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The senior righty has become a valuable bullpen weapon ahead of the postseason.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — When Ben Peterson steps onto the mound, he looks down at the dirt and zeros in on the smallest pebble he can find. That small action locks the senior pitcher in for his time on the bump and it helps put the job ahead in perspective for Peterson.
“The target seems pretty big after that,” Peterson said with a laugh.
In a May 1 mid-week start against William & Mary, the veteran started hitting those targets again. The reemergence of Ben Peterson had begun.
The senior opened the season in the weekend rotation alongside Folger Boaz and Olin Johnson. Things did not go well. In those early starts, Peterson’s ERA skyrocketed as he struggled against Wagner, ECU and Rutgers.
It was not what he had planned, not what he had worked for during his offseason.
As he did last season – his first as a Tar Heel – Peterson spent time away from live pitching, reexamining the grips on his pitches. After recording only four innings of work from mid-March to mid-April, Peterson went to the pitching lab and tinkered.
“The game is going to tell you whether or not you’re good enough,” Peterson said. “And so it’s just finding what kind of edge you can figure out, get back into the rotation, get back into the pitch mix.”
Peterson is a pitch mechanic. It’s part of his specific pitching methodology – a trait in perfect alignment with the Nick Saban process-oriented approach that head coach Scott Forbes preaches and instills in his team.
Specifically, both Saturday starter Shea Sprague and Peterson have worked together making adjustments to their throwing motions.
“We’ve played catch a few times in the last three or four weeks,” Peterson said. “He’s been working on what he’s doing with his front side and I started mirroring that. As soon as I started doing that, the command has gone up and the velocity has gone up.”
Peterson owns a two-seam, a cutter, a splitter and the newest edition to his pitch family: a curveball. The breaking ball wasn’t even thrown by Peterson in the fall, but after a less than optimal outing he changed his tune.
“I’ve always liked the curveball and I had a bad outing in the preseason,” Peterson said. “And I was like, man, I have to throw something else. And so I started throwing it then and that’s been really the pitch I’ve worked on the most this year.”
His diligent work and focus with his curveball came to the forefront during the Tar Heels series sweep of Louisville. Peterson entered Sunday’s game with one away in the sixth, a runner on first and the Tar Heels up by five in the last regular season home game at Boshamer Stadium.
“Ben Peterson, I mean, Lord have mercy. He looked like a second rounder today,” Forbes said after the performance.
Peterson struck out eight in his 3.2 innings, allowing one hit and walking none – a far cry from how he started the season. Forbes attributes his now “wipe-out stuff” to constant preparation, especially after his rough stints.
