A Closer Look at Towson Pitching as Conference Play Begins

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, if the Circle K in this case were the pitchers mound at Schuerholz Park. The first thirteen games of the Towson baseball season were marred by poor pitching, as the Tigers racked up walks, wild pitches, and hit batters in numbers that would stagger a mathematician. It was enough to make me question the very clichés at the heart of baseball.

I suspected that the horrific numbers were symptomatic of a natural learning curve, as players acclimated themselves to new coaching and coaches figured out how to best utilize their players. I think the numbers bear that out. Though it has not yet translated into victories, the turnaround that the Tigers’ pitching staff has made in the last two weeks is borderline stunning.

To paraphrase Montell Jordan, this is how you do it. Every bad number has improved in dramatic fashion. If you wanted to be viciously arbitrary and throw out game one versus Marist – the only “bad” start of the last two weeks, in which the Tigers gave up seven earned runs, an equal number of wild pitches, and hit three batters – the numbers would be outright silly.

This improvement has been spearheaded by the weekend starters, Gavin Weyman, David Marriggi, and Michael Adams. But while Weyman has been solid and Marriggi has bounced back nicely from his only rough outing of the season, Adams has been straight up dominant.

In fact, Adams has been dealing for a solid month. Over his last four starts, the big senior has a 2.42 ERA and has struck out over four batters for every one that he’s walked.

It hasn’t just been the starters. Across the entire pitching staff you can find notably improved performances over the last two weeks.

The only members of the Towson staff who have not lowered their ERA in the last two weeks are Chris Ruszin, who has only pitched a third of an inning, and John Cranston, who has been out since the third game of the season.

The work of sophomore Alex Parker and freshman Jake Pecilunas bear special attention, as their improvement, much like Michael Adams, predates our March 12 cutoff.

In the first game of the season, Parker allowed six earned runs in one inning. Since then, the right-hander has given up a single run in nine and a third innings, spanning five appearances, and struck out over a batter a frame. At 6′ 2″ and 190 lbs, Parker has an ideal pitcher’s frame, but I am not sure how accurate that information is these days. Those are the measurements listed at on the Towson website, but either he hasn’t grown (always possible) or it’s just old information, because it’s the same size he was listed at coming out of high school. Likewise, I can’t find any scouting info less than three years old. What I did find paints the interesting picture of a 16 year old (at the time) with a hard sinking fastball around 86 mph and encouraging arm speed on his breaking pitch and change-up. If any of that has ticked up since then, Parker becomes a rather intriguing arm to follow.

Jake Pecilunas actually caught my ear much earlier in the season, when he pitched nearly four innings in his first collegiate appearance, entering the game in relief in the first inning. He gave up five earned runs in that game, but only one in his last three innings. After that he made one appearance each against Richmond and Albany, pitching two-thirds of an inning both times and allowing three and seven earned runs. Three weeks into his Towson career and Pecilunas had an ERA of 27.00. Since then…nothing. The freshman has been outstanding.

That early interest meant Pecilunas was also my introduction to the difficulty of finding any scouting information for so many players at this level. There are resources, to be sure, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for (much like the content that you’re reading right now). Still, I was able to glean that Pecilunas, like Parker, was throwing in the mid-80’s as a 16 year old. This scouting report (with video) from August 2016 provides a little more insight.

Jake Pecilunas RHP St. John’s 2017
Athletic frame at 5-foot-11, 170-pounds. Controlled quick delivery. Longer free arm action throwing from a high ¾ arm slot. Creates fast arm speed. High leg kick with some hip load and gets some lower half involvement. Lands square to the plate. Fastball jumps out and has some sink on the pitch up to 85 mph. Changeup has fade to the pitch with a slower arm speed on the pitch at 72-74 mph. Breaking ball has nice 10/4 action with put-away potential and later break. Nice rotation on the pitch at 70 mph.

Note that, again like Parker, Pecilunas is still listed at the exact same size he was two or more years ago. Many people do stop growing in their later teens, and both players have solid builds at those sizes, but it wouldn’t shock me to learn both Parker and Pecilunas are a little bigger now, with potential increases in velocity and stamina.

Another player who’s improvement deserves to be highlighted is junior Alex Cuas. The team captain had two disastrous outings to start his season, then did not appear in a game for two weeks. Since returning to the mound he has been a completely different pitcher, allowing one earned run in five innings. If you want to neatly encapsulate how stark the improvement has been, just look at one stat – wild pitches. In his first two appearances, Cuas threw 11 of them. In his two appearances since he hasn’t thrown one. Neither has he hit a batter.

The walks are still high, but the mere fact that he wasn’t buried at the end of the bench indicates that the coaching staff sees some potential. Using my “two year old scouting report” method, we can learn that the right-hander from Brooklyn was hitting 87 mph as a 17 year old. And using my “I’m pretty sure my daughter threw a foul ball back to him last weekend” method, I think the 6′ 2″, 180 lbs that he is listed at is selling him an inch or two short and 20 lbs light. So are we now talking about a bigger guy who is just growing into his body, may have some talent in his arm, and is showing the ability to take new coaching and put it into effect? If so, Alex Cuas becomes a much more interesting follow.

Pitching coach Miles Miller doesn’t have a extensive resume – I actually just, at this very moment, discovered that he and I share the same birthday, except I’ve got an extra decade on him – but everywhere he goes, success seems to follow. We can see that Towson has talent on the pitching staff and, right now, it looks like whatever Miller is implementing is starting to take hold. If the improvements of the last two weeks are real and the staff has turned a corner, it could have far reaching implications for the Towson baseball program. Success breeds success, especially in college, where players are recruited, not drafted. If Miller further develops a reputation for making players better, not only will the Tigers win more games this year, but they will attract more good players in the future. If he can develop some of the current staff into draftable prospects it could open the tap to a pipeline of pitching talent. What a fitting reputation that would be for a team that plays in John B. Shuerholz Park, named after the architect of the incredible Atlanta Braves pitching staffs of the 1990’s.