Column: Against Georgia, Ole Miss’ Grayson Saunier owned the strike zone, proving why he was a highly-touted recruit
OXFORD, Miss. — It’s extremely rare for any pitcher to go six full innings and have but one 3-ball count and one 2-0 count, but that is precisely what Ole Miss’ Grayson Saunier did Sunday against Georgia.
In complete command from the moment he stepped on the mound, Saunier’s only full-count situation occurred after he was first up on the batter at one ball and two strikes. After wasting two pitches, he got him swinging.
His lone 2-0 count also ended with a strikeout.
That was basically it for falling behind the Georgia hitters. Saunier faced 18 others without as much as a 2-0 count or a 3-ball count. There would be no freebies handed out by the starting Ole Miss pitcher on this day.
The homer in the fourth inning that spoiled Saunier’s perfect-game bid came on a 1-1 pitch.
The only other hit that Saunier allowed occurred with two outs in the sixth inning and came on his first pitch. He got the next hitter on a one-pitch fly out.
That is about as much in command as a pitcher can be, particularly when the pitcher is a true freshman who’s pitching at Swayze in a starting role in the SEC for only the second time in his career — not to mention the pressure of winning a crucial game in the standings and the team’s first SEC series victory.
(Click here: Saunier named SEC Freshman of the Week.)
It was the first lead that Saunier has worked with as a pitcher in SEC competition (the Rebs went ahead 2-0 in the first on an Ethan Lege homer), and he was a man on a mission to hold that lead.
That’s exactly what he did.
Only in three other SEC games has an Ole Miss starter gone six full innings — Jack Dougherty has done it twice and Xavier Rivas once. The Rebels have now won three of those four with their only loss coming at A&M after a long weather delay benched Dougherty.
This is the Grayson Saunier we’ve been expecting to see. Now, with the season in the home stretch, it’s encouraging for Rebel Nation to see what he’s truly capable of when he’s on his game as he was Sunday in the clincher.
David Walker
David is the consummate true-freshman quarterback, first pioneering the position only a year after college freshmen were given varsity eligibility by the NCAA in 1972. In 1973, the left-handed all-state gunslinger from Sulphur, Louisiana started for the Texas A&M Aggies and earned the All-Southwest Conference Freshman of the Year award as selected by the league’s coaches. David is the first college quarterback ever awarded Freshman of the Year in the NCAA. He was only 17, and still holds the NCAA record as the youngest starting quarterback in college football history. He wore No. 8 at A&M in honor of one of his football heroes, Archie Manning.
In becoming the winningest quarterback ever at A&M, David was converted from a dual-threat QB to a triple option trailblazer. The two-time team captain led three record-breaking offenses that changed the direction of football at A&M forever, establishing once and for all the winning tradition that the Aggies had so-long desired.
As a high school head coach in Houston in the late ‘80s, David stationed his quarterback in the shotgun formation, having him reading defenses and throwing hot routes at a time when such offensive schemes were frowned upon by traditional fans and coaches. One of his quarterbacks tossed 57 passes in a single game, which stood as the all-time Greater Houston Area record for many years.
As you can tell from his bona fides, David is extremely qualified as our expert on all things Quarterback at Ole Miss. Enjoy his exclusive analysis only here at The Rebel Walk!
