Mike Bianco names a closer each season, but it’s more out of media necessity than his thought process pertaining to a typical ninth-inning role that’s synonymous with the term.
Instead, the key pitcher in Bianco’s bullpen is called on whenever the threat level is highest, typically after the fifth inning, and it’s an added bonus if the outing can last longer than 3-to-6 outs. His belief in both those roles is why the 21-year head coach has been so bullish about Taylor Broadway.
No. 6 Ole Miss, winners of 17 straight dating back to last season, beat No. 10 TCU, 7-3, on Saturday to open the season, and the outcome was most in doubt during the sixth inning. With two on and no outs, Broadway, a fifth-year senior in his third year after transferring from junior college, came in as the fire extinguisher.
"We knew we were going to go with him at the end,” Bianco said. “You can look at it as back end of the bullpen or closer but for us he can throw multiple innings. Not by design you’re going to throw four innings on opening day out of the bullpen… it was a little different game from him, but I’m really proud.”
Facing 2, 3, 4 in the Horned Frog order, TCU gave up an out on a sacrifice to move both runners into scoring position, and Broadway threw a third strike by Hunter Wolfe for the second out.
On a 2-2 count, Mississippi native and Alabama transfer Gene Wood took a fastball off his knee in what first appeared to load the bases. But, as soon as the play happened, Broadway flexed his own knee toward Bianco, signaling his thought that Wood leaned into the pitch.
After a lengthy replay, the umpires agreed, and the call ended the inning. From there, Broadway cruised, retiring 9 of the final 10 faced for a 12-out save. He struck out five without a walk and threw 44 strikes in 61 pitches.
The effort headlined the Ole Miss bullpen that threw 7.1 scoreless innings after Doug Nikhazy walked in three straight runs and left in the second inning with two outs and a 4-3 Ole Miss lead. Jackson Kimbrell got a strikeout to escape the second-inning mess, and he scattered two hits for two more shutout innings. Drew McDaniel added a shutout inning of his own before Broadway inherited McDaniel’s two runners.
“Two COVID freshmen, who basically had 25 percent of a season, and this probably was their biggest moments here,” Bianco said. “(Kimbrell and McDaniel) were outstanding tonight.”
The Rebels added two runs of insurance in the seventh and another in the ninth, but the game was won once Broadway ran in from the outfield bullpen. It’s been that way for a calendar year now.
Through the four weeks of the 2020 season before COVID canceled it all, Broadway gave up just one earned run in 16 innings that came with 18 strikeouts and three walks spread over seven outings. Saturday was his seventh straight appearance without allowing a run. The one run last season was against Louisville when he yielded just the one in 3.1 innings.
As a newcomer in 2019 out of Tyler Junior College, the right-hander showed flashes and struggles on his way to a 6.56 ERA over 23 innings. Ole Miss believed in him, but something about his four-seam fastball attracted bats.
"My other pitches were good enough, but the fastball was getting banged around,” Broadway said.
Enter analytics and an offseason that changed Broadway’s career.
Using Rapsodo, a system that measures the impact of spin on pitches — including the actual flight of a pitched baseball versus the corresponding trajectory of the same pitch without spin — to help optimize performance, Ole Miss coaches discovered a doable change.
“No huge changes but analytically we looked at my fastball a little bit and noticed some things that you don’t see with the naked eye,” Broadway said. “We increased the performance, and it’s helped me ever since. I’m just thankful for the coaches looking into that. Analytics are huge. They helped my career in a big way."
Broadway made adjustments to add rise to his four-seam fastball. Rise is generated by backspin as the ball rolls off the pitcher’s index and middle fingers. Physics says it doesn’t actually move upward, but the spin helps resist gravity and keeps the ball higher than expected. To a batter, it looks like it rises. In reality, it doesn’t drop as expected.
Since the modification, Broadway is at one earned run in 20 innings with 23 strikeouts and three walks.
The Rebels get two shots to clinch a winning record this weekend thanks to the bullpen and some persistent offense.
Ben Van Cleve’s second-inning, two-strike double scored two runs, and Hayden Dunhurst added another RBI during the four-run inning. Peyton Chatagnier, who started the game with three strikeouts, rebounded with an RBI double in the seventh and an RBI single in the ninth, joining Van Cleve and Dunhurst as the only Rebels with multiple hits.
Ole Miss ran TCU starter Johnny Ray after three innings and 68 pitches. TCU’s middle relief did an excellent job against the Rebels but couldn’t match the Ole Miss bullpen that had 10 strikeouts in the 7.1 innings.
