Oklahoma right-hander Michael Catalano was lights-out in relief for Y-D during the 3-1 win over Harwich on Wednesday, racking up six punchouts with just one hit allowed across three scoreless innings.
Catalano came into this summer following a standout freshman season with the Sooners, where he recorded 11.67 K/9 and a 2.68 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching). He has continued to display explosive swing-and-miss stuff so far this summer with Y-D, collecting 13 strikeouts in 7.1 innings out of the bullpen.
Since allowing three earned runs in his first appearance of the summer against Bourne on June 16, Catalano has found a groove for Y-D with 5.1 scoreless innings in his next two appearances. Wednesday’s outing was his most impressive yet, not only due to the high strikeout numbers, but also because it was the first time he went three innings in either his collegiate or summer season.
“A goal is to start this [coming] year at Oklahoma,” Catalano said. “Learning how to get deeper into games and hold my velocity is something that I’ve really been wanting to work on.”
After Y-D tied the game at 1-1 in the fifth inning on Wednesday, Catalano entered the game and came out of the gates firing. He won a nine-pitch battle with Jake Koonin (Princeton) by catching him looking at a fastball to lead off the inning, followed by getting Tre Broussard (Houston) to chase a curveball in the dirt. Catalano capped off the dominant frame by leaving Bristol Carter (Auburn) frozen on a 94 MPH fastball to strike out the side.
“Tonight my goal was to just come in and throw every pitch [type] that I throw,” Catalano said. “Throwing a great chase pitch like curveballs in the dirt or fastballs up is a great way to put them away early for my arsenal, so going out there and competing with my best stuff was exactly what I planned to do today.”
With the game still tied, Catalano struck out his fourth batter in a row to start the sixth before running into some trouble. A double from Maddox Molony (Oregon) and a hit-by-pitch to Kyle Wolff (Boston College) put a couple of runners on with one out. After getting a crucial popout, Catalano quickly got ahead of Shintaro Inoue (Kansas State) and completed the punchout with a fastball at the top of the zone to strand the runners.
“I kept telling myself just to execute a pitch,” Catalano said. “It doesn’t matter who’s on what base; just go out there, take a deep breath and execute a pitch.”
Catalano allowed a walk to begin his third inning of work but quickly got out of it with his sixth strikeout of the night, a groundout and a little help from his teammate Garrett Wright (Tennessee) behind the plate. Wright caught Broussard stealing with a bullet to second base, finishing off three stellar innings for Catalano.
Ricky Ojeda (UC Irvine) and Bo Rhudy (Tennessee) followed in Catalano’s lead out of the Y-D bullpen with a couple more scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth to secure a 3-1 victory and the sixth consecutive win for Y-D.
The Y-D bullpen has been right at the heart of the winning streak, as they have combined for just six earned runs allowed in 32.1 innings (1.68 ERA) during the six-game stretch. Wednesday’s performance was the latest in this run of impressive showings by the bullpen, with the three relievers combining for five shutout innings and only three baserunners allowed.
Catalano and the rest of Y-D will look to remain scorching hot following the off day when they host Cotuit at 5 p.m. on Friday.
