I’m soooooooooooooo fed up with basketball, I don’t even want to think about Saturday’s game. Here is an interesting read from baseballamerica’s weekend preview on TODAY’S scheduled starter for YOUR Charlotte 49ers.
Under The Radar
Adam Mills, rhp, Charlotte
Having moved from Conference USA to the Atlantic-10 did nothing to raise Charlotte’s profile as a program, and being without an on-campus ballpark hasn’t helped either. The 49ers are having renovations done on campus that have forced them to be nomads when at home the last year-plus.
But coach Loren Hibbs has been able to count on Mills, a 6-foot, 195-pound righthander, each of the last three seasons. He made 33 starts in 2005-2006 and made steady improvement. Now he’s bidding to become the program’s best pitcher since John Maine, now with the Mets.
Like Maine, Mills thrives on control. He walked just 19 last season in 114 innings and had handed out just five free passes in three starts this year, covering 20 innings. More impressively, Mills has double-digit K’s in each of his first three starts—12, 14 and then 13 in a complete-game three-hitter last time out, a 1-0 win against Campbell. He’s 2-0, 1.35 so far as the 49ers play host to All-America slugger Kellen Kulbacki and James Madison at Kannapolis’ Fieldcrest-Cannon Stadium, home of the Class A Intimidators.
“He can really pitch—his fastball was short early in his career, so he had to really develop a feel for both his breaking balls and his change,” Hibbs said. "He’s got a compact delivery and repeats it.
“Now his fastball touches 90, but it sits upper 80s. He has a feel for both his slider and curveball; he’s just the prototypical upper-echelon college pitcher. He doesn’t light up radar guns, but he really, really competes.”
The 49ers, 7-3, haven’t earned a regional bid since 1998. If Mills stays hot, they have a chance against a navigable A-10 schedule.