No. 2 Draft prospect fans 7 for Vols in Desert Invitational
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Chase Dollander enters the 2023 season with about as a lot pomp and circumstance as a school pitcher can have, drawing superlatives which have put him in a category with Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg because it pertains to his talent on the collegiate stage.
Dollander’s first time taking the mound throughout his junior yr for the University of Tennessee got here at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Friday evening throughout the Desert Invitational in opposition to the University of Arizona, which took a brief bus trip up from Tucson. The evening was crisp and featured a stable brilliant orange Volunteers contingent. Then, Dollander, the No. 2 Draft prospect per MLB Pipeline, who has loved a meteoric stand up Draft boards since transferring from Georgia Southern, drilled his first batter of the season.
“You erase it and move on, to be honest,” Dollander mentioned with fun postgame. “You have to live pitch by pitch as a pitcher. That’s kind of how we’re taught here at Tennessee and you know, if you can’t do that, you’re not going to be able to pitch very well because you’re going to get down on yourself. Being able to move forward to the next pitch is the big thing.”
Even with some early hiccups, the rationale for the hype round Dollander’s stuff was obvious. He struck out a pair of batters in every of his first three frames, the primary trio approaching heaters, with the next triumvirate all coming through his slider, his superior offspeed providing.
“I feel like almost everything was kind of working,” Dollander mentioned following Tennessee’s 3-1 defeat to Arizona. “I give a lot of credit to that lineup, they were fighting hard.”
Dollander, the reigning SEC Pitcher of the Year, has premium stuff – together with a 70-grade fastball (on the 20-80 scouting scale) that tops out within the shadow of triple digits. He routinely sat within the mid-90s in opposition to the Wildcats, though he added velocity as his begin went on. The mixture of climate and it being his first begin of the yr noticed him depart after simply 81 pitches, having struck out seven batters over 4 2/3 innings whereas scattering three hits and one stroll with two runs allowed.
One yr in the past, Dollander joined the Tennessee rotation a season faraway from pitching at Georgia Southern, which he confronted in his season debut – he promptly whiffed 11 and kickstarted a dominant 10-0 marketing campaign that noticed him submit a 2.39 ERA with a 0.80 WHIP and potent 8.3 Ok/BB ratio.
Fast-forward 363 days and the 6-foot-2, 200-pound righty took the hill in a nationally televised Power 5 contest on the Spring Training house of the D-backs and Rockies. While he acknowledged that pitching on a giant league area was a stark distinction, he embraced the adjustments that include his observe file of success.
“You just kind of have to change your mindset a little bit,” Dollander mentioned of coming into the yr because the preeminent pitching prospect within the Class of 2023. “You’re going to have a lot more people coming up to you and talking to you and people that you usually wouldn’t talk to; you’re going to have a lot of more media coverage. You’re going to have people tweeting at you and stuff like that … you kind of have to move on and keep going at it with the team.”
Opposite Dollander was Arizona right-hander T.J. Nichols (MLB Pipeline’s No. 69 Draft prospect), who equally yielded an early run however bowed his neck to maintain a potent Volunteers lineup below wraps. The 6-foot-5 Friday evening starter retired 10 of the ultimate 11 batters he confronted, working round a late defensive miscue to yield only one run over his six innings.
