Texas baseball ace Jared Spencer spent most of his life trying to slow down his slider, deploying it as an off-speed complement to a fastball that Spencer can dial up to 97 miles per hour.
Max Weiner, the Longhorns’ pitching coach, shifted his perspective when Spencer transferred from Indiana State over the offseason.
“Instead of trying to throw it slow, he really just tells me, ‘Grip it and rip it.’ And that’s what my plan is out there,” Spencer said.
There was nothing soft about the slider that Spencer used to slice through the SEC’s most prolific lineup on Friday night.
The southpaw twirled 7⅔ spectacular innings, allowing only one run and striking out 11 Bulldogs. Georgia, which entered the night with 84 homers ‒ 12 more than any other team in the country ‒ managed a solo homer in the sixth inning that represented all of its offense on the night.
Spencer spent the rest of the evening using his slider to cordially invite the Bulldogs to walk back to the third-base dugout. Eight of his career-high eleven whiffs came on sliders.
“He kind of had everything going,” UT catcher Rylan Galvan said. “Threw the slider well. Threw it for a strike. Threw it for a chase when he needed to. I think Max called a great game, and kept their hitters off balance.”
Will Gasparino, who was treated to a full-frame view of Spencer’s dominance in center field, summarized his performance succinctly.
“He pitched his (expletive) off tonight,” Gasparino said.
Spencer, primarily a reliever at Indiana State, had only registered double-digit strikeouts only once in his career ‒ a start at Valparaiso last May.
He’d never pitched into the eighth inning, either. Weiner put him on an offseason long-toss routine that Spencer said allows him to sustain his fastball velocity deep in games. That’s why Texas (24-4, 9-1 SEC) felt comfortable keeping in the game, even as his pitch count reached triple digits.
“Sometimes you got to feed that horse a little bit,” Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “When he’s sniffing it, you want to give him a chance to get at it. That’s what the aces do. And I think he’s earned that right, so it’s mainly a sign of respect.”
Schlossnagle finally lifted Spencer after he walked two Bulldogs (29-3, 8-2) with two outs in the eighth and the Longhorns holding a four-run lead. Freshman Dylan Volantis induced a ground ball to escape the inning, aided by a stellar defensive play from shortstop Jalin Flores. Volantis closed out the game in the ninth for his seventh save of the ...
