Connor Harrison didn’t meet his Uncle Charlie until he was 16, and it was not a great relationship at first.
Now they’re best friends.
Thanks to his growing command of a sweeping curveball, Harrison has emerged as the stopper of the University of Hawaii baseball team’s bullpen.
“I started throwing it my junior year of high school,” Harrison said Tuesday, as the Rainbow Warriors practiced in preparation for this week’s series at Cal State Fullerton. “My parents didn’t let me throw it growing up.”
He’s got a smart mom and dad who know good things come to those who wait. Being the first kid on your block to throw a curveball might seem cool, but it also might mean you’re the first to blow out your arm — before you even get to junior high.
“They let me my junior year and it’s been a work in progress ever since then,” Harrison said. “I’m finally starting to master it. It definitely took some time to get used to, and the repetition, for sure, made it what it is today.”
A fastball in the mid 80s makes his 66 mph curve even more effective.
In 181⁄3 innings this season, the left-handed junior from Granite Bay, Calif., has an ERA of 0.98, and has yielded just 11 hits and two walks. He has struck out 23.
Harrison has been untouchable in March, unscored upon in all nine appearances.
The stereotypical relief ace is a guy who comes in to throw as hard as he can for an inning, maybe two, just blowing the ball past hitters.
But UH coach Rich Hill knows closers come in all shapes and sizes, with all kinds of favorite pitches.
“I was in San Diego during those Trevor Hoffman years,” Hill said, referring to the Padres closer who saved 601 games in 18 MLB seasons on his way to the Hall of Fame.
Hoffman’s best pitch? A 75 mph changeup.
And if you take a look back at the 1950s and ’60s, the best relief pitcher was Hoyt Wilhelm. He rode a knuckleball to the Hall of Fame.
Since Harrison has three pitches he can throw for strikes (he’s got a good changeup, too), batters never know what to expect.
“It’s fun for me to come in and throw any pitch on any count,” he said, acknowledging that the result is often a batter shaking his head in disbelief. “It’s a great feeling when you can stump a hitter like that and throw him off his game.”
And it can make that huge breaking curve devastating.
“If a batter wants to swing at it, go ahead,” Harrison said. “Try to put it in play.”
He doesn’t say that with arrogance … he really means it. There are times when a curveball pitcher wants the ball put into play — like a double-play situation, since a good curve often results in a ground ball.
Harrison saved the Friday and Sunday wins of UH’s three-game sweep of Tulane at Les Murakami Stadium, striking out five in 31⁄3 innings, and running his no-earned-runs streak to 12 innings.
Friday starter Harry Gustin pitched six no-hit innings until allowing his only hit, a solo home run to start the seventh. Randy Abshier and Alex Giroux also turned in strong starts, as the ’Bows allowed just one run in each of the three games.
Offensively, Kyson Donahue remains torrid. He knocked a two-run double off the left-field wall Friday, a grand slam Saturday, and another homer on Sunday to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.
Hawaii has won five of its past six, including two of three at Cal Poly in the Big West Conference opening series for both teams.
Fullerton is 5-1 and tied with UC Santa Barbara for second in the Big West, with UC San Diego leading at 6-0.
Hill said Fullerton is returning to the prominence that made it one of the premier programs in the country. The Titans’ most recent of four national championships came in 2004.
He compared the fervent fan base at Goodwin Field to that of a football team — maybe it’s because the Titans don’t have one.
Other than some base-running gaffes, the Rainbows have performed like a very solid team the past two weeks.
It will be a good sign for UH baseball if Harrison is introducing his Uncle Charlie to batters in the late innings with a lead again, at Fullerton.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com.
