WATCH: Tennessee Vols pitcher lights up radar gun
You may have heard by now that the Tennessee Volunteers have quite the pitching staff this season. Right now, the starting rotation is headlined by "Chase Squared" – if you will. Chase Burns and Chase Dollander have been extremely impressive so far with fellow star starter Blade Tidwell on the shelf with an injury. His […]
You may have heard by now that the Tennessee Volunteers have quite the pitching staff this season. Right now, the starting rotation is headlined by "Chase Squared" – if you will. Chase Burns and Chase Dollander have been extremely impressive so far with fellow star starter Blade Tidwell on the shelf with an injury. His return will only boost what has arguably been the best staff in the SEC so far this year. That being said, the bullpen has some dudes as well. Most notably, Ben Joyce is getting a lot of love on social media at the moment for his unique and abnormal abilities on the mound.
Joyce's fastball ranges from about 98-103 MPH. Meanwhile, his changeup has deceptive movement and sits around 88-90 MPH. When he's on, that kind of stuff is basically unhittable.
Check out his unreal outing from this past weekend.
At one point, Joyce hit a whopping 103.5 MPH on the radar gun. That just does not happen very often at all in baseball, let alone in college baseball. He even registered on the radar gun behind home plate at 104 MPH.
At 6'5" and 225 pounds, Joyce has the build to be a power arm for years to come. The Vols pitcher is coming off of Tommy John Surgery, though, so don't expect the team to rush him into too many innings early on. They'll most likely work him in with short outings, and his stuff is capable of getting Tennessee out of tough situations.
Regardless, the velocity is undoubtedly a good sign. It has increased from before his surgery when his fastball sat around 94-96 MPH, and he occasionally could hit 100 MPH.
Alongside Redmond Walsh, Zander Sechrist, among others in the bullpen, Joyce projects to be one of the top relievers for the Vols on their quest to Omaha for the College World Series.
Featured Image via Ben Joyce's Twitter (@benjoyce08)
