Brady Feigl gets ball Saturday after 'best start' of his career last week
LONG BEACH | Scouts piled into Blair Field Friday night, sitting behind home plate and waiting out the constant drizzle that resulted in the postponement of the opener between Ole Miss and Long Beach State.
Those same Major League team representatives will, presumably, be back when the two teams begin a doubleheader at 2 p.m. (PT) with likely first round pick Ryan Rolison on the mound for the No. 9 Rebels against Dirtbag ace Zak Baayoun.
But scheduled 45 minutes after the first game ends, Ole Miss’ Brady Feigl will take the mound in the swing game of the series. Coming off arguably the best outing of his career, the right-hander gets to perform in front of new sets of eyes out on the West Coast.
[Related: UM-LBSU opener postponed]
“He’s matured as a starter, and his whole body of pitches have become weapons for him,” said David Dellucci, who is an SEC Network analyst and RebelGrove.com contributor. “The fastball has always been a plus pitch, and the slider is maybe one of the best pitches on a talented staff.
“This year the changeup has come along to a point it can be used in any count, and it makes things very difficult if Feigl is on his game. That was his best start I've seen last weekend.”
Last Saturday against Tulane, Feigl gave up just two hits and an unearned run in six innings. He’d thrown only 73 pitches to retire 18 batters, but a five-run Ole Miss offensive inning took too long for Ole Miss to comfortable allow the 6-foot-4, 230-pound junior to continue his start.
He struck out six, didn’t walk a batter and forced nine groundouts. On the year, he hasn’t given up an earned run in 12 innings and has just one walk to go with the 12 strikeouts.
A 35th-round draft pick by the Angles last summer, Feigl entered the season focused on lasting longer in starts and being efficient in each at-bats. He admitted past seasons have had too many big innings when he could have limited the trouble to one or no runs.
Feigl is succeeding after just two starts. Opposing hitters are batting just .182 against him with runners on base, compared to .195 overall.
“He has three dominant pitches, and when he gets ahead in the count he’s very dangerous,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “(Against Tulane) efficient wasn’t even fair. He was super dominant against a pretty good lineup.”
Feigl’s only career start prior to this season of more than 5.1 innings was an eight-inning effort against Furman last March. Three of the other four were five innings even and he gave up at least four runs in three of those four other starts.
The ability has been unquestioned, but necessary tweaks and continued development potentially have him set up for a more consistent season.
“I have to go right at hitters,” Feigl said. “They’ve really preached to me to attack the zone… The slider and fastball are there, and if the changeup can be in the zone it can really speed them up and slow them down.”