Neighorgall regains control on mound

After a rough season last year, Jason Neighborgall has rebounded this season to become the ace of the staff for Tech's baseball team.

Neighborgall was forced to tweak some of his mechanics as well as work on improving his confidence to be able to go back onto the mound and be the effective pitcher that he was recruited to be.

"I worked really hard on my mechanics," Neighborgall said. "Once I started throwing a lot more strikes, my confidence went back up. That's pretty much what happened. I'm really confident right now, and I'm feeling good."

With the struggles that he faced last season, Neighborgall spent a lot of time on the bench during the second half of the season, and he had to reflect on what was going wrong.

"It was definitely pretty tough for me to go out there [last season] and not really know what was going on," Neighborgall said. "When I couldn't get it done out there, I knew I wasn't going to play that much. It was tough for me to sit on the bench and not play, but right now, I'm looking forward to my next start and competing."

This season Neighborgall has been instructed to go straight for batters.

Probably right now it's always good to try and get ahead [of hitters]," Neighborgall said.

"Coach Hall and Coach Moranda have told me to just throw it in there and whatever happens, happens."

After the troubles that Neighborgall faced last season, he has brought a new perspective with him to the mound, and it has paid off for the Jackets.

"Last year, I didn't have a lot of confidence," Neighborgall said. "I didn't have the faith in myself to know that when I got behind that I could get ahead again. Worst-case scenario is that they get a hit, I'd rather do that than give up a walk. I learned a lot from last year and am using it as a learning experience and something I can build on. Last year I worried about a lot of things that I couldn't control. Now, I'm just saying to myself, I'm going to throw it in there and throw a lot of strikes. I guess it's just the meanness about it. I try to be a lot more aggressive. My confidence has gone up, so I feel a lot more confident in myself to throw it in there and throw strikes."

After having several family members attend Duke, Neighborgall's commitment to Tech was a bit of a surprise to some. His father was a quarterback at Duke, and his grandfather on his mother's side played linebacker for the Blue Devils. His grandfather on his father's side also played basketball and ran track for the Blue Devils, making Durham a likely destination for Neighborgall.

"I loved Atlanta, the coaches here and the facilities," Neighborgall said. "Tech always has a great program here. I wanted to experience something outside of Durham since I had been there my entire life. I just wanted to get out of there and get a real college experience."

As expected when the hometown boy comes home, there can be a lot of hoopla following him, but Neighborgall managed to keep everything in perspective as the Jackets swept the Blue Devils earlier this season.

"I know a couple of the guys on their team, but it's business," Neighborgall said. "We are friends off the field, but once the game starts it's GT versus Duke, not Jason versus his friends. I just kind of want to go out there and do the best for my team."

Neighborgall had a strong start to the season. In his first six starts of the season, Neighborgall had a 5-0 record while striking out 41 hitters in 34 innings of work. His ERA was a very respectable 2.65, and he allowed opposing batters to hit only .220 against him. He gave up seven runs on no hits in less than an inning of work against the University of Miami on Friday. Neighborgall struck out one batter to record his only out of the game.

He walked six and hit one while throwing three wild pitches. Coach Hall gave Neighborgall the start in the Western Carolina game to help him gain some of the confidence back, and Jason responded. He pitched one inning and struck out the side while allowing one hit and throwing three wild pitches.

Neighborgall's next start will be today against Maryland at Russ Chandler Stadium at 7 p.m.