OXFORD – Be prepared to take notes should you decide to take a field trip to the Cade Townsend School of Pitching.
You’re going to hear a lot of numbers and learn plenty about the seams on a baseball and their subsequent reason for existence. Most noticeable, though, is a Christmas morning-like passion.
Pitching – and learning about everything it involves – gives Townsend joy.
“That’s why I play baseball,” Townsend said. “ … The game is just so hard. You’re not going to succeed every time. So learning about it and learning, how can I get better? How can I make a ball move, the physics behind it? It just makes me happy. And that’s just what I like to do.”
Townsend, a true sophomore righty at Ole Miss and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, has seen his stock take off during his second season in Oxford. The Southern California native came to Ole Miss as a top-100 prospect and high school All-American after a standout career at Santa Margarita Catholic High School.
But for what prowess he flashed as a high schooler, the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder struggled at times as a college freshman, notching a 6.35 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 20 walks.
When Townsend arrived at Ole Miss, Rebels pitching coach Joel Mangrum estimates he had three pitches: a four-seam fastball, a curveball and a short slider, though Santa Margarita head coach Chris Malec would also add a changeup in there. Townsend consistently rested in the 93-mile-per-hour range with his fastball. Work in the weight room and tinkering with his mechanics have pushed that velocity consistently around 96 or 97 mph.
But when you are in the SEC, there’s more to pitching than velocity; you need answers to a constantly evolving test. For Townsend, the son of a biochemist, that model of thinking comes naturally.
Townsend went to work over the summer with Mangrum – the two evaluated numerous data points regarding the success of each pitch to righties and lefties while simultaneously searching for answers. So far so good, as Townsend ranks as the No. 21 prospect in this summer’s MLB Draft per MLB.com and was named second-team All-SEC.
“For me, there’s two things that really stick out – his passion and love for the game and his curiosity to learn it at the deepest level,” Malec said. “And in particular the pitching element … He studies it relentlessly and just asks tons of questions. He just loves the art of pitching.”
No. 2 seed Ole Miss opened NCAA Tournament play Friday against No. 3 seed Arizona State in the Lincoln Regional.
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