Thomas Belcher entered Big Ten play April 1 with a 3.97 ERA.
After picking up his fourth save of the season in Sunday’s 7-6 win against Purdue, his ERA is now 2.18.
Belcher pitched 5.1 innings out of the bullpen without allowing a run in the three game sweep of Purdue this weekend.
“You just have to go out there and be confident in your stuff,” Belcher said. “You have to know you can’t let them score, you have to go out there and put up zeroes.”
One reason this turnaround has occurred is because he’s just throwing strikes, Belcher said. Coming out of the bullpen, you need to attack hitters.
In Friday’s appearance, Belcher didn’t throw a ball in his first inning. Only once in Belcher’s two innings did he not throw a first pitch strike.
“You have to pound the zone coming out of the bullpen, throw strikes, can’t put them on,” Belcher said. “Somehow or another something always happens late in the game, and it’s always crazy.”
The strategy was the same the rest of the weekend. Each of the seven batters Belcher faced Saturday saw a first pitch strike. Belcher only managed a first pitch strike to one of the three batters he faced in the ninth on Sunday, but the two times he didn’t Belcher threw a strike with his second pitch.
Saturday was really just an extension of the reliever before him. Freshman relief pitcher BJ Sabol was also attacking the strike zone. That wasn’t the only thing Sabol and Belcher have in common, though.
Belcher is right-handed. Sabol is left-handed. But both are side-arm pitchers, meaning they drop their arms to their sides and sling their pitches more than they throw them.
“It’s really tough for hitters,” senior starting pitcher Caleb Baragar said. “It seems like every time those guys come in after me or someone else they have a lot of success.”
Saturday was one of those times. After cruising through his first five innings, Baragar found himself in trouble in the sixth. After allowing two runs to score and tie the game, Baragar issued a walk to give Purdue runners at the corners and one out.
This is when Sabol entered. After hitting the first batter he faced to load the bases, he settled in. After battling with Purdue’s Brett Carlson for seven pitches, the freshman got the senior to weakly fly out, but not deep enough to allow the runner to tag up from third.
Then, Sabol struck out another Purdue senior, James Jewell, to end the inning.
“I love our bullpen,” Baragar said. “There’s just so many guys who can come in and get the job done. Especially guys like that who can come in from down under with a different angle.”
The weekend lowered IU’s bullpen ERA to 2.95 this season. That number ranks worse than the full team ERA’s of two teams. First is Michigan State, the leader of the Big Ten at the moment.
The other is IU’s ERA once you add in its trio of senior starting pitchers.
“I’m thankful I don’t have to hit against them,” Baragar said. “That’s really all I got right now. I just know they’re good pitchers and they’re doing really well for us.”
