Slugging Wilson Takes On Closer Role For Baseball

With a hot Saturday sun playing the role of spotlight, an eager baseball audience was treated to the debut of The Steffan Wilson Show in the newly renovated bullpen of O’Donnell Field.

After playing third base for seven innings in the second game of a double-header against Cornell, the slugging freshman phenom entered a chain-link pen surrounded by Harvard fans to prepare for a potential slide from the hot corner to the pitching mound. And whether sitting or standing, an entire audience stopped to see exactly how hard the much-heralded green-horn could bring it.

After he dangerously sailed one of the first pitches of his warm-up over the fence, the answer—all quickly discovered—was “very.”

Wilson, however, quickly found his bearings.

The right-hander unveiled a sharp leg-kick, a hard fastball, a change-up, and a knee-buckling curve one typically would not expect of the big bat hitting fifth in the lineup and fielding third.

And after keeping hometown eyes distracted while his teammates took their turns at-bat, Wilson got his first opportunity to prove to them that he was the real deal.

With no outs and a man on second in the eighth—a 2-0 Harvard lead just whittled down to one—the freshman made the short walk from third base to the pitcher’s mound to relieve starter Mike Morgalis.

He fanned the first two hitters he faced, the third and fourth hitters in the Big Red lineup. And one more strikeout, a pop-up, and two fly-outs later, Cornell was on the bus ride home.

SHUTTING THE DOOR

For the freshman, it was his fourth collegiate pitching appearance and his third save in three chances, an efficient five-inning streak in which he has closed the door on three different Ivy League opponents, striking out six while allowing zero hits and zero runs.

Most importantly, in the State College, Penn. native, it appears that the Crimson at last has its answer at closer.

“There are a lot of other guys I think who could do it,” Wilson said, “but if they want to use me, I definitely like and embrace the role.”

What Harvard head coach Joe Walsh appreciates most—more, even, than the “good fastball [and the] good curveball”—is the fearless, businesslike composure the first-year maintains on the hill. It’s an attitude Wilson sustains regardless of opposing fans or runners in scoring position, like there were on Saturday.

“We’re going to use him there,” Walsh said. “He’s got some bulldog in him. There are certain things about a closer, and he doesn’t fear hitters. He just goes after people. He’s going to come in there and throw strikes.”

But yes, there is in the end that deadly hammer—the one which the Big Red could not once touch.

“He drops that curveball over when he’s behind in the count, and if you can do that you’re a quality pitcher,” Walsh said. “I was watching that Texas-Nebraska game for 14 innings, and they didn’t have a guy who could throw a breaking ball when they were behind in the count. We do.”

CLOSER-A-DAY

So what does this mean, ultimately, for the other candidates once considered for the part of Crimson relief ace?

The bullpen picture, while clarified some thanks to this weekend, still remains admittedly complicated.

While Wilson will definitely be featured to close in the weekend double-headers, freshman starter Shawn Haviland may also see time in those crucial eighth and ninth frames.

If Wilson had been needed in the first game of Saturday’s double-header against Cornell, Walsh said, it actually would have been Haviland—Sunday’s game two starter against Princeton—who toed the rubber in the eighth.

That strategy of closing on Saturday and starting on Sunday is by no means unfamiliar to Harvard, which sought to maximize the arm of former captain Trey Hendricks ’04 in exactly that role last season, especially down the Ivy stretch run.

But then again, Walsh said, “if I had brought [junior pitcher Javy] Castellanos in [for middle relief], and he pitched well, I would have let him sail.”

And what, then, about Matt Brunnig, who had served as closer early this year in non-Ivy play?

Plan on seeing the lanky, ambidextrous junior solely in the starting rotation. While Brunnig currently leads Harvard with four saves so far this season, the total should not get much larger.

“We used him there to keep his innings down to get him ready for Ivy League play,” Walsh said.

“He’s been a starter for us in the past and that’s what he is,” he added. “He’s been a very effective guy for us in the pen, but we want to get him to the mound more often on the weekend. We see him picking up the ball once a week.”

WHAT SALSGIVETH

Junior Lance Salsgiver, Harvard’s everyday right fielder and its closer at the outset of last season, may also be (re-)incorporated into the relief picture.

A highly-touted first-team All-American as a shortstop in his junior year of high school—and today the only All-American in Ivy League—Salsgiver featured a fastball in the 90’s before succumbing to arm problems due to possible overuse at Davison High. Earlier this year, he battled with a pulled muscle in his forearm which precluded him from taking the mound.

But on Sunday’s 13-8 victory over Princeton, he made his first pitching appearance in about a year, striking out two—both noticeably on that well-known heater—while allowing one hit in a scoreless ninth.

“It was great,” Salsgiver said. “I’ve had kind of a pulled muscle in my forearm I’ve been trying to get over, and haven’t been able to rest much playing every day. But it felt good, and I told coach it was about time to get up there and get an inning or two in. My arm felt pretty good, and I had command of most of my pitches.”

And is the zip on that fastball back to where it used to be?

“I feel like it’s right or close to where I’ve been,” Salsgiver said. “I wasn’t trying to throw as hard as I can—I kind of tried to ease into it. I felt like I was throwing with decent velocity, and hitting my spots.”

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.