Blue Eagles Acquire Three Chanticleer Arms
Web Posted June 18, 2010

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Coastal Carolina finished its 2010 baseball season with a 55-10 record, and a couple plays here or there from advancing to Omaha and the College World Series.

The Chanticleers were known for swiping bases and hitting homeruns, while their pitching received little attention throughout the year.

However, when the 2010 MLB draft arrived, it was the Chanticleer pitching staff that received a lot of attention, as three Chanticleers pitchers were drafted, two of which resided in the Coastal bullpen during the year. The same bullpen that newly acquired Blue Eagle Ryan Connelly anchored all year.

Connelly, a freshman, was too young to be selected in this past years MLB draft, but one would have to speculate had he been eligible, he would have drawn quite the attention.

Connelly set the single season record for innings thrown by a freshman Chanticleer when he logged 50 and 1/3 innings in 40 appearances. He held a 2.15 ERA, the second best on the Coastal staff, while only allowing opposing hitters to bat .242 against him. Connelly recorded a great strike out to walk ratio at 4.36 to 1 as he struck out 48 batters, while only walking 11.

All these numbers warranted him a selection to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team which was announced after the conclusion of the regular season.

Connelly is a right handed pitcher who stands 6’0 feet tall and weighs about 170 pounds. He throws with a submarine motion that is particularly tough for right hander’s to hit. He does not throw very hard as his fastball has been clocked anywhere from 78 to 83 mph. However, he features a slow slider that will rise, and then go out of the strike zone when he throws it. It is very slow; clock around 70 mph which fools a lot of hitters.

An opposing hitter in the Big South told me, and I quote, “He just comes into games and gets the job done. He doesn’t throw overly hard, but he locates his pitches exactly where he wants them. I see his sub 2.30 ERA (in college baseball) translating somewhere just around 1.00 (ERA) in the wooden bat league.”

Connelly’s primary role for the Blue Eagles will be middle relief out of the bullpen on the weekends. He will not be available in the week because he is enrolled in summer school at Coastal Carolina.

Either way, Connelly’s presence on the weekend will give the Blue Eagles needed depth within their pitching staff, especially considering that Spartanburg plays four games in the span of two days every weekend.

Connelly is not the only Chanticleer who is joining the Blue Eagles pitching staff. Left-handed pitchers Stefan del Pino and David Mullins will also be available on the weekends. Mullins and del Pino both redshirted as freshman for the Chanticleers last season.

Del Pino was a former Dorman high school standout who was drafted in the 27th round by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2009 MLB draft. He joined the Blue Eagles last week and started against the Tennessee Tornados, allowing two runs on four hits in three innings pitched.

Blue Eagles Head Coach Ryan Thomas spoke about del Pino’s first start and what he believed the three Chanticleer pitchers bring to the Blue Eagles staff.

“I think he was a little rusty considering he hadn’t thrown live in a long time,” said Thomas, who is in charge of the pitchers. “His control was a little off, but his stuff looked good. He throws a nice 12-6 curve ball, and I would guess that his fastball hits about 88mph. He’ll be a starter for us on the weekend.”

Thomas later said that he had not seen Mullins throw and he was not sure where he would place him in the rotation. However, he was happy Mullins and the other two Chanticleers were joining the Blue Eagles staff.

“I’m just glad a few more arms here. We needed one of two more pitchers to step in and relieve George (Schaefer) and (Anthony) Rowland in those middle relief situations.