The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/535299
130 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY BRUCE WINKWORTH T hree weeks into the 2015 college baseball season, NC State fresh- man left-hander Brian Brown ran into the first bumpy stretch of his college career. After rolling through season-opening non-conference games versus Florida In- ternational and UNC Greensboro with a 2-0 record and a 1.50 ERA, Brown didn't get past the fourth inning in any of his first three Atlantic Coast Conference starts. In- stead of rolling, he struggled — 0-1 with a 6.10 ERA in starts against Clemson, at Miami and at Boston College. The problem, it turns out, wasn't so much the admittedly rigorous competi- tion in the ACC as a mechanical flaw that Brown and pitching coach Scott Foxhall diagnosed and corrected during a few mid- week bullpen sessions. "During those three games, I wasn't hit- ting my fastball on the outside to right- handed hitters," Brown said from his home in Glenmore, Pa. "That got me into a lot of hitter's counts. "I worked on that in the bullpen and once I got that straightened out, I was able to get back on track." Back on track is putting it mildly. Able once again to spot his fastball, Brown be- gan attacking both sides of the plate with a three-pitch arsenal that includes an upper- 80s fastball that tops out at around 90 miles per hour, a reliable changeup that he began throwing in grade school, and an ever-im- proving slider that Foxhall has helped him to polish since his arrival on campus last fall. Suddenly, Brown no longer found the ACC so vexing. Quite the contrary, in fact. Facing nothing but top-flight competition, Brown dominated all comers the rest of the season. He may well have been the best pitcher in the ACC the final two months of the campaign. In nine starts beginning March 28 versus Pitt and running through May 21 versus Notre Dame in the ACC Championship, Brown was 5-2 with a 0.88 ERA. He al- lowed nine runs, five earned runs, on 32 hits in 51 innings. He held opposing hitters to a .183 average, struck out 51 and walked just 17. He improved his record to 7-3 with a 1.72 ERA heading into his final start of the year, May 30 versus TCU at the NCAA Fort Worth Regional. "That's definitely the best stretch I've ever had, for myself and for the team," Brown said. "Everyone on this team got along so well and pulled together for each other. It was easy for me to go out there and pitch my game." Brown pitched as well as ever in the regional appearance against the Horned Frogs, despite being charged with four earned runs in 6 1 ⁄3 innings. Facing a team that lost just two games at home during the regular season, he retired the first eight men he faced before allowing a dubious inside-the-park home run that should have been scored a triple and an error — and an unearned run — then recovered quickly to set down seven of eight heading into the bottom of the sixth. He turned over a 3-3 tie to the bullpen in the seventh, and the Wolfpack eventually won 5-4 on Chance ROOKIE OF THE YEAR BRIAN BROWN Smart Bal l Freshman Brian Brown Is Not A Power Pitcher — He Wins By Outwitting Hitters And Keeping Them Off-Balance Brown posted a 7-3 record and a 2.03 ERA for the season, and was named a first-team Freshman All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP