Chris
Grothues

Grothues is coming off a spring that saw him elevate himself near the top of the Servite rotation. The uncommitted rising sophomore has some funk in his delivery and does a great job of changing the hitters eye level with his fastball and curveball. Fastball touched 85 a few times and lived 82-84 mph with some run back to the arm side. It was his ability to command it black-to-black that impressed. After an initial loose one, the curveball was sharp and flashed some bite and depth at 66-68 mph. Intriguing pitcher who has valuable innings in the Trinity League under his belt already. 

Uncommitted. The lefty threw 90 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. He threw an impressive 75% (21-28) first-pitch strikes and struck out eight while inducing six groundouts and six flyouts. He managed to keep La Mirada hitters off balance for most of the game by mixing a running fastball with a late breaking, slurvy curveball. He also threw a slider twice to the back foot of a right handed hitter that resulted in two called strikes. There’s some funk and deception to his delivery that makes for awkward at-bats for hitters. The freshman southpaw twirled an absolute gem for the Friars. Grothues showed the moxie and poise of a veteran on the mound enabling Servite to get back in the game and win it late.