McSwain pitches league-leading Hillcats to series-clinching victory

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Matt McSwain. Toward the end of his career at Elon, right when players are positioning themselves for prime draft position, McSwain blew out his pitching elbow, and Tommy John surgery was the only fix. He never pitched another inning of college baseball.

Not surprisingly, McSwain’s went undrafted, and he found himself tooling around in summer wood-bat collegiate leagues. In July of 2006, Pirates scout Greg Schilz saw McSwain throwing and was impressed. Pittsburgh inked him to a minor-league deal and sent him to the Gulf Coast League for rookie ball.

He auditioned as a reliever there before moving to Hickory, where he spent most of the time in the bull-pen. After a quick trip to Lynchburg last spring, the Pirates sent him back to Hickory and converted him to a starter.

By the start of 2009, the 6-foot-1, 186-pound McSwain found himself in a surprising start — Opening Day starter for the high-A Hillcats. After a rocky start, McSwain has begun to find a groove. Sunday, he threw six scoreless innings and helped the Hillcats to a 4-0, series-clinching victory over Wilmington at City Sta-dium. With 36 of 70 first-half games played, the Hillcats have the Carolina League’s best record at 23-13. Lynchburg won just 27 games in the first half a year ago.

McSwain didn’t make it out of the fifth inning until his sixth start of the season. But his last four turns in the rotation have been impressive — 3-0 with a 3.08 ERA in 23 1/3 innings.

“My first few starts, I didn’t feel all that great,” McSwain said. “These last few, I feel like I’ve gotten back to where I was at the end of last year. I feel like I can really go after hitters.”

McSwain will never be confused for an overpowering, strikeout pitcher. He has 17 this season in 39 1/3 innings pitched and struck out 73 last year in 108 1/3 innings split between Hickory and Lynchburg. But when he gets his fastball-sinker combination going, he induces a ton of ground balls. Wilmington hit 11 grounders compared to seven flyouts against McSwain, and the pitcher benefited from some outstanding infield defense.

The Hillcats turned three double plays Sunday and seven in the three-game series.

The most impressive one came in the fifth. With runners on the corners and one out, Matt Morizio slammed a ball to second baseman Ray Chang, who slid to knock it down, tumbled over and flung the ball to Jordy Mercer at short. Mercer made a laser throw to first to retire Morizio by a step and erase the threat.

Infield defense was a sore spot for the Hillcats early in the season, but it has improved remarkably in re-cent weeks.

“Just hearing (the pitchers) talk in the bullpen, during BP, you can just tell they’ve got a lot of confi-dence in us,” said Chang, who has spent the majority of his career playing shortstop. “I think we’re just kind of gelling right now.”

The Pirates encourage their young pitchers to pitch to contact, and McSwain had done that to a fault at times this year. Opponents entered the game hitting .314 against him, and right-handers were especially keen, batting .350 against McSwain.

McSwain said he’s made some adjustments to his mechanics to help him keep the ball low in the strike zone. McSwain allowed 26 hits in 16 innings in his first four starts and 22 hits in 23 1/3 innings in his last four.

“The last two games, he’s allowing his fastball and sinker to play,” Hillcats pitching coach Wally White-hurst said. “He’s not going off-speed, off-speed, off-speed and getting behind in the count. For the most part, he’s attacking the strike zone, staying aggressive and using his sinker and making it work for him.”

Chang went 2-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to 10 games, impressive for a player who rarely plays on consecutive days. He’s been a valuable fill-in at second when Jose De Los Santos needs a rest. More importantly, Chang has embraced his role and stayed positive even when he goes days without playing.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s a little tough, just because of the whole timing thing,” Chang said. “In years past, when I had been a role player, I’d go up and already be telling myself I’m not going to get a hit. But this year, I just go up there, and whatever happens happens. I’ve been fortunate to go up and get some knocks.”