfpack and Holliday, Domonique Rogers and Dallas Poulk made diving stops to end the game.
“Well, earlier in the game, they hit some ground balls that were screwed up that made the game tight,” Holliday said. “Then, the way the baseball gods work, they banged some line drives that our guys made good plays on. It always balances out.”
But what has become increasingly evident in this NCAA Regional is that Holliday has a knack for making the right moves, whether it was leaving Cutler in to finish out Friday’s game or taking Rutter out in favor of McConnell in Saturday’s game.
“Tom does a masterful job with our pitching staff,” Avent said. “He has pushed the right buttons all year and those guys have responded. It’s not just that he is a great pitching coach, as far as teaching the game, but he gets the pitchers to understand the game and that he puts them in spots to be productive for them and for the team.I think they understand that and feed off of it.”
And that is Holliday’s goal: To put pitchers in good situations for them to get outs.
“I really don’t want the pitchers spending a lot of time thinking about [opposing batters],” Holliday said. “I want them to relax, go out there and trust their stuff, let me do the homework and worry about matchups. If you trust me, we will make it work, and right now we have a pretty good trust factor.”
The Wolfpack is also sitting in a pretty good situation, with left-handed starter Eric Surkamp ready to pitch Sunday’s possible championship game. The Wolfpack, which will play the winner of the 1 p.m. elimination game at 6 p.m. Sunday, needs only to win one game to advance to next weekend’s Super Regional.
“We have Surkamp ready for Sunday and plenty of fresh arms with Alex Sogard, Jeff Stallings and Jason Zinser, Holliday said. “I wouldn’t be afraid to use Rutter again if we need to.
“We feel like we are in good shape. Somebody would have to win a double-header [Sunday]. If someone can go out and win three straight games in the next two days and beat us on Monday, then I will tip my hat to them. But I believe we are in the right situation right now with our pitching.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
