BASEBALL '07: Tall Order: Big Man Poised for Breakout

It’s not every day that you hear pro scouts raving about a college pitcher with a career 3-4 record and 7.07 ERA.

But how often do those statistics belong to a 6’8 hurler with athleticism fit for a basketball court as much as a baseball diamond and a four-pitch arsenal at his disposal?

They do in the case of junior Brad Unger, a two-sport athlete and one of several pitchers vying for a spot in the Harvard rotation this spring. Despite possessing raw athletic ability and promising stuff, Unger has been unable to reach his full potential in his first two years with the Crimson, giving up more than a hit per inning and struggling with his control.

In those seasons, he allowed 32 walks in 49 1/3 innings while batters teed off on him to the tune of a .319 batting average against. But if his past summer in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) is any indication of things to come, Unger is poised for a breakout season in 2007.

In nine appearances—including seven starts—for the Sanford Mainers, he went 3-2 with a 3.21 ERA, tying for second in the league with 53 1/3 innings pitched. He held opposing batters to a .219 batting average, striking out 33 along the way.

“Each time that he pitched, his outings were better,” says Joe Brown, Unger’s coach on the Mainers. “I think his improvement was outstanding.”

In his two months in the NECBL, Unger showed not only improvement, but also occasional flashes of brilliance. In a no-decision against the Pittsfield Dukes, Unger allowed only three hits in 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball. Two starts later, he fanned eight hitters in seven innings to get the win over the Keene Swamp Bats.

Performances like these caught the attention of more than just Unger’s teammates and coaches.

“I had...scouts calling me up saying, ‘Hey, I just saw Unger pitching up in Sanford, Maine, bringing it in August,’” says Harvard head coach Joe Walsh.

A professional baseball career may seem a bit of a stretch for Unger right now, but if his success last summer carries over to this spring, there is more and more reason to think that he could make a living pitching some day.

“There’s not that many [6’8]...kids that are that athletic and can throw the ball like he can,” says Harvard assistant coach Todd Carroll, who primarily works with pitchers and catchers. “I mean, those guys tend to get a shot at pro ball when it’s all said and done.”

But while the scouts who saw Unger up in Maine would love to have him become an impact pitcher for their teams some time in the future, the Crimson is looking for him to become a difference-maker now. Unger is of the same mindset and made a commitment before the spring to put more time into baseball training than he had in seasons past in hopes of making 2007 the year—the year, that is, where the height, the skills, and the talent come together to turn him into the pitcher that all those watching him believe he can be.

“I’ve been making it a point this year to get down to baseball practice more often than I have in the last two years,” Unger says. “I’ve struggled a little bit the past two years and that’s something that I want to fix.”

“He’s made the effort,” Carroll says. “I think he’s realizing that there could be some light at the end of the tunnel for his baseball career.”

Unger’s desire to devote more time to sports has extended even into the realm of academics. A former engineering sciences concentrator, he has since switched to economics to avoid the time-consuming math and science courses—which include lengthy, mandatory labs—that come with the territory in engineering. Whenever it is that Unger’s baseball career comes to a close, he plans to enter the financial world, with investment banking and management as some possible career paths.

But despite his endeavors to create more space in his life for baseball, it isn’t as easy for Unger as it is for many of his teammates to “make the effort.” While other players are getting valuable preparation time for baseball season in the late months of winter, Unger is entrenched in the stretch run of the Ivy League season with the Crimson basketball team, on which he plays power forward.

“Right around the end of January, beginning of February, we started to see the baseball cleats in his locker,” says Unger’s basketball teammate Brian Darcy. “After practice, he’d go over and get some throwing in.”

But with basketball as Unger’s main priority at such a crucial part of the season, Carroll says that the pitcher was limited to three days of throwing a week as opposed to the customary six, which could hinder Unger in terms of getting his pitch count up.

“We all joke with him, telling him, ‘You have to stop playing basketball,’ because he’s such a big asset to our team,” says junior Taylor Meehan, one of Unger’s teammates on the baseball team.

Still, Carroll firmly believes that Unger’s dual-sport status can only help in the long run.

“It’s not the company line around here with some other sports,” he says, “but...a kid playing another sport as opposed to just going through preseason preparations with us has to be a benefit.”

This philosophy seems to prevail on the baseball team. Captain Brendan Byrne moonlighted as a hockey forward when he wasn’t manning second base for the Crimson.

One aspect of Unger’s basketball game that can have a direct impact on his performance on the mound is unrelated to his height or natural ability but perhaps equally important: confidence. After playing limited minutes on the court in his first two years while backing up former Harvard standout Matt Stehle ’06, Unger found himself with extensive playing time this past season, especially after the January graduation of starting center Brian Cusworth ’06-’07. Unger averaged 20 minutes and 6.3 points per game—both totals more than triple those of the previous year—along with shooting over 45 percent from beyond the three-point line.

“[Playing more] helps,” Carroll says. “You gain that confidence in the basketball gym, and that’s going to translate onto the baseball field.”

But while Unger’s potential has the entire Harvard coaching staff intrigued, it does not guarantee him a spot in the rotation. Eagerly awaiting starting jobs are two freshman fireballers, Max Perlman and Eric Eadington. Both have drawn the praises of Walsh and are poised to make an immediate impact on the team.

To secure his post, Unger will have to make haste in putting his height, his confidence, and all four of his pitches—fastball, changeup, curveball, slider—together into a winning package. According to Brown, the coach who witnessed Unger’s summer transformation firsthand, the big righty welcomes the challenge.

“I think he’s ready,” Brown says. “I don’t think there’s any fear.”

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.