Any discussion of Virginia opening day starter Brandon Neeck invariably leads to that night in South Carolina eight months ago.
“Quite frankly,” says UVa pitching coach Drew Dickinson, “the most dominant pitching performance I’ve seen in my entire life.”
Facing elimination in for the second time in a single day in the NCAA’s Columbia Regional, UVa gave the ball to Griff McGarry to start against Old Dominion. When a cut on his thumb forced the veteran right-hander to exit the game in the fourth inning, the Hoos turned to Neeck.
The junior had spent the season as a situational lefty out of the bullpen, rarely working more than an inning. He was about two-and-a-half years removed from major surgery on his pitching shoulder that cost him his entire freshman season.
“If we’re being frank, a shoulder surgery that you don’t really come back from,” said Dickinson. “And if you do, you’re just a shell of who you are.”
Neeck entered that elimination game against ODU with the Wahoos leading 5-2, but with the bases loaded and just one out in the fourth. Neeck struck out the first batter he faced, walked the next then recorded another strikeout to escape the jam. The next inning, he struck out the side. In the sixth, he whiffed two more.
He ended up throwing the game’s final 5 2/3 innings, earning his first college win while striking out 16, the most ever for a UVa pitcher in a postseason outing. Neeck and McGarry combined to log 24 strikeouts, the most in a game in program history.
“I'm like, ‘That should be a record, right?’” Dickinson recalled thinking after tallying up the Ks on his pitching chart in the dugout after the 8-3 win. “That was insane.”
Fast-forward to this Friday, and the Hoos will be giving the ball to Neeck again. This time, the left-hander will get the start in the 2022 season opener against Bellarmine at the Jerry Bryson Classic in Boiling Springs, NC. It’ll be Neeck’s first start since he was a senior in high school four years ago.
“It’s been a long time coming,” the fourth-year said Wednesday, shortly after his opening day assignment was announced. “Certainly a lot of ups and downs in my college career so far, and not exactly how I expected things to go. It’s been a long time coming. I’m very excited.”
Neeck will front an all-lefty weekend rotation for the Wahoos, with junior Nate Savino in line to face host Gardner-Webb on Saturday and USC grad transfer Brian Gursky opposing NJIT on Sunday. It's the first time in Brian O'Connor's 19 seasons at UVa that the Hoos will enter a weekend with three southpaws slated to start.
Third-year right-hander Matt Wyatt, another candidate for the weekend rotation, will be limited to begin the season, O'Connor said on Wednesday. The plan is to use Wyatt in a one- to two-inning capacity this weekend, with Northern Colorado grad transfer Dylan Bowers another option in the back end of the bullpen. Columbia grad transfer Will Geerdes could plug a variety of roles, from starter to long reliever to another late-inning option. First-year right-hander Jay Woolfolk also has the stuff to pitch in key late-game spots.
“It’s a matter of us spending the first few weeks to figure out what roles are those,” O’Connor said on Wednesday, “and who is best suited for each individual role.”
With a 90-mph fastball, a strong slider and a changeup, Neeck has the arsenal of a strong ACC starter, said O’Connor. He finished last season with a 1.93 ERA and a 40-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 23 1/3 innings pitched out of the bullpen.
The senior also has the makeup to pitch at the front end of the rotation, added the head baseball coach. Neeck’s poise was on display last season, as the coaches began relying more regularly on the left-hander in high-leverage situations. Neeck inherited 19 runners in his 22 appearances; only two scored.
“It just doesn’t seem like any moment is too big for him,” O’Connor said.
The mission for Neeck the past few months has been preparing physically for the rigors of starting. He only made one more postseason appearance after that historic ODU outing last summer, earning the win with a scoreless inning in Game 2 of the Cavaliers’ Super Regional victory against Dallas Baptist. He did not appear in any of the Hoos’ three games at the College World Series.
Dickinson revealed that after the season, Neeck returned home to New York concerned that he had re-injured his reconstructed shoulder. But when doctors checked, they found that the shoulder was healthy.
“It was big for him mentally to know he was okay,” Dickinson said. “He came back and has been doing a great job.”
The coaching staff shut down Neeck (along with Wyatt and Savino, who both spent time with the US Collegiate National Team following the Hoos’ run to Omaha) at the outset of fall ball. He eased back into throwing last October, then his program was ramped up after returning to school in January. He’s been on schedule pitching in intrasquad scrimmages each weekend, building up from three innings to four to five, all on a pitch count.
“And he’s bounced back every Friday and been great,” said Dickinson. “So I’m excited for him to get that opportunity. I think he’s earned it.”
That trio of southpaws in UVa’s initial weekend rotation has made a combined 13 starts for Virginia, all by Savino. Gursky made 15 starts in his four seasons at Southern Cal. Neeck will be making his first college start in Friday’s opener after 25 career relief appearances.
His pitching coach has no doubt that he’ll be ready for the moment.
“No. 1 starters, guys who are good, like [Andrew] Abbott, have an ‘it’ factor,” Dickinson said. “It’s hard to explain; they just have this way about them, getting it done in the big moments. Neeck possesses that. He just hasn’t had a lot of moments to show it.”
“That is an ‘it’ moment,” Dickinson continued, harkening back again to Neeck’s record-breaking night against ODU, “and when you do something like that, that shows you what that kid possesses inside his heart.”
