James Hicks dominates in series-clinching win
James Hicks isn’t one for emotion on the mound. The South Carolina pitcher likes to stay calm, cool and collected when the ball is in his hands. He’ll let the emotion come later. Right now he’s there to handle business.
But, as the crowd swelled and his 0-2 pitch to Gavin Abrams was called strike three, Hicks couldn’t help but let out a little bit of a yell, punctuating three consecutive strikeouts with a fist pump leaving the mound.
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“I think that’s the first time in my whole baseball career I’ve yelled or screamed coming off the mound. I think I blacked out after that,” Hicks said, smiling. “I don’t really remember that. It was spur of the moment. The emotion was there and the emotion came out. I’m excited to see the pictures of it.”
Last season Hicks watched this rivalry from a hotel room in College Station, Texas.
Hicks’ newly-operated-on elbow was in a sling, a premature end to what was expected to be a big season for the junior college transfer.
But that didn’t happen. Hicks tore his UCL two starts in, a week before he was scheduled to start against the Tigers.
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And while his first few outings were well and good, he made the most of opportunity a year in the making Sunday.
Hicks dominated the Tigers to the tune of five scoreless innings, scattering a pair of hits and a walk while striking out six.
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“Definitely at the start, I had to remind myself to breathe and slow it down. When I first ran out there I looked around and soaked it all in,” he said. “It’s something I’ve been looking forward to the whole year, really. Watching it on TV was cool but it was a lot better being a part of it.”
Hicks was in complete control from the jump, throwing 39 of his 53 pitches for strikes with only three of his 18 batters faced seeing two or more balls in a count.
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Clemson put only one runner in scoring position the final five innings of the game but Hicks quickly pitched out of it with a strikeout and groundout.
That was the last Tiger hitter to reach and Hicks didn’t allow a base runner over the final three innings of the game.
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“He dominated. He threw a ton of strikes. He’s hard to square up. He had tremendous poise out there,” Mark Kingston said. “It was everything we wanted to see. We didn’t plan on him going that long but only 53 pitches in five innings? There’s no reason to take him out. He was outstanding.”
It was Hicks’ second bullpen outing of the season, the exclamation mark on what’s been a successful return so far from Tommy John surgery.
In each of his last few appearances, he’s been on a pretty strict pitch count but not Sunday. Sunday was about domination and Hicks did just that.
“After my second inning (pitching) coach (Justin) Parker asked how I felt and I said great. I didn’t want to come out of that game. And I did feel great,” Hicks said. “I don’t know if it was the adrenaline or what but I couldn’t feel a whole lot. I was just out there throwing.”
