Senior pitcher Chris Chism made his first start for the Golden Eagles Feb. 14, 2014 against South Alabama. Chism was pedestrian that day. He lasted four innings and gave up eight hits; but on March 14, Chism had the best day of his career and one of the best in the history of the Tennessee Tech baseball program. The senior pitched the full nine innings against Ohio Valley Conference rival UT-Martin and earned 17 strikeouts in the process and led the Golden Eagles to a 2-0 win. The Skyhawks received one hit from center fielder Taylor Douglas in the second inning, but that was the only glimmer of offense that UT-Martin would see. Chism attributes a pitching adjustment to his successful outing.
“There was this pitch I had been struggling with and with my movement and command with it. I talked to coach about it and in the bullpen that day I figured out how to throw it and how I wanted it to move and stuff,” said Chism. “I just had to relax and not try to over throw it and that was probably my key pitch, was my sinker.”
During his career day performance, Chism faced 31 batters and threw 123 pitches, 89 of which were strikeouts. As the game progressed, the energy around Chism and the rest of the Golden Eagles continued to increase.
“In between innings I was pretty pumped. There was probably about three times in the game after I got the last guy out on a strike out I was so hyped I yelled,” said Chism. “The defense was key in that game too, they had a couple of tough plays they had to make that would have led to hit if they did not make them. They helped out a lot.”
After Chism’s performance, accolades began to poor in for the senior including: National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Player of the Week, Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week from Collegiate Baseball newspaper, National Player of the Week from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Pitcher of the Week and OVC Pitcher of the Week from College Sports Madness, and National Top Performer from d1baseball.com.
Fans will get a chance to see Chism in the Golden Eagles’ upcoming weekend series with SIU-Edwardsville. He is slotted to start in Friday’s game at 6 p.m.
