Carolina's White steals the show in Game 1
Jun 7, 2009
For a pitcher that many think will hear his name called within the first few minutes of the 2009 MLB draft, Alex White had a lot of questions surrounding his Saturday start against East Carolina.
Would the 6-foot-3 junior return to form after consecutive outings that saw him allow 13 earned runs in just seven innings against Virginia and Coastal Carolina?
Could the Greenville native put the mental side of facing his hometown team aside in time to avenge his poor 2007 postseason start against the Pirates that saw the righty give up seven runs in five innings?
Would his ailing hamstring and the blister on his pitching hand heal enough to allow Carolina’s stud hurler to be the pitcher the Heels need him to be?
After throwing 8.1 innings of one-run ball in his team’s Game 1 win of this weekend’s Super Regional, the answers to those questions were a resounding “yes.”
In his last start at recently renovated Boshamer Stadium, White allowed a home run to Brandon Henderson to lead off the Pirates’ half of the second.
That was the last time a purple jersey would cross home plate all day.
“I found my strike zone late and put my fastball where I wanted to,” White said after the game. “Obviously when you can do that and throw a secondary pitch behind it, you’re gonna have a good day.”
Anytime ECU seemed it was stringing together a rally, White was there to put out the fire – usually with a strikeout.
With runners on first and third with two outs in the third, White caught Henderson looking at strike three.
In the sixth, with the game in the balance and UNC clinging to a 2-1 lead, the Pirates put runners on first and second with consecutive singles to start the frame.
No matter.
White was up to the task again, momentarily halting the Pirates’ momentum by getting Devin Harris to swing and miss at strike three, and then killing it altogether by inducing Dustin Harrington to hit into an inning-ending double play.
White’s ability to get the Heels out of the inning with their lead intact infused a new-found confidence in the team – a self-belief that helped Carolina notch seven runs in the bottom half of that very same inning.
“We didn’t put too much pressure on each other because we knew with the way Alex was throwing that we just needed to get a few more runs,” Kyle Seager said after his four hit, two RBI performance.
In all, White threw 128 pitches Saturday afternoon and struck out a career-high 12 batters.
After the game, East Carolina head coach Billy Godwin said the opposing starter’s stuff was nearly unhittable once he got in a groove.
"We're talking about one of the best pitchers in the country," Godwin said after his team's 10-1 loss. "That's what we're up against. When he goes out there and he's commanding his fastball down in the zone, and he's throwing it on the black, he's gonna beat anybody. Heck, once he settled in, he might have beaten the Yankees today."
