Nathan Dettmer reveals what drove him to pitch on the big stage

Texas A&M starting pitcher Nathan Dettmer did not have the junior season he hoped to have this year. But he did get the chance to end the year with one final chance to turn things around.

Going up against Stanford on Monday with a spot in the Regional Final on the line, the Aggies elected to roll with Dettmer in the winner-take-all game.

Dettmer stepped up with one of his best performances of the year. He threw six innings for the first time since March 17. He allowed six hits and two walks leading to four earned runs while striking out eight batters.

It was a solid performance but it wasn’t enough as the Cardinal emerged with a 7-1 victory.

“I really wanted to get out there for my guys,” Dettmer said after the loss. “Show what I can do. Really what fueled me is just, especially in this big of a game, looking to my left and my right before each pitch and just seeing guys like Trevor Werner and Austin Bost that have sacrifice so much. That’s really what drove me.”

The game ended a disappointing season for Dettmer. After going 6-3 in 19 starts last season with a 4.99 ERA, Dettmer dropped to a career-worst 6.32 ERA with 10 homers allowed and a .277 opponents batting average. He won only one start all season.

Monday wasn’t the first time Nathan Dettmer stepped up in a big game

The Stanford game did have some similarities to the final game Nathan Dettmer pitched last season at the Men’s College World Series in Omaha. Dettmer had been knocked around in the team’s Omaha Opener by Oklahoma to the tune of seven earned runs in just 1.2 innings.

In fact, the month leading up to the game had been full of struggles and early exits for Dettmer.

But he had a chance for redemption against Notre Dame in a elimination game just four days later. Dettmer delivered with a seven-inning masterpiece, scattering three hits with no walks while striking out six as Texas A&M won the game.

Dettmer said Monday that the Cardinal game did feel somewhat like that game versus the Fighting Irish.

“It was a whole lot like it,” Dettmer said. “Awesome game, awesome feeling. The whole year I’ve just been preparing for that mentally. Even though it seems like a big game, it’s just going out there and doing what you do.”