Whitson Isn't Pitching Like a Freshman as Postseason Approaches
Sunday, May 22, 2011 | Baseball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It all came down to one game on Saturday. A share of the SEC regular-season title hung in the balance. Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan handed the ball to a true freshman with 68 career innings under his belt.
Of course, Karsten Whitson has proven he is not your typical freshman. Whitson could easily be pitching by now for the Eugene Emeralds or Fort Wayne TinCaps or Lake Elsinore Storm. Those are lower-level teams in the San Diego Padres' farm system.
But on a steamy Saturday afternoon at McKethan Stadium, Whitson was on the mound facing Kentucky in the final regular-season game of his freshman season.
Whitson looked like a freshman on a big stage in the first inning. He bounced a couple of pitches in the dirt. He gave up two hits and one run. Maybe Whitson was finally going to prove he was a freshman after all.
However, over the next two innings Whitson retired six of seven batters and settled into a groove. And then in the fourth inning with the Gators leading 3-1, Whitson faced some real trouble.
Kentucky had runners on first and third with one out. That's when Whitson went to work, using his 90-plus mph fastball and sharp breaking ball to strike out J.T. Riddle and Lucas Witt to end the inning and any chance the Wildcats had of a comeback.
The Gators scored seven runs in their half of the fourth, blowing open a close game on the way to a 19-3 thumping of the Wildcats and their second consecutive SEC regular-season title, a feat the program had not accomplished in 29 years.
“He pitched really well,'' O'Sullivan said. “For a freshman, it's a big game, everyone knows it. I think it gave our team a lot of confidence in that fourth inning when he struck out those two guys back-to-back. I thought that was the turning point in the game.''
Drafted with the ninth overall pick in last June's amateur draft by San Diego, Whitson shocked the baseball community when he decided to go to college. What's the big deal, you might ask.
Well, Whitson turned down a reported signing bonus of $2.1 million to play for the Gators, leaving his home in Chipley and heading to dorm life at UF instead of moving to a minor-league town and beginning his professional career.
Whitson envisioned days exactly like Saturday when he opted to come to Florida and play in the SEC. He pitched five innings, gave up seven hits and one run to improve to 7-0 with a 2.47 ERA in 14 starts. He struck out four and walked none.
Whitson's steady outing helped the Gators clinch a share of the SEC title with South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Like O'Sullivan, Whitson viewed escaping trouble in the fourth with back-to-back strikeouts as his shining moment.
“I was trying to get ahead. Once I got two strikes, I was thinking punch out the whole time,'' he said. “I didn't feel any pressure. I knew it was a big game for us. This has been a goal of ours from day one. I knew our team was going to score runs. I didn't know they were going to score 19.''
The strikeouts certainly helped wake up Florida's bats. The Gators pounded a season-high 25 hits and made Whitson's outing almost an afterthought by the time the game ended.
Still, as the Gators head off to the SEC Tournament next week and then likely a top-eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament, Whitson will be a huge part of the Gators' postseason plans.
Early in the season Brian Johnson was Florida's most dominant starter. In the middle of the season Hudson Randall took over that role. Whitson has been more like Mr. Steady as O'Sullivan kept a close eye on his pitch counts to build him up for later in the season.
“That's why we recruited him,'' O'Sullivan said.
As the season progressed, O'Sullivan stuck with Whitson later in games and allowed him to pitch out of trouble more the way he did on Saturday. Catcher Mike Zunino can see the growth.
He has been impressed since Whitson's first pitch of the season three months ago.
“He's extremely poised as a freshman,'' Zunino said. “He came in with a good resume. He has worked really hard to be where he's at now.''
Zunino said Whitson's control is the biggest improvement he has seen from the 6-foot-4, 215-pound right-hander since Whitson made his UF debut Feb. 20 against USF. In 73 innings, Whitson has allowed 65 hits and walked only 21. He has struck out 71.
What has impressed O'Sullivan is the way Whitson has worked to improve his change-up, a pitch he uses more effectively now than his debut, and more importantly, the way he has handled the expectations.
Whitson has been in the spotlight from the start and hasn't flinched. Heck, he hasn't even lost his first college game.
“It was definitely a learning experience from day one,'' Whitson said. “I'm not going to say it was easy. It's the best conference in college baseball.''
O'Sullivan, a former catcher who has developed a reputation for his ability to handle pitchers well as a coach, couldn't have asked for more.
“I thought he's done a great job all year long,'' O'Sullivan said. “It's hard. It's one thing to come out of nowhere, where no one expects you to do much, but when you've got a bull's eye on you from day one, it's a totally different set of circumstances.''
The next step for Whitson is the postseason. Considering the way he has handled everything else his freshman season, it should come as no surprise as to Whitson's outlook on the added pressure of the postseason.
“I'm the type of guy the bigger the stage the better I think I pitch,'' he said. “I'll be ready.''
