Wake Forest Athletics
Gold Rush Feature: His Big Break
3/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 23, 2011
This article was originally published in the March 19 edition of Gold Rush.
By Jay Reddick
On March 6, Tim Cooney struck out 14 batters in six innings against Radford, allowing six hits and no earned runs. It was undoubtedly one of the sophomore's best outings as a pitcher in his short career at Wake Forest, but it was also the kind of game Cooney probably could not have pitched a year ago.
The Collegeville, Pa., native has put a few solid starts together to start the 2011 season in a bid to become the team's most consistent starting pitcher. He compiled a team-best 2.25 earned-run average in his first three starts.
The difference in Cooney could be chalked up to maturity, or the jump some athletes make from freshman to sophomore, but the answer may lie in what he didn't do: Cooney didn't pitch off a mound for most of the fall.
The break, a suggestion from the WFU coaches, came after Cooney pitched 80 innings for the Deacons last year, then another 50 in the Cal Ripken Baseball League last summer in Maryland.
"He threw a lot more in a short time than he ever had before," coach Tom Walter said. "It was good -- we wanted to push him to get up over 120 innings, so when we needed to rely on him now he'd be ready to pitch more often. But his body needed the rest in the fall."
During the pitcher's "break," he did a lot more than rest. He worked on improving his delivery and strengthening his arm. Add that to the cut fastball he learned, and some improvements to the movement on his changeup, and suddenly, a pitcher who described himself as "good enough" last year has the potential to be very good.
Still, when you're asked to give up something you love, even for a few months, it can be discouraging.
"I was kind of antsy," Cooney said. "It gave me a lot of time to work harder in school, and I had a pretty good semester, but being at practice every day and not being able to throw was pretty frustrating. I knew it was for the better."
Cooney's fastball last year topped out at 84 or 85 mph, Walter said. This year, he's hit 90 on the radar gun. That certainly helped his 14-strikeout performance against Radford, in which he more than doubled his previous career high in strikeouts. But he hasn't turned into Randy Johnson overnight.
"I'm definitely still a location guy -- I have to pick my spots," Cooney said. "I've gained some velocity since last year, but not to the point that I can call myself a power guy. I've got to rely on keeping the ball over the corners of the plate, keeping it low and mixing it up to get guys out."
But as Walter noted, the improved fastball gives Cooney another tool to work with.
"Velocity gives you more margin for error," Walter said. "It lets you make some mistakes and not get hurt. Tim had some great games last year where one big inning hurt him, but this year, he's doing a better job of limiting those mistakes, limiting those big innings to one or two runs."
Cooney showed that off in his first start of the year Feb. 19 against LSU. He allowed three earned runs in six innings to take a hard-luck loss, but two of those runs were on solo homers and another came after he escaped a two-on, one-out jam.
The right-hander said the true test of his improvement will come as the ACC season heats up. If it continues, Walter said Cooney could be a player on the next level.
"He's a prospect right now," Walter said. "He'll pitch in the Cape Cod League this summer, and if he stays on an upward trend, 16 months from now, he's a draft pick."
