SPORTS

Tim Sullivan | Funkhouser has a no-freebie attitude

Tim Sullivan
@TimSullivan714

Kyle Funkhouser should pitch as if the hitters were swinging Omaha steaks. He should throw strikes and encourage contact. He should approach Saturday's start in the College World Series as if the ball carried like an anvil and the outfield fences were in Iowa.

No fear. No freebies.

"Now, more than ever, you just pretend the hitter isn't even there," Louisville's right-handed ace said Wednesday afternoon. "If you make a good pitch and he hits it, so what? If you're not giving up freebies, they've got to get two maybe three hits in an inning to score. So I'm trying to eliminate the freebies and make pitches."

Since Omaha's TD Ameritrade Park plays like Yosemite with the wind blowing in, the prudent pitcher attacks the hitters and avoids walks. Last year's College World Series produced only three home runs in 14 games, encouraging pitchers to trust their stuff, to stop nibbling around the edges of home plate, and to release the ball as if Babe Ruth had squared to bunt.

It is, as such, the idea site for Kyle Funkhouser to be starting. Only twice in 17 starts, and not since mid-March, has the sophomore with the mid-90s fastball allowed as many as one hit per inning pitched. Funkhouser's most persistent problem has been with freebies — walks and hit batsmen — and the rallies that can result without a well-struck ball.

Despite yielding only three hits in seven innings during last Friday's Super Regional opener against Kennesaw State, Funkhouser departed without a decision because three of the five bases hitters he walked would subsequently score — one of them without benefit of a hit. He walked the first two hitters he faced in the fourth inning, the leadoff man in the fifth, and emerged from the experience reminded of the virtues of economy.

"It's just the mentality of you don't have to strike everyone out," Funkhouser said. "You have great defense behind you. Just trust Coach (Roger) Williams, trust the catcher. But more than anything, make them beat you. Don't beat yourself.

"In the beginning of the year and even in the middle, I'd have six innings and six walks. If you can have one or two, it's a lot cleaner. ... Not trying to strike everyone out is (about) not trying to be too perfect, cause then if you make this pitch too perfect and that too perfect, it's 3-and-2."

Strikeouts can be seductive. They convey fastball prowess at an early age and, as a pitcher progresses through higher levels, they demonstrate the development of a broader repertoire. To the extent that they eliminate feeble hits, fluke bounces, fielding errors and productive outs, they are almost invariably preferable to a batted ball.

Yet they can also be a trap. The pitcher who typically works deep in the count is more prone to fatigue, to bases on balls and to teammates reacting from their heels instead of on their toes. If the double play is the pitcher's best friend, the one-pitch out makes a wonderful wing man. It helps a starting pitcher get deeper into a game and improves his odds at entrusting his leads to a competent closer rather than a middle reliever.

That goes double at the College World Series, where the home run is an endangered species. In winning the 2013 tournament, UCLA allowed only four runs in its five games. The Bruins' starting pitchers walked only five hitters in 34 innings in Omaha.

Funkhouser has not been so stingy. Though his 13-2 record and 1.73 earned-run average attest to his ability, his 59 walks in 114 1/3 innings are a concern. When he appeared in relief last year during the Cardinals' elimination loss to Oregon State, Funkhouser issues a bases-loaded walk to the first batter he faced, throwing three straight balls after getting ahead in the count, 1-and-2.

"UCLA went down there and they just pitched and said, 'Here, try to hit it out of the park," Funkhouser said. "It was successful for them: Just attack and if they beat you, they beat you."

No fear. Few freebies.

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, by email at tsullivan@courier-journal.com, and on Twitter @TimSullivan714.