STARKVILLE — Batters who swing and miss at the first pitch from Riley Self don’t have to wait long to see the same thing again.
At that point, they’ve already seen his one pitch.
As a freshman, Self has developed into one of Mississippi State’s most effective relievers while throwing only a cutter. In going the final 3 1/3 innings to get the win last weekend at Texas A&M, all 51 pitches of Self’s pitches were cutters.
It’s unorthodox, but it works. Since April 7, Self has allowed 12 hits and three runs in 11 games (14 innings) against Southeastern Conference competition.
Self’s status as setup man for closer Spencer Price shows no signs of changing as the end of the regular season approaches. No. 6 MSU (32-17, 16-8 SEC) will take another step closer to that goal at noon today when it takes on Georgia (20-29, 7-17 SEC) in Game 1 of a three-game SEC weekend series.
Georgia knows what to expect from Self, but MSU pitching coach Gary Henderson doesn’t mind. He sees another source for Self’s continued success.
“That strikeout pitch isn’t worth anything if you’re down 3-1 (in the count),” Henderson said. “Riley’s done a really good job of putting himself in a position where the guy at the plate has to swing the bat at his pitch.”
Even in advantageous counts, Self knows better than to throw SEC hitters the same pitch three or more times in a row. That’s where the mutations to his cutter come in.
Having used it as his only pitch for most of the season (he had a changeup when the season started), Self has learned to work with the cutter to give batters different looks. He said he can control it to go as fast as 92 mph and as slow as 82, which gives batters the look of a cut changeup.
Self said he also can control how much his cutter moves.
“I can drop the arm slot a little, tilt my hand a little to get more of a slider look but still throw it effectively for a strike,” Self said.
Self’s nuanced control of the pitch is a new development. He said his fastball always had a natural cut that high school coaches tried to coax out of him in hopes for more control out of his straight fastball. When he arrived at MSU in the fall, he worked with it in its natural cut motion. The results have been obvious. Self said friends in the Ole Miss batting order told him after that series in April that his cutter was moving as much as six inches.
The movement has registered 13 strikeouts in the last 10 1/3 innings. Once more, Henderson credits that to Self’s command, count management, and ability to pound the strike zone early and force batters to chase late.
As for adding more to his arsenal, Self said he doesn’t plan on it, but he said he’s ready to develop more if he’s asked to take on a starting role.
In the meantime, MSU knows what it can expect from Self: cutters and action.
“Riley gets so much movement on the baseball, but the bigger thing for him is he works fast and he keeps the ball down in the zone,” MSU coach Andy Cannizaro said. “He gets a lot of ground balls and he’s a great guy to play behind because there’s a lot of action, the pace is fast.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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