On Friday, in the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox’s 2-0 victory against the Bourne Braves, right-handed pitcher Connor Hamilton (Vanderbilt University) made his first relief appearance in over a year. Over two innings, he allowed only two hits, let up one walk, and recorded two strikeouts. Despite his quality outing, the reason for this transition to the bullpen was to improve Hamilton’s performance as a starter, according to Y-D pitching coach Eric Beattie.
In his 2026 collegiate season, Hamilton recorded a 4.95 ERA and 9.9 strikeouts per nine over 36 and ⅓ innings pitched. Then, when he came to Y-D, although he struck out fewer batters than in his collegiate season (4.4 strikeouts per nine), he gave up fewer earned runs (2.51 ERA) to maintain his status as a high-performing pitcher.
Still, Beattie said that he wanted to improve Hamilton’s efficiency on the mound. He explained that as a starter, a pitcher has multiple innings to adjust to the opposing offense, the game’s atmosphere, and pitching’s physical demand. As a reliever, this is not the case.
“As a reliever, you don’t have three, four, or five innings to get going. There’s a little more urgency involved in making sure you’re ready and making your pitches right away,” said Beattie.
According to Beattie, the coaching staff has plans to move Hamilton back to his starting role but would like to see his pitches more dominant off the jump.
“We just wanted to, kind of, kick him into gear from pitch one. We felt like the reliever role might help him do that a little better,” said Beattie.
Hamilton understood and appreciated this temporary transition.
“I feel like I put too much brain effort into my starts versus coming out of the pen,” said Hamilton. “They wanted me to come out of the pen today just to get a feel for being more relaxed…instead of [having] my headphones on and just like not talking to anyone and being so in my head.”
The pregame headphones were a staple for Hamilton. Before each start, Hamilton would wear his headphones and remain silent. However, today’s relief outing prevented him from doing so. Now that he put up a solid outing without his pregame routine, he might eliminate the headphone regimen altogether.
“I didn’t do it today, so I might not even do that anymore. I like talking to people. I like smiling and stuff,” said Hamilton.
His joy for smiling came through in the seventh inning against Bourne, when catcher Brady Dallimore (University of Mississippi) paid Hamilton a mound visit, and the two were visibly laughing. Dallimore first asked Hamilton what pitches he wanted to throw to the current batter. After Hamilton told him he wanted to throw a fastball, Dallimore decided to ask some questions to destress his pitcher.
“[Dallimore’s] like, what are you doing tonight? I’m like, I don’t know. Probably watching a movie. He’s like facts, facts,” said Hamilton.
Dallimore walked back to his spot behind the plate, and Hamilton struck out the batter to retire the side.
