TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For the first time this season, Riley Quick took the mound for Alabama baseball on a Friday night. The right-hander has developed into the Crimson Tide’s ace, but his outings have been reserved for Saturdays as the second starter in the team’s weekend rotation.
A rainy weekend in Tuscaloosa changed up the schedule this week, but that didn’t stop Quick from delivering in what has become his role as Alabama’s bounce-back starter.
Shaking off a rough first inning, the redshirt sophomore helped No. 23 Alabama take down No. 6 Georgia, 9-3, in Game 2 of the series.
Rain delayed the nightcap of Friday’s doubleheader, causing the game to be paused and resumed on Sunday. That ultimately cost Quick the opportunity to add another win to his season tally. However, the starter did his part to put the Tide in position for the victory.
Quick went 4⅓ innings before rain forced the game to be halted in the top of the fifth. He allowed two earned runs on seven hits while striking out seven batters. The solid statline is a bit more impressive when considering he braved through a 26-pitch first inning that saw him give up a pair of runs on three hits and a hit-by-pitch.
Quick was able to miss Georgia's bats with his 98-mile-per-hour fastball. He also flashed a nifty cutter that sat around 92 miles per hour. He’ll need to establish more consistency with his slider, but it’s not difficult to see why the 6-foot-6, 245-pound righty is projected as a first-round pick in this year’s MLB Draft.
“Once he got out of the first, you saw him kind of settle in,” Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn said Friday night. “The slider got a little bit better. He threw some really good cutters, some really good changeups. Threw a couple of right-on-right changeups, started getting the fastball up a little bit better.”
Quick has been Alabama’s most consistent starter this season, posting a 7-2 record with a 3.53 earned run average while striking out 57 batters compared to 18 walks over 51 innings pitched. He’s also served as the stopper for a Tide team that has struggled in series openers during conference play
Georgia scored 18 unanswered runs to trounce Alabama, 19-3, during the first game of Friday’s doubleheader. That set up the fifth time in the six starts that Quick took the mound following a loss. The ace has risen to the occasion on those bounce-back opportunities, netting a 2-1 record while posting a 4.3 earned run average with 27 strikeouts over 23 innings. Alabama is 4-1 in those games.
Alabama started the season planning for Zane Adams to be its opening weekend starter. However, after the sophomore struggled, he was moved to third in the rotation. Instead of bumping Quick up, the Tide elected not to alter his schedule and instead inserted redshirt sophomore Tyler Fay into the Friday slot.
While Alabama didn’t plan to have his best pitcher go second in the rotation, the unconventional order has advantages. Vaughn even remembers a discussion with Vanderbilt pitching coach Scott Brown, who prefers having his ace pitch in Game 2.
“Browny told me that a long time ago, he said ‘We throw our best guy on Saturday,’” Vaughn said Friday. “You get one of two things. You get a chance to win the series or you can even the series back up.”
It’s fitting that Quick has found himself in so many redemption situations. This season has served as a comeback story for the redshirt sophomore, who pitched just three innings last year before suffering an elbow injury that led to Tommy John surgery.
Alabama eased Quick back on a pitch count during his non-conference schedule this year but has let him loose during SEC play. Despite the rain cutting short his outing Friday night, he threw 87 pitches, marking the fifth straight outing he’s reached the 80-pitch mark.
“I never really lost my confidence,” Quick told Just Baseball in an interview published earlier this month. “And then I cam back and honestly had a little more feel for the ball I felt like, so it was kind of just easier.”
The Athletic’s Keith Law projected Quick to be selected No. 26 overall by the Detroit Tigers in his MLB Mock Draft 1.0 published last week.
“Quick could help the Tigers this year in a bullpen role if they’re so inclined, and still has long-term upside as a starter,” Law wrote in his projection.
Quick is looking to become just the sixth Alabama player to be selected in the first round of the MLB Draft. Pitcher Ben Hess was drafted No. 26 overall by the New York Yankees in last year’s draft. Other Tide players to achieve the feat include first baseman Joe Vitiello (Kansas City Royals, No. 7 overall, 1991), catcher Jeremy Brown (Oakland A’s, No. 35 overall, 2002), pitcher Taylor Tankersly (Florida Marlins, No. 27 overall, 2004) and pitcher Tommy Hunter (Texas Rangers, No. 54 overall, 2007).
“He’s a great one,” Vaughn said of Quick. “I think that guy’s going to make a lot of money in professional baseball and he’s going to pitch for a long time. He’s tough. He’s all those things you look for. It’s not just arm talent. It’s a competitor, it’s toughness, it’s real stuff. When he’s going good, he can go get outs in the big league right now.”
Fortunately for Alabama, Quick still isn’t done mowing down college hitters. Now that he’s beginning to reach his potential on the mound, the Tide is hoping it can ride the right-hander to a deep postseason run this summer.
“We’re going to need him down the stretch,” Vaughn said. “There’s no secret — good starts are what you need to have down the stretch to have a chance. We’ve got a special one in him.”
