OLIVER MCKENNA | DAILY EVERGREEN FILE
Then-sophomore left-handed pitcher AJ Block throws a pitch on March 8, 2018 at Bailey-Brayton Field.
Senior pitcher AJ Block had his best game of the season so far on Saturday against Rutgers University.
He picked up his first
win of the season, and second of his career, with his six-inning effort in a
10-2 ball game. He also recorded 10 strikeouts for the second game in a row.
Block only gave up one run in the innings he pitched. He started out with a scoreless first inning before giving up three hits, a walk and one earned run in the second. His next four innings featured seven strikeouts and only one hit.
Out of his six innings
pitched, Block faced the minimum number of batters four times, retiring the
three batters in order each time.
Even though this outing was the shortest in terms of innings for Block, he allowed the fewest number of hits with four. He also pitched his first game without allowing an extra-base hit; all four hits he allowed were singles.
Block’s back-to-back 10 strikeout games puts him at 24 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched on the season. He has nearly matched his strikeout total from his freshman year of 28 strikeouts.
He is on pace to break
his previous career-high for strikeouts in a season. He struck out 68 batters
in 2019 in 71.1 innings pitched, good for 0.96 strikeouts per inning. He has an
average of 1.14 strikeouts per innings pitched so far this season.
Block also sports the
best earned run average of his career. He brought it down from a 3.00 to a 2.57
after his impressive outing against Rutgers. His previous best season-long ERA
is 4.91 in 2018 when he was a sophomore.